As Egypt Protest Swells, U.S. Sends Specific Demands
Moises Saman for The New York Times
Anti-Mubarak demonstrators shouted slogans against the government during mass protests in Tahrir Square on Tuesday.More Photos »
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: February 8, 2011
CAIRO — Pressure intensified on President Hosni Mubarak’s government as the largest crowd of protesters in two weeks flooded Cairo’s streets on Tuesday and the United States delivered its most specific demands yet, urging swift steps toward democracy.
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Protesters, some inspired by an emotional interview with an online political organizer on Egypt’s most popular talk show, occupied Tahrir Square, surrounded the Egyptian Parliament and staged sporadic demonstrations and strikes in several Egyptian cities.
At the same time, in a war of attrition with protesters for public opinion, Egyptian officials sought once more to declare the revolt a thing of the past.
Vice President Omar Suleiman, who is leading an American-endorsed “orderly transition” toward elections in September, said Mr. Mubarak had appointed a committee of judges and legal scholars to propose constitutional amendments.
The committee put Egypt “on the path of peaceful and orderly transition of power,” Mr. Suleiman said on state television.
All the members, however, are considered Mubarak loyalists: many senior judges who owe their prominent positions to Mr. Mubarak, two legal scholars who were members of his cabinet and two others who have already expressed support for gradual change that would leave Mr. Mubarak in office.
Although broadly committed to a transition, the Obama administration was trying to influence many of the details. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. called Mr. Suleiman to ask him to lift the 30-year emergency law that the government has used to suppress and imprison opposition leaders, to stop imprisoning protesters and journalists, and to invite demonstrators to help develop a specific timetable for opening up the political process. He also asked Mr. Suleiman to open talks on Egypt’s political future to a wider range of opposition members.
Mr. Suleiman has said only that Egypt will remove the emergency law when the situation justifies its repeal, and the harassment and arrest of journalists and human rights activists has continued even in the last few days.
Mr. Suleiman warned the protesters, most of whom are opposed to any negotiations while Mr. Mubarak is in power, that the only alternative to talks is a “a coup.”
“And we want to avoid that — meaning uncalculated and hasty steps that produce more irrationality,” he said, according to the official news agency.
“There will be no ending of the regime, nor a coup, because that means chaos,” Mr. Suleiman said. And he warned the protesters not to attempt more civil disobedience, calling it “extremely dangerous.” He added, “We absolutely do not tolerate it.”
On the 15th day of the protests, young organizers guiding the movement from a tent city inside Tahrir Square, or Liberation Square, showed the discipline and stamina that they say will help them outlast Mr. Mubarak and Mr. Suleiman, even if their revolt devolves into a war of attrition.
Many in the crowd, for example, said they had turned out because organizers had spread the word over loudspeakers and online media for demonstrators to concentrate their efforts on just Tuesdays and Fridays, enabling their supporters to rest in between. And while Mr. Mubarak remains in office, they say, there is no turning back.
The independent group Human Rights Watch said that it had confirmed more than 300 fatalities during the protests by visiting hospitals in a few Egyptian cities. “The government wanted to say that life was returning to normal,” said Mahmoud Mustafa, a 25-year-old protester standing in front of Parliament. “We’re saying it’s not.”
Many in the crowd said that they were newly inspired by the interview on Monday night with Wael Ghonim, a Google executive, who had been the anonymous administrator of a Facebook group that enlisted tens of thousands to oppose the Mubarak government by publicizing a young Egyptian’s beating death at the hands of its reviled police force.
In a tearful conversation, Mr. Ghonim told the story of his “kidnapping,” secret imprisonment in blindfolded isolation for 12 days and determination to overturn Egypt’s authoritarian government. And on Tuesday, both Mr. Ghonim and the host, Mona el-Shazly, came to Tahrir Square to cheer on the revolt.
Ahmed Mayer el-Shamy, an executive at the drug company Pfizer, said many of his colleagues had come out for the first time “because of what they saw on TV last night.”
Some protesters said they saw it as a potential turning point in a propaganda war that has so far gone badly against them, with the state-run television network and newspapers portraying the crowds in Tahrir Square as a dwindling band of obstructionists doing the bidding of foreign interests.
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Related
Allies Press U.S. to Go Slow on Egypt (February 9, 2011)
Iranian Dissident Says Planned March Will Test Regime(February 9, 2011)
Emotions of a Reluctant Hero Galvanize Protesters (February 9, 2011)
The Lede: Protest Organizer’s Emotional Interview (February 8, 2011)
The Lede Blog: Latest Updates on Day 15 of Egypt Protests(February 8, 2011)
Among the Muslim Brotherhood(February 13, 2011)
Related in Opinion
Thomas L. Friedman: Speakers’ Corner on the Nile (February 8, 2011)
Roger Cohen: Tehran 1979 or Berlin 1989? (February 8, 2011)
Letters: If Mubarak Leaves, What’s Next? (February 8, 2011)
ROOM FOR DEBATE
Is Caution the Right U.S. Strategy?
