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A supporter of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi waves a flag used among the supporters towards their rally protesting against a new law regulating demonstrations in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 29, 2013. Hundreds of Islamist demonstrators took to the streets on Friday in cities across Egypt, days after a disputed protest law was adopted and police forcefully broke up unauthorized gatherings. The poster, center, shows a picture of the president and the Arabic showing part of a phrase that reads, “For these reasons, they fight with the elected President.” (AP Photo/Ahmed Gomaa)
A supporter of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi waves a flag used among the supporters towards their rally protesting against a new law regulating demonstrations in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 29, 2013. Hundreds of Islamist demonstrators took to the streets on Friday in cities across Egypt, days after a disputed protest law was adopted and police forcefully broke up unauthorized gatherings. The poster, center, shows a picture of the president and the Arabic showing part of a phrase that reads, “For these reasons, they fight with the elected President.” (AP Photo/Ahmed Gomaa)
A supporter of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi shows his hand with four raised fingers, a symbol for the supporters, towards a rally protesting against a new law regulating demonstrations in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 29, 2013. Egyptian security forces fired tear gas Friday to disperse hundreds of Islamist demonstrators defying a new protest law that has drawn widespread criticism from the international community and democracy advocates. The poster, center, shows a picture of the ousted president. (AP Photo/Ahmed Gomaa)
Colleagues of Mohammed Reda, 19, an Egyptian student who was killed Thursday during clashes with security forces near Cairo University, chant slogans during his funeral outside Al-Sayyida Nafisa mosque following Friday prayers in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 29, 2013. Egyptian security forces used tear gas and water cannons Thursday to disperse students and supporters of the country’s ousted Islamist president as they rallied outside a Cairo university, sparking clashes that killed one person. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Supporters of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi hold a rally against a new law regulating protest in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 29, 2013. Hundreds of Islamist demonstrators took to the streets on Friday in cities across Egypt, days after a disputed protest law was adopted and police forcefully broke up unauthorized gatherings. The poster at left shows a picture of the ousted president and the Arabic showing part of a phrase that reads, “For these reasons, they fight with the elected President.” (AP Photo/Ahmed Gomaa)
Supporters of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi hold a rally against a new law regulating protest in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 29, 2013. Hundreds of Islamist demonstrators took to the streets on Friday in cities across Egypt, days after a disputed protest law was adopted and police forcefully broke up unauthorized gatherings. (AP Photo/Ahmed Gomaa)
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CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian security forces fired tear gas Friday to disperse hundreds of Islamist demonstrators defying a draconian new law restricting protests, which has drawn widespread criticism from democracy advocates and the international community.
Since a popularly backed military coup ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July, his supporters have been staging near-daily protests calling for his reinstatement, with Friday’s weekly Muslim prayers a key time for mobilizing. The rallies have often descended into street clashes with security forces or civilians.
In an effort to quash pro-Morsi rallies, which have persisted despite a heavy security crackdown, the military-backed government issued the law Sunday, banning political gatherings of more than 10 people without a police permit.
Instead, the law has sparked new protests by Egypt’s camp of secular activists, who had been largely muted since the ouster of Morsi, whom they opposed. The past week, security forces have forcefully broken up several protests by secular activists in Cairo. On Thursday, a student was killed when police put down a march by Islamists from Cairo University.
The Interior Ministry, responsible for the police, warned on Thursday that security forces will deal “firmly” with “illegal” protests.
The turmoil comes as a 50-member panel amending the Islamist-drafted constitution passed last year under Morsi prepared to vote on Saturday to approve a final draft. The draft will then be put to a nationwide referendum, expected in January.
The pending vote could further fuel a backlash in the streets. The Islamists reject the entire amendment process and are likely to launch protests against it. Secular activists, meanwhile, are likely to hold their own protests, since they oppose articles in the draft that increase the power of the military and the president.
Friday’s clashes erupted when security forces moved to disperse the scattered protests organized by Islamists across the country. An Interior Ministry aide, Sayyed Shafiq, said at least 60 “rioters” were arrested.
In Cairo’s twin city of Giza, police fired volleys of tear gas to disperse Morsi supporters, according to footage of the scene from Associated Press TV. Protesters burned tires to defuse the tear gas. Anti-Islamist residents joined security forces in chasing the Morsi supporters to side streets, hurling stones and glass bottles at them.
