Million to take to Cairo streets
Source: Agencies |
February 1, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A COALITION of opposition groups called for a million people to take to Cairo's streets today to demand the removal of President Hosni Mubarak, the clearest sign yet that a unified leadership was emerging for Egypt's powerful but disparate protest movement.
In an apparent attempt to show change, Mubarak named a new government yesterday. But the lineup, dominated by regime stalwarts, was greeted with scorn by protesters camped out for the fourth day in the capital's central Tahrir, or Liberation, Square.
"We don't want life to go back to normal until Mubarak leaves," said Israa Abdel-Fattah, a founder of the April 6 Group.
If Egypt's opposition groups are able to truly coalesce - far from a certainty for movements that include students, online activists, old-school opposition politicians and the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood - it could sustain and amplify the momentum of the week-old protests.
Banks, schools and the stock market in Cairo were shut for the second working day yesterday. Long lines formed outside bakeries as people tried to replenish their stores of bread, the main source of sustenance for most Egyptians.
Barbed wire sealed off the main road to Tahrir Square but thousands of people had gathered there.
The official death toll from the crisis stood at 97, with thousands injured, but reports from witnesses across the country indicated the actual toll was far higher.
The coalition of groups, dominated by youth movements but including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, were discussing the possibility of making prominent reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei spokesman for the protesters.
Spokesmen for several of the groups said some 30 to 40 representatives were meeting to discuss the future of Egypt after Mubarak, whom they blame for widespread poverty, inflation and official indifference and brutality during his 30 years in power.
They said the coalition wants to force Mubarak, 82, to step down by Friday.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which wants to form an Islamist state in the Arab world's largest nation, said it would not take a leadership role in the opposition coalition. Western governments and many secular Egyptians have expressed fears about a significant Brotherhood role in Egyptian politics.
ElBaradei, a pro-democracy advocate and former head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, invigorated anti-Mubarak feeling with his return to Egypt last year, but the Muslim Brotherhood remains Egypt's largest opposition movement.
Yesterday, Mubarak swore in a new Cabinet whose most significant change was the replacement of the interior minister, Habib el-Adly, who heads internal security forces and is widely despised by protesters for the brutality some officers have shown. A retired police general, Mahmoud Wagdi, will replace him.
The new ministers included stalwarts of Mubarak's regime but purged several prominent businessmen who held economic posts and had engineered the country's economic liberalization policies over past decades. Many Egyptians resented the influence of millionaire politician-moguls, who were close allies of the president's son, Gamal Mubarak.
Mubarak retained his long-serving defense minister, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
In an apparent attempt to show change, Mubarak named a new government yesterday. But the lineup, dominated by regime stalwarts, was greeted with scorn by protesters camped out for the fourth day in the capital's central Tahrir, or Liberation, Square.
"We don't want life to go back to normal until Mubarak leaves," said Israa Abdel-Fattah, a founder of the April 6 Group.
If Egypt's opposition groups are able to truly coalesce - far from a certainty for movements that include students, online activists, old-school opposition politicians and the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood - it could sustain and amplify the momentum of the week-old protests.
Banks, schools and the stock market in Cairo were shut for the second working day yesterday. Long lines formed outside bakeries as people tried to replenish their stores of bread, the main source of sustenance for most Egyptians.
Barbed wire sealed off the main road to Tahrir Square but thousands of people had gathered there.
The official death toll from the crisis stood at 97, with thousands injured, but reports from witnesses across the country indicated the actual toll was far higher.
The coalition of groups, dominated by youth movements but including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, were discussing the possibility of making prominent reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei spokesman for the protesters.
Spokesmen for several of the groups said some 30 to 40 representatives were meeting to discuss the future of Egypt after Mubarak, whom they blame for widespread poverty, inflation and official indifference and brutality during his 30 years in power.
They said the coalition wants to force Mubarak, 82, to step down by Friday.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which wants to form an Islamist state in the Arab world's largest nation, said it would not take a leadership role in the opposition coalition. Western governments and many secular Egyptians have expressed fears about a significant Brotherhood role in Egyptian politics.
ElBaradei, a pro-democracy advocate and former head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, invigorated anti-Mubarak feeling with his return to Egypt last year, but the Muslim Brotherhood remains Egypt's largest opposition movement.
Yesterday, Mubarak swore in a new Cabinet whose most significant change was the replacement of the interior minister, Habib el-Adly, who heads internal security forces and is widely despised by protesters for the brutality some officers have shown. A retired police general, Mahmoud Wagdi, will replace him.
The new ministers included stalwarts of Mubarak's regime but purged several prominent businessmen who held economic posts and had engineered the country's economic liberalization policies over past decades. Many Egyptians resented the influence of millionaire politician-moguls, who were close allies of the president's son, Gamal Mubarak.
Mubarak retained his long-serving defense minister, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
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