There are risks in the administration’s go-slower approach on Egypt.
“They have killed us with police bullets, they have sent thugs against us, and now they have launched a propaganda campaign against us,” said Sarah Abdel Ghany, 24. “And still millions come.”
Even early in the day, before their numbers had swelled past tens of thousands or their brigades marched to Parliament, the core organizers were already brimming with confidence at what they could accomplish.
“We are actually the government of the country right now,” said Walid Rachid, 27, one of the young online activists who helped kick off the revolt.
Organizers had hinted in recent days that they intended to expand out of the square to keep the pressure on the government. Then, around 3 p.m., a bearded man with a bullhorn led a procession around the tanks guarding the square and down several blocks to the Parliament. Many of the protesters still wore bandages on their heads from a 12-hour war of rocks and stones against Mubarak loyalists a few days before.
Neither the soldiers guarding the perimeter of the square, nor the dozens guarding the Parliament building did anything to stop them. Outside Parliament, one soldier bent down to feed a candy bar to a small boy who was protesting along with his father. Later, when the protesters believed they had discovered a secret-police infiltrator in their midst, the soldiers stepped in to grab him by the arms and lead him away. “Hosni Mubarak is illegitimate,” they chanted, “The Parliament is illegitimate, Omar Suleiman is illegitimate.”
As night fell, and the crowd had dwindled from a few thousand to hundreds, only a few lights remained on in the upper floors of Parliament, and about a dozen men pulled out blankets and said they intended to sleep in the road.
“Parliament is a great pressure point,” said Ahmed el-Droubi, a biologist. “What we need to do is unite this protest and Tahrir, and that is just the first step. Then we will expand further until Mr. Mubarak gets the point.”
Back in Tahrir Square, more members of the Egyptian elite continued to turn up in support of the protestors, including the pop star Shireen Abdel Wahab and the soccer goalkeeper Nader al-Sayed. Brigades of university employees and telephone company employees joined the protests, as did a column of legal scholars in formal black robes.
Zyad el-Alawi, one of the central organizers, said the protesters were counting on rallying other cities and workers around the country to join their movement. There were reports Tuesday of other large demonstrations in Alexandria, Suez and other cities, as well as labor strikes, including one by 6,000 workers at the Suez Canal. Many at the protests buttonholed Americans to express deep disappointment with President Obama, shaking their heads at his ambiguous messages about an orderly transition. They warned that the country risked incurring a resentment from the Egyptian people that could last long after Mr. Mubarak is gon
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Some protesters said they saw it as a potential turning point in a propaganda war that has so far gone badly against them, with the state-run television network and newspapers portraying the crowds in Tahrir Square as a dwindling band of obstructionists doing the bidding of foreign interests.
Even early in the day, before their numbers had swelled past tens of thousands or their brigades marched to Parliament, the core organizers were already brimming with confidence at what they could accomplish.
“We are actually the government of the country right now,” said Walid Rachid, 27, one of the young online activists who helped kick off the revolt.
Organizers had hinted in recent days that they intended to expand out of the square to keep the pressure on the government. Then, around 3 p.m., a bearded man with a bullhorn led a procession around the tanks guarding the square and down several blocks to the Parliament. Many of the protesters still wore bandages on their heads from a 12-hour war of rocks and stones against Mubarak loyalists a few days before.
Neither the soldiers guarding the perimeter of the square, nor the dozens guarding the Parliament building did anything to stop them. Outside Parliament, one soldier bent down to feed a candy bar to a small boy who was protesting along with his father. Later, when the protesters believed they had discovered a secret-police infiltrator in their midst, the soldiers stepped in to grab him by the arms and lead him away. “Hosni Mubarak is illegitimate,” they chanted, “The Parliament is illegitimate, Omar Suleiman is illegitimate.”
As night fell, and the crowd had dwindled from a few thousand to hundreds, only a few lights remained on in the upper floors of Parliament, and about a dozen men pulled out blankets and said they intended to sleep in the road.
“Parliament is a great pressure point,” said Ahmed el-Droubi, a biologist. “What we need to do is unite this protest and Tahrir, and that is just the first step. Then we will expand further until Mr. Mubarak gets the point.”
Back in Tahrir Square, more members of the Egyptian elite continued to turn up in support of the protestors, including the pop star Shireen Abdel Wahab and the soccer goalkeeper Nader al-Sayed. Brigades of university employees and telephone company employees joined the protests, as did a column of legal scholars in formal black robes.
Zyad el-Alawi, one of the central organizers, said the protesters were counting on rallying other cities and workers around the country to join their movement. There were reports Tuesday of other large demonstrations in Alexandria, Suez and other cities, as well as labor strikes, including one by 6,000 workers at the Suez Canal. Many at the protests buttonholed Americans to express deep disappointment with President Obama, shaking their heads at his ambiguous messages about an orderly transition. They warned that the country risked incurring a resentment from the Egyptian people that could last long after Mr. Mubarak is gone.
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