In a western Cairo neighborhood, police fired tear gas as protesters hurled stones and burned tires, security officials said. In eastern Cairo, police fired water cannons and tear gas on demonstrators near a presidential palace. Similar scenes took place in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and the canal city of Suez.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
In one protest in eastern Cairo, Islamists chanted, “Down with all killers, down with Abdel-Fattah” referring to Egypt’s army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led the coup against Morsi. They held banners with the emblem of a hand raising four fingers, a symbol commemorating the violent dispersal by security forces of an Islamist sit-in in mid-August in which hundreds were killed.
“We don’t care about the protest law whatsoever,” said Ashraf Abdel-Wahhab, a 42-year-old demonstrator who took part in a Cairo protest with his wife and eight children. “This is not the first time they attack marches or kill protesters. It’s just a cover that they’re using.”
Secular activists did not hold rallies Friday, aiming to avoid association with the Islamists, in part because they saw Morsi as equally undemocratic as the new government. Activists would also likely be tainted as pro-Brotherhood by media supporting the military, at a time when a large swath of the public remains eager to crush Islamists.
“Friday is the Brotherhood’s day,” Mohammed Adel, a leading member of the secular activist group April 6, told the AP, explaining why his camp was not in the streets.
“Even if we had the same cause, we will not protest with them,” he added, referring to the Islamists.
Secular activists, including those who led the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, accuse the new government of giving free rein to police abuses and military power that the anti-Mubarak uprising had aimed to end. They say the new protest law aims to silence all dissent against the government.
Late Thursday, police arrested one of the most prominent activists, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, for inciting protests. His wife, Manal Bahy Eldin, also an activist, said police beat her as they raided their home to seize Abdel-Fattah, a blogger who rose to prominence in Egypt’s 2011 revolution.
On Friday, prosecutors ordered Abdel-Fattah detained for four days for investigation, according to Mohammed Abdel Aziz, a member of his legal defense team.
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, 85, is escorted by medical and security personnel into an ambulance to be taken by helicopter ambulance from Maadi Military Hospital to the Cairo Police Academy–turned–court, Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013. Mubarak, under house arrest after being released from detention last week, is standing retrial in charges of complicity in the killings of protesters during 2011 Egyptian uprising. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, 85, is escorted by medical and security personnel into an ambulance to be taken by helicopter ambulance from Maadi Military Hospital to the Cairo Police Academy–turned–court, Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013. Mubarak, under house arrest after being released from detention last week, is standing retrial in charges of complicity in the killings of protesters during 2011 Egyptian uprising. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, 85, is escorted by medical and security personnel into an ambulance to be taken by helicopter ambulance from Maadi Military Hospital to the Cairo Police Academy–turned–court, Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013. Mubarak, under house arrest after being released from detention last week, is standing retrial in charges of complicity in the killings of protesters during 2011 Egyptian uprising. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
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CAIRO (AP) — In parallel trial sessions, Egyptian courts heard cases Sunday against ousted President Hosni Mubarak and top leaders of his archrival, the Muslim Brotherhood, related to killings during the 2011 and 2013 protest campaigns that led to their respective downfalls.
The court trying Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and five other members of the Islamist group postponed hearings until October 29. The defendants, two of whom are still in hiding and being tried in absentia, are accused in relation to clashes outside the Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters on June 30 that left nine dead.
The four in detention were not present in the downtown Cairo courtroom for security reasons. They were arrested over the last month as part of a massive crackdown on the Brotherhood following the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the group, and related violence.
At another courtroom in eastern Cairo, Mubarak looked relaxed in dark sunglasses and a white jumpsuit in his first court appearance since he was released from prison last week and transferred to a military hospital. The 85-year-old ex-president, whose lawyer has claimed has been on the verge of death, sat in a wheelchair next to his two sons who are being tried in a separate corruption-related case.
Mubarak has been in detention since April 2011, two months after he was ousted in an uprising against his rule. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison last year for failing to stop the killing of some 900 protesters in the 18-day uprising, but his sentence was overturned on appeal. In April, his retrial opened along with those of his security chief and six top police commanders.
The six Brotherhood members, including Badie and his deputies Khairat el-Shater and Rashad Bayoumi, are charged with instigating the killings of nine protesters on June 30, when millions took to the streets demanding the ouster of Morsi.
The killings took place near the Brotherhood’s east Cairo headquarters, which was attacked by an allegedly anti-Morsi crowd. Dozens of Brotherhood members were trapped inside the building for hours and it was eventually set on fire. The group said the police encouraged “thugs” to attack the building while security officials at the time said that the group placed snipers atop the building.
The military toppled Morsi three days later, then launched a massive crackdown on the Islamist movement, arresting top leaders including el-Shater and Bayoumi, rounding up field organizers and shutting down Islamic TV networks.
On Aug. 14, riot police backed by armored vehicles and bulldozers moved to clear two sprawling encampments of Morsi’s supporters, sparking violence that left more than 1000 people dead across the country. The interim presidency declared a monthlong state of emergency. Badie and hundreds others were arrested in the aftermath.
The military-backed interim government meanwhile is pursuing a fast-tract transition plan that it says will return the country to democracy.
On Sunday, a 10-member panel of experts is due to hand a first draft of constitutional amendments to the interim presidency, a first step toward amending the charter drafted last year under Morsi, now suspended. A second panel of 50 members will work on the amendments before finalizing them and putting them for public vote.
Once the constitution is adopted, the plan envisions presidential and parliamentary elections held by early next year.
Louafi Larbi/Reuters
Supporters of the deposed president, Mohamed Morsi, protested near a mosque in Cairo on Friday. More Photos »
CAIRO — Facing police officers authorized to use lethal force if threatened, leaders of the embattled Muslim Brotherhood urged followers to take to the streets in a show of “rage” on Friday as the Islamist organization sought to regain momentum after a crushing crackdown by security forces on Wednesday in which almost 640 people were killed.
Under military lockdown, Cairo and other cities braced for more violence after the Friday noon prayers that has been a central trigger for protest since the wave of turmoil once known as the Arab Spring swept through the region beginning in early 2011.
The outcome of the growing confrontation between secular and Islamist forces in Egypt — a contest that could shape the country and the region for years to come — seemed cloaked in uncertainty. “After the blows and arrests and killings that we are facing, emotions are too high to be guided by anyone,” said Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad, according to Reuters.
The clash of powerful forces has alarmed many outsiders stunned by the ferocity of the crackdown and fearful of the potential regional repercussions. On Friday, news reports from Paris said President François Hollande consulted Britain and Germany about the crisis, but it was not immediately clear how the situation could be swayed by outsiders’ diplomacy.
On Thursday, some European officials called for a suspension of aid by the European Union, and at least one member state, Denmark, cut off support. The British and French summoned their Egyptian ambassadors to condemn the violence. In Ankara, Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an ideological ally of Mr. Morsi’s, called for an early meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss what he called a “massacre.”
The Brotherhood, for decades the repository of Islamist sentiment, said it wanted millions to march on Friday to display “the pain and sorrow over the loss of our martyrs.” In a statement, the Brotherhood said the actions of the military-backed interim government against supporters of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi had “increased our determination to end them.”
With their leaders jailed or silent, however, some Islamists reeled in shock at the killings on Wednesday when security forces razed two protest camps where Mr. Morsi’s supporters had been staging sit-ins since his ouster six weeks ago. By Thursday night, health officials had counted 638 dead and nearly 4,000 injured, but the final toll was expected to rise further, in the worst mass killing in Egypt’s modern history.
On Thursday, many of those waiting outside the makeshift morgue talked of civil war. Some blamed members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority for supporting the military takeover. A few argued openly for a turn to violence.
“The solution might be an assassination list,” said Ahmed, 27, who like others refused to use his full name for fear of reprisals from the new authorities. “Shoot anyone in uniform. It doesn’t matter if the good is taken with the bad, because that is what happened to us last night.”
Mohamed Rasmy, a 30-year-old engineer, interrupted. “That is not the solution,” he said, insisting that Islamist leaders would re-emerge with a plan “to come together in protest.” Despite the apparently wide support for the police action by the private news media and much of Cairo, he argued that the bloodshed was now turning the rest of the public against the military-appointed government.
“It is already happening,” he said.
The outcome of the internal Islamist debate may now be the most critical variable in deciding the next phase of the crisis. The military-backed government has made clear its determination to demonize and repress the Islamists with a ruthlessness exceeding even that of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the autocrat who first outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood six decades ago.
How the Islamists respond will inevitably reshape both their movement and Egypt. Will they resume the accommodationist tactics of the Muslim Brotherