End of Mubarak era as protests topple president

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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/showdown-egypt-mubarak-hangs-20110210-181929-700.html

End of Mubarak era as protests topple president

By Edmund Blair and Samia Nakhoul | Reuters – 37 minutes ago

CAIRO (Reuters) - Hosni Mubarak stepped down as Egypt's president on Friday,

handing over to the army and ending three decades of autocratic rule, bowing to

escalating pressure from the military and protesters demanding that he go.

Vice President Suleiman said a military council would run the affairs of

the Arab world's most populous nation. A free and fair presidential election has

been promised for September.

A speaker made the announcement in Cairo's Tahrir Square where hundreds of

thousands broke down in tears, celebrated and hugged each other chanting: " The

people have brought down the regime. " Others shouted: " Allahu Akbar (God is

great).

The 82-year-old Mubarak's downfall after 18 days of unprecedented mass protests

was a momentous victory for people power and was sure to rock autocrats

throughout the Arab world and beyond.

Egypt's powerful military gave guarantees earlier on Friday that promised

democratic reforms would be carried out but angry protesters intensified an

uprising against Mubarak, marching on the presidential palace and the state

television tower.

It was an effort by the army to defuse the revolt but, in disregarding

protesters' key demand for Mubarak's ouster now, it failed to calm the turmoil

that has disrupted the economy and rattled the entire Middle East.

The military's intervention was not enough.

The tumult over Mubarak's refusal to resign had tested the loyalties of the

armed forces, which had to choose whether to protect their supreme commander or

ditch him.

The sharpening confrontation had raised fear of uncontrolled violence in the

most populous Arab nation, a key U.S. ally in an oil-rich region where the

chance of chaos spreading to other long stable but repressive states troubles

the West.

Washington has called for a prompt democratic transition to restore stability in

Egypt, a rare Arab state no longer hostile to Israel, guardian of the Suez Canal

linking Europe and Asia and a major force against militant Islam in the region.

The army statement noted that Mubarak had handed powers to govern the country of

80 million people to his deputy the previous day -- perhaps signaling that this

should satisfy demonstrators, reformists and opposition figures.

" This is not our demand, " one protester said, after relaying the contents of the

army statement to the crowd in Cairo's central Tahrir Square. " We have one

demand, that Mubarak step down. " He has said he will stay until September

elections.

The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist opposition group, urged protesters to keep

up mass nationwide street protests, describing Mubarak's concessions as a trick

to stay in power.

REFORMS TOO LITTLE TOO LATE

Hundreds of thousands of protesters rallied across Egypt, including in the

industrial city of Suez, earlier the scene of some of the fiercest violence in

the crisis, and the second city of andria, as well as in Tanta and other

Nile Delta centers.

The army also said it " confirms the lifting of the state of emergency as soon as

the current circumstances end " , a pledge that would remove a law imposed after

Mubarak became president following Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981 and that

protesters say has long been used to stifle dissent.

It further promised to guarantee free and fair elections and other concessions

made by Mubarak to protesters that would have been unthinkable before January

25, when the revolt began.

But none of this was enough for many hundreds of thousands of mistrustful

protesters who rallied in cities across the Arab world's most populous and

influential country on Friday, fed up with high unemployment, a corrupt elite

and police repression.

Since the fall of Tunisia's long-time leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, which

triggered protests around the region, Egyptians have been demonstrating in huge

numbers against rising prices, poverty, unemployment and their authoritarian

regime.

EMERGENCY LAWS

World powers had increasingly pressured Mubarak to organize an orderly

transition of power since the protests erupted on January 28 setting off an

earthquake that has shaken Egypt sending shock waves around the Middle East.

Mubarak, 82, was thrust into office when Islamists gunned down his predecessor

Anwar Sadat at a military parade in 1981.

The burly former air force commander has proved a far more durable leader than

anyone imagined at the time, governing under emergency laws protesters say were

used to crush dissent.

The president has long promoted peace abroad and more recently backed economic

reforms at home led by his cabinet under Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. But he

always kept a tight lid on political opposition.

Mubarak resisted any significant political change even under pressure from the

United States, which has poured billions of dollars of military and other aid

into Egypt since it became the first Arab state to make peace with Israel,

signing a treaty in 1979.

(Cairo newsroom, writing by ship; editing by Mark Heinrich)