Jubilant crowds flood Cairo, escalating protests

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110201/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt

Jubilant crowds flood Cairo, escalating protests

By SARAH EL DEEB and HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press El Deeb And

Hadeel Al-shalchi, Associated Press – 42 mins ago

CAIRO – More than a quarter-million people flooded Cairo's main square Tuesday

in a stunning and jubilant array of young and old, urban poor and middle class

professionals, mounting by far the largest protest yet in a week of unrelenting

demands for President Hosni Mubarak to leave after nearly 30 years in power.

The crowds — determined but peaceful — filled Tahrir, or Liberation, Square and

spilled into nearby streets, among them people defying a government

transportation shutdown to make their way from rural provinces. Protesters

jammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, with schoolteachers, farmers, unemployed

university graduates, women in conservative headscarves and women in high heels,

men in suits and working-class men in scuffed shoes.

They sang nationalist songs, danced, beat drums and chanted the anti-Mubarak

slogan " Leave! Leave! Leave! " as military helicopters buzzed overhead.

Organizers said the aim was to intensify marches to get the president out of

power by Friday, and similar demonstrations erupted in at least five other

cities around Egypt.

Soldiers at checkpoints set up the entrances of the square did nothing to stop

the crowds from entering.

The military promised on state TV Monday night that it would not fire on

protesters answering a call for a million to demonstrate, a sign that army

support for Mubarak may be unraveling as momentum builds for an extraordinary

eruption of discontent and demands for democracy in the United States' most

important Arab ally.

" This is the end for him. It's time, " said Musab Galal, a 23-year-old unemployed

university graduate who came by minibus with his friends from the Nile Delta

city of Menoufiya.

Mubarak, 82, would be the second Arab leader pushed from office by a popular

uprising in the history of the modern Middle East, following the ouster last

month of Tunisia's president.

The movement to drive Mubarak out has been built on the work of on-line

activists and fueled by deep frustration with an autocratic regime blamed for

ignoring the needs of the poor and allowing corruption and official abuse to run

rampant. After years of tight state control, protesters emboldened by the

Tunisia unrest took to the streets on Jan. 25 and mounted a once-unimaginable

series of protests across this nation of 80 million people — the region's most

populous country.

The repercussions were being felt around the Mideast, as other authoritarian

governments fearing popular discontent pre-emptively tried to burnish their

democratic image.

Jordan's King Abdullah II fired his government Tuesday in the face of smaller

street protests, named an ex-prime minister to form a new Cabinet and ordered

him to launch political reforms. The Palestinian Cabinet in West Bank said it

would hold long-promised municipal elections " as soon as possible. "

With Mubarak's hold on power in Egypt weakening, the world was forced to plan

for the end of a regime that has maintained three decades of peace with Israel

and a bulwark against Islamic militants. But under the stability was a barely

hidden crumbling of society, mounting criticism of the regime's human rights

record and a widening gap between rich and poor, with 40 percent of the

population living under or just above the poverty line set by the World Bank at

$2 a day.

The chairman of the powerful U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen.

Kerry, gave public voice to what senior U.S. officials have said only privately

in recent days: that Mubarak should " step aside gracefully to make way for a new

political structure. "

The U.S. ambassador in Cairo, Margaret Scobey, spoke by telephone Tuesday with

prominent democracy advocate Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, the embassy

said. ElBaradei has taken a key role with other opposition groups in formulating

the movement's demands for Mubarak to step down and allow a transitional

government paving the way for free elections. There was no immediate word on

what Scobey and ElBaradei discussed.

In an interview with Al-Arabiya television, ElBaradei rejected an offer late

Monday by Vice President Suleiman for a dialogue on enacting constitutional

reforms. He said there could be no negotiations until Mubarak lea.

Suleiman's offer and other gestures by the regime have fallen flat. The Obama

administration roundly rejected Mubarak's appointment of a new government Monday

afternoon that dropped his interior minister, who heads police forces and has

been widely denounced by the protesters. State TV on Tuesday ran a statement by

the new prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, pleading with the public to " give a

chance " to his government.

The United States, meanwhile, ordered non-essential U.S. government personnel

and their families to leave Egypt in an indication of the deepening concern over

the situation.

They join a wave of people rushing to flee the country — over 18,000 overwhelmed

Cairo's international airport and threw it into chaos. EgyptAir staff scuffled

with frantic passengers, food supplies were dwindling and some policemen even

demanded substantial bribes before allowing foreigners to board their planes.

Normally bustling, Cairo's streets outside Tahrir Square had a fraction of their

normal weekday traffic. Banks, schools and the stock market in Cairo were closed

for the third working day, making cash tight. Bread prices spiraled. An

unprecedented shutdown of the Internet was in its fifth day.

The official death toll from the crisis stood at 97, with thousands injured,

thought reports from witnesses across the country indicated the actual toll was

far higher.

But perhaps most startling was how peaceful protests have been in recent days,

after the military replaced the police in keeping control and took a policy of

letting the demonstrations continue.

Egypt's army leadership has reassured the U.S. that the military does not intend

to crack down on demonstrators, but instead is allowing the protesters to " wear

themselves out, " according to a former U.S. official in contact with several top

Egyptian army officers. The Egyptians use a colloquial saying to describe their

strategy: A boiling pot with a tight lid will blow up the kitchen, the official

said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Troops and Soviet-era and newer U.S.-made Abrams tanks stood at roads leading

into Tahrir Square, a plaza overlooked by the headquarters of the Arab League,

the campus of the American University in Cairo, the famed Egyptian Museum and

the Mugammma, an enormous building housing departments of the notoriously

corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy.

Protester volunteers wearing tags reading " the People's Security " circulated

through the crowds in the square, saying they were watching for government

infiltrators who might try to instigate violence.

" We will throw out anyone who tries to create trouble, " one announced over a

loudspeaker. Other volunteers joined the soldiers at the checkpoints, searching

bags of those entering for weapons. Organizers said the protest would remain in

the square and not attempt to march to avoid frictions with the military.

Two dummies representing Mubarak dangled from traffic lights. On their chests

was written: " We want to put the murderous president on trial. " Their faces were

scrawled with the Star of , an allusion to many protesters' feeling that

Mubarak is a friend of Israel, still seen by most Egyptians as their country's

archenemy more than 30 years after the two nations signed a peace treaty.

Every protester had their own story of why they came — with a shared theme of

frustration with a life pinned in by corruption, low wages, crushed

opportunities and abuse by authorities.

Sahar Ahmad, a 41-year-old school teacher and mother of one, said she has taught

for 22 years and still only makes about $70 a month.

" There are 120 students in my classroom. That's more than any teacher can

handle, " said Ahmad. " Change would mean a better education system I can teach in

and one that guarantees my students a good life after school. If there is

democracy in my country, then I can ask for democracy in my own home. "

Tamer Adly, a driver of one of the thousands of minibuses that ferry commuters

around Cairo, said he was sick of the daily humiliation he felt from police who

demand free rides and send him on petty errands, reflecting the widespread

public anger at police high-handedness.

" They would force me to share my breakfast with them ... force me to go fetch

them a newspaper. This country should not just be about one person, " the

30-year-old lamented, referring to Mubarak.

Among the older protesters, there was also a sense of amazement after three

decades of unquestioned control by Mubarak's security forces over the streets.

" We could never say no to Mubarak when we were young, but our young people today

proved that they can say no, and I'm here to support them, " said Yusra Mahmoud,

a 46-year-old school principal who said she had been sleeping in the square

alongside other protesters for the past two nights.

Authorities shut down all roads and public transportation to Cairo and in and

out of other main cities, security officials said. Train services nationwide

were suspended for a second day and all bus services between cities were halted.

Still, many from the provinces managed to make it to the square. Hamada Massoud,

a 32-year-old a lawyer, said he and 50 others came in cars and minibuses from

the impoverished province of Beni Sweif south of Cairo.

" Cairo today is all of Egypt, " he said. " I want my son to have a better life and

not suffer as much as I did ... I want to feel like I chose my president. "

Tens of thousands rallied in the cities of andria, Suez and Mansoura, north

of Cairo, as well as in the southern province of Assiut and Luxor, the southern

city where some 5,000 people protested outside an ancient Egyptian temple.

The various protesters have little in common beyond the demand that Mubarak go.

A range of movements is involved, with sometimes conflicting agendas — including

students, online activists, grass-roots organizers, old-school opposition

politicians and the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.

Perhaps the most significant tensions among them are between young secular

activists and the Muslim Brotherhood, which wants to form a state governed by

Islamic law. The more secular are deeply suspicious the Brotherhood aims to

co-opt what they contend is a spontaneous, popular movement. American officials

have suggested they have similar fears.

A second day of talks among opposition groups fell apart after many of the youth

groups boycotted the meeting over charges that some of the traditional,

government-condoned opposition parties have agreed to start a dialogue with

Suleiman.

___

AP correspondents Maggie , Maggie Hyde and Lee Keath in Cairo and

Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.