Cairo erupts in joy as Mubarak decides to step down at last
Source: Agencies |
February 12, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
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EGYPT'S Hosni Mubarak resigned as president yesterday after 29 years in power, handing control to the military after a historic 18 days of demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of protesters.
"The people ousted the president," chanted a crowd of tens of thousands outside his presidential palace in Cairo.
Several hundred thousand protesters massed in Cairo's central Tahrir Square exploded into joy, cheering and waving Egyptian flags. Fireworks, car horns and celebratory shots fired into the air were heard around the city of 18 million people after Vice President Omar Suleiman made the announcement on national television just after nightfall.
Mubarak had sought to cling to power, handing some of his authority to Suleiman while keeping his title. But an explosion of protests yesterday rejecting the move appeared to have pushed the military into forcing him out completely.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched throughout the day in cities across the country as soldiers stood by, besieging his palaces in Cairo and Alexandria and the state TV building. A governor of a southern province was forced to flee to safety in the face of protests there.
It was the biggest day of protests yet in the upheaval that began on January 25, growing from youth activists working on the Internet into a mass movement that tapped into widespread discontent with Mubarak's authoritarian lock on power, corruption, economic woes and widespread disparities between rich and poor.
"In these grave circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position as president of the republic," a grim-looking Suleiman said. "He has mandated the Armed Forces Supreme Council to run the state. God is our protector and succor."
Nobel Peace laureate Mohammed ElBaradei, whose young supporters were among the organizers of the protest movement, said: "This is the greatest day of my life."
"Finally we are free," said Safwan Abo Stat, one of the protesters outside Mubarak's Oruba Palace in Cairo. "From now on anyone who is going to rule will know that these people are great."
Mohammed el-Masry, weeping with joy, said he had spent the past two weeks in Tahrir before marching to the palace yesterday. He was heading back to the square to join his ecstatic colleagues. "We made it," he gasped.
Earlier in the day, the Armed Forces Supreme Council - a body of top generals - vowed to guide the country to greater democracy.
In a statement before Suleiman's announcement, it said it was committed "to sponsor the legitimate demands of the people and endeavor for their implementation within a defined timetable ... until achieving a peaceful transition all through a democratic society aspired by the people."
Abdel-Rahman Samir, one of the youth organizers of the protests, said the protest movement would now open negotiations with the military over reform but said protests would continue to ensure change is carried out.
"The people ousted the president," chanted a crowd of tens of thousands outside his presidential palace in Cairo.
Several hundred thousand protesters massed in Cairo's central Tahrir Square exploded into joy, cheering and waving Egyptian flags. Fireworks, car horns and celebratory shots fired into the air were heard around the city of 18 million people after Vice President Omar Suleiman made the announcement on national television just after nightfall.
Mubarak had sought to cling to power, handing some of his authority to Suleiman while keeping his title. But an explosion of protests yesterday rejecting the move appeared to have pushed the military into forcing him out completely.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched throughout the day in cities across the country as soldiers stood by, besieging his palaces in Cairo and Alexandria and the state TV building. A governor of a southern province was forced to flee to safety in the face of protests there.
It was the biggest day of protests yet in the upheaval that began on January 25, growing from youth activists working on the Internet into a mass movement that tapped into widespread discontent with Mubarak's authoritarian lock on power, corruption, economic woes and widespread disparities between rich and poor.
"In these grave circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position as president of the republic," a grim-looking Suleiman said. "He has mandated the Armed Forces Supreme Council to run the state. God is our protector and succor."
Nobel Peace laureate Mohammed ElBaradei, whose young supporters were among the organizers of the protest movement, said: "This is the greatest day of my life."
"Finally we are free," said Safwan Abo Stat, one of the protesters outside Mubarak's Oruba Palace in Cairo. "From now on anyone who is going to rule will know that these people are great."
Mohammed el-Masry, weeping with joy, said he had spent the past two weeks in Tahrir before marching to the palace yesterday. He was heading back to the square to join his ecstatic colleagues. "We made it," he gasped.
Earlier in the day, the Armed Forces Supreme Council - a body of top generals - vowed to guide the country to greater democracy.
In a statement before Suleiman's announcement, it said it was committed "to sponsor the legitimate demands of the people and endeavor for their implementation within a defined timetable ... until achieving a peaceful transition all through a democratic society aspired by the people."
Abdel-Rahman Samir, one of the youth organizers of the protests, said the protest movement would now open negotiations with the military over reform but said protests would continue to ensure change is carried out.
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