Military helps restore order in Cairo after deadly clashes
Source: Agencies |
December 7, 2012, Friday
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EGYPT'S Republican Guard restored order around the presidential palace yesterday after fierce overnight clashes killed seven people, but passions ran high in a struggle over the country's future.
The Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, criticized by his opponents for his silence in the last few days, was due to address the nation later in the day, state television said.
Hundreds of his supporters who had camped out near the palace in Cairo overnight withdrew before a mid-afternoon deadline set by the Republican Guard. Dozens of Morsi's foes remained, but were kept away by a barbed wire barricade guarded by tanks.
The military played a big role in removing President Hosni Mubarak during last year's popular revolt, taking over to manage a transitional period, but had stayed out of the latest crisis.
Morsi's Islamist partisans fought opposition protesters well into the early hours during dueling demonstrations over the president's decree on November 22 to expand his powers to help him push through a mostly Islamist-drafted constitution.
Rival factions used rocks, petrol bombs and guns in the clashes around the presidential palace.
Officials said seven people had been killed and 350 wounded in the violence, for which each side blamed the other. Six of the dead were Morsi supporters, the Muslim Brotherhood said.
The street clashes reflected a deep political divide in the most populous Arab nation, where contrasting visions of Islamists and their liberal rivals have complicated a struggle to embed democracy after Mubarak's 30-year rule.
The US, worried about the stability of an Arab partner which has a peace deal with Israel and which receives US$1.3 billion a year in US military aid, has urged dialogue.
The commander of the Republican Guard said deployment of tanks and troop carriers around the presidential palace was intended to separate the adversaries, not to repress them.
"The armed forces, and at the forefront of them the Republican Guard, will not be used as a tool to oppress the demonstrators," General Mohamed Zaki told the state news agency.
Hussein Abdel Ghani, spokesman for the opposition National Salvation Front, said more protests were planned, but not necessarily at the palace in Cairo's Heliopolis district.
"Our youth are leading us today and we decided to agree to whatever they want to do," he said.
Egypt plunged into renewed turmoil after Morsi issued his November 22 decree and an Islamist-dominated assembly hastily approved a new constitution to go to a referendum on December 15.
The Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood, to which Morsi belonged before he was narrowly elected president in June, appealed for unity. Divisions among Egyptians "only serve the nation's enemies," said Mohamed Badie.
The Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, criticized by his opponents for his silence in the last few days, was due to address the nation later in the day, state television said.
Hundreds of his supporters who had camped out near the palace in Cairo overnight withdrew before a mid-afternoon deadline set by the Republican Guard. Dozens of Morsi's foes remained, but were kept away by a barbed wire barricade guarded by tanks.
The military played a big role in removing President Hosni Mubarak during last year's popular revolt, taking over to manage a transitional period, but had stayed out of the latest crisis.
Morsi's Islamist partisans fought opposition protesters well into the early hours during dueling demonstrations over the president's decree on November 22 to expand his powers to help him push through a mostly Islamist-drafted constitution.
Rival factions used rocks, petrol bombs and guns in the clashes around the presidential palace.
Officials said seven people had been killed and 350 wounded in the violence, for which each side blamed the other. Six of the dead were Morsi supporters, the Muslim Brotherhood said.
The street clashes reflected a deep political divide in the most populous Arab nation, where contrasting visions of Islamists and their liberal rivals have complicated a struggle to embed democracy after Mubarak's 30-year rule.
The US, worried about the stability of an Arab partner which has a peace deal with Israel and which receives US$1.3 billion a year in US military aid, has urged dialogue.
The commander of the Republican Guard said deployment of tanks and troop carriers around the presidential palace was intended to separate the adversaries, not to repress them.
"The armed forces, and at the forefront of them the Republican Guard, will not be used as a tool to oppress the demonstrators," General Mohamed Zaki told the state news agency.
Hussein Abdel Ghani, spokesman for the opposition National Salvation Front, said more protests were planned, but not necessarily at the palace in Cairo's Heliopolis district.
"Our youth are leading us today and we decided to agree to whatever they want to do," he said.
Egypt plunged into renewed turmoil after Morsi issued his November 22 decree and an Islamist-dominated assembly hastily approved a new constitution to go to a referendum on December 15.
The Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood, to which Morsi belonged before he was narrowly elected president in June, appealed for unity. Divisions among Egyptians "only serve the nation's enemies," said Mohamed Badie.
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