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Thursday, 11 May 2006
I am getting updates from my friends on the street on what's going on regarding today's demonstration . Here are the details so far:
Today's demonstration has about 2000 people so far, MB mixed with Kifaya and union members, and they were demonstrating in support of the judges today.For the first 20 minutes or so, the police just let them demonstrate peacefully. And then, all of a sudden, all hell broke loose.
The Riot Police, alongside thugs and plain-clothed police officers went and attacked the demonstrations with batons on Adly street, and then started arresting them. A group of protesters got trapped in front of the engineer's syndicate on Ramsis street, and the police is beating them up, dragging them on the street and arresting them. The Police also reportedly beat up another group of protesters from the pharmacists syndicate and also attacked some US journalists who were taking pictures and broke their cameras. Another group of MB that was demonstrating at the Al Fatah mosque is currently also getting beat up and in the process of getting arrested. This is bad!
Updates will follow..
Update: Aljazeera just mentioned 6 riot-police solders were killed and 20
injured when their transport lost control over the 6 October bridge
near Abbaseia in the Eastern end of Cairo. It is also covering the story :
Plainclothes
policemen dragged away cameramen from news organisations, including
Reuters and Al Jazeera television, and confiscated their cameras.An Al Jazeera cameraman was badly beaten, an Al Jazeera correspondent said.
Plainclothes police dragged 15 demonstrators from a
crowd of around 300 marching in Cairo in support of the judges and beat
them badly. At least one activist was seen bleeding from the face after
he was held against a wall and beaten.Other demonstrators dispersed when the security
forces began their crackdown. The demonstrators had included supporters
of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood and secular activists.
Update: New demonstration broke out at the intersect of Talaat harb and the high court. 150 demonstraters, look like Mulsim Brotherhood. Theyalso gotten broken up by the Security forces.
Update: A couple more demonstrations popping up all over the place. They are all following the same pattern: People gather and demonstrate, chant for like 5 minutes, police comes and breaks it up, arrests 5 people, chases away the rest, who regroup in another location and start another demonstration, always near the Darr al qadaa al ally (the High court building). They are spreading like wildfire and the police seems helpless and unable to put them out, so they are just beating and arresting people. War is declared in Downtown Cairo and it seems that dozens, if not hundreds, will be arrested today.
Update: The security re-enforcments have arrived. There are about 10,000 of them in downtown cairo, and they still can not contain the situation. The demos are still spreading like wildfire, and the moment they put one out, 2 more prop up in 2 different locations in its place. The Police got so frustrated, they shut down all the doors to the Metro (The Underground) at the Ramses station stop, except one, to stop more people from coming thorugh there and joining the protests. This is getting kind of funny!
Update: The Judges have stopped their sit-in at the High Court and are now moving to the Judges club. I don't know what's going on with that, but I guess the situation got really hairy down there!
Update: The court session on the Judges case was canceld today, which is why the Judges left the High court and went to the Judges club to reconvene and figure out what their next move is. The police is heavily surrounding the Judges club at the moment and it's really hard to get close to it if you are not a judge. At the same time, a number of Kifaya leaders got arrested , amongst them Mohamed Abdel Quddos and Abdel Aaziz Al Husseiny. People are still doing the wildfire demonstration dance with the police in downtown cairo regardless though, so the situation is still hairy. This- 2 and a half houres and counting- is not over yet!
Update: About 700 Judges are at the Judges club protesting, but the media is not allowed to get inside and cover it because of the police. There are rumors that 10 Judges (the leaders: Bastawesy and co.) will strike and not go to court until all of those arrested today get released. If this is confirmed, it would be huge, because other judges will surely follow, and with the Judicial branch on strike, well, the country really can not function. This might get really interesting.
May 11th, 2006 at 8:37 am
EBU: Does the media have the right to offend?
Lisbeth Knudsen, the managing director of Danish Radio led things off with a quote from Bob Dylan: “Something is going on. You don’t know what it is. Do you Mrs Jones?” She said that the world probably still doesn’t know…
May 11th, 2006 at 8:52 am
Awww shit. He we go!
May 11th, 2006 at 9:18 am
What the hell? WHAT THE HELL??? Who the hell is going to stop them if they don’t give a shit to THIS extent?
This is such a depressing day, on so many levels.
May 11th, 2006 at 9:21 am
From Kifaya: The police did not allow the 2 judges subject to disciplinary proceedings and their lawyers in addition to other judges supporting them to enter the High Court to attend the disciplinary session.
May 11th, 2006 at 9:30 am
Egyption authorities will regret the day they roughed up Aljazeera reporters. They are not particularly concerned about stirring up resentment and violence.
If these protests work and democracy moves forward, who will be the big winner? The Muslim Brotherhood?
May 11th, 2006 at 9:56 am
Grim. Nobody deserves that kind of thing. 10,000 riot police on the streets but the people will still win the day if other popular revolutions are anything to go by.
Democracy ? Naw - not in that climate - the Muslim Brotherhood or some such is how it will surely unfold. Repressive they may be, but who else has the discipline to run an under-resourced revolution. Sadly I think Egyptian democracy is several steps away and receding. Historical precedent indicates that the really hard times are the post-revolution period.
May 11th, 2006 at 11:27 am
It is sickening how the sol called champions of freedom are hesitating to support freedom and democracy in Egypt because of the supposed gains of the Islamists This goes beyond pragmatism, this is moral decadence. Moreover, those guys are detached from reality in ht e Middle East. Political Islam is growing by the day and the sooner freedom and democracy dominate the better. Waiting for longer time means more time means letting the giant get more strength tell one day you have an Islamic revolution a la Iranian. Had we had real democracy in the 70s, MBs would have been merely another party in a competitive political arena. Finally, I reiterate my disgust of the custodians on the people’s right to choose and try whatever political way they wish.
May 11th, 2006 at 11:47 am
Amgad:
I agree with much of what you say, including regretting the lack of courage in the West. But I HAVE to include one caveat. If the Egyptians want to try the MB for a while, it is sad, but they have that right. But, with the MB as with Hamas, is the danger that if the people wind up rejecting them, they won’t be able to get rid of them.
May 11th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
Unlike several of the comments above mine, I don’t see this with pessimism in my heart. I see a general mobilization of the masses (sorry for the commie type lingo, but it’s apt). The march toward democracy has never been strait forward nor easy. The fact that the judiciary seems to be on the side of greater democracy and that demonstrations are popping up all over the place almost on an ad hoc basis suggests to me that there is a great yearning for more freedom. It will come - as long as they don’t allow the state to crush their spirit. Stay safe Sam, and keep reporting.
May 11th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Something is definitely going on…!!
I just hope that it aint backfires in our pretty faces.
Starting a war is easy ; ending it it’s some how more difficult
and one cannot expect the results.
Hope the MB wont benefit of it.
May 11th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Prup (aka Jim Benton) Says:
… regretting the lack of courage in the West.
What would you have the “West” do then ?
How does the average Egyptian try the MB for a while and then ..?
US Admin’s involvement with Egypt’s Amin is a done deal. US terrorist prisoners (sic) are being “cared for” in Egyptian Jails.
May 11th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
… and I agree with the voices championing people power - never mind the label it gets. But it will be hard - and the people who have the will and the guts to overthrow cruel regimes, aren’t usually good at “democracy” - that has to come later.
May 11th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Amgad
You’re absolutely right about the part “Political Islam is growing by the day and the sooner freedom and democracy dominate the better.”
Although I have real problems with the broerhood reaching power in Egypt, but the answer isn’t to continue with this dictatorship in power, that would just bring more problems.
It’s a wicked cycle, as long as there’s a dictator running the show we liberals can’t promote for our values, they won’t allow it and they’ll fight us (they actually are), And there won’t be a real liberal democracy if liberals didn’t win grounds to fight that dictatorship.
I really don’t know how we can break the cycle practically.
We have no option except to fight back and hope for the best. Down with Mubarak.
May 11th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
It is sickening how the sol called champions of freedom are hesitating to support freedom and democracy in Egypt because of the supposed gains of the Islamists This goes beyond pragmatism, this is moral decadence.
Excuse me? Which part of “democracy” sounds the same as theocracy, to you? Which part of “freedom” sounds like “repression” to you?
I’m to be condemned because I don’t think Taliban style rule in Egypt might be better than a simple dictatorship?
I neither support nor oppose these demonstrations. There’s nobody for me to support. I don’t like Mubarak’s government, and I don’t like the Muslim Brotherhood. Whatever happens, happens. If any good can come from it, I hope it does. But that’s as far as I’m willing to go.
May 11th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
[...] SM also live-blogged the demonstration. [...]
May 11th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Ditto, Louise.
May 11th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
Stability must prevail for the sake of Usrael!
Down with the protestors!
We want Mubarak - and 2000 irresponsible and misguided
wanna be egyptians won’t stop us.
May 11th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
And does Mubarak behead Alaa? Nooooooo.
He’s a friend of us - in the West.
Go Mubarak, go …
May 12th, 2006 at 12:24 am
[...] Much more at Rantings of a Sandmonkey [...]
May 12th, 2006 at 2:31 am
[...] He’s also got the backstory, tremendously done, along with his own liveblogging in this post here. Both are must-reads. [...]
May 12th, 2006 at 10:47 am
Those criticizing the US don’t get it. We will not do your heavy lifting for you. We have our own dead patriots that watered our own tree of liberty. You are accumulating your own. The best you can hope for, and I think we will deliver it for you, is that we will step in to save you a certain amount of bloodshed towards the end. We will help your patriots get over the hump faster, with fewer dead, and with less idiocy in the post-revolutionary period than would otherwise be the case.
We not only cannot do more, we should not do more. We’ve given up on puppet regimes. If we were to do more, inevitably, the regime that followed would depend on the US, becoming our puppet whether we wanted them to be or not because they would have no indigenous strength. I want no puppets for us. I want a strong, free, independent Egypt that we can call friend and not be ashamed of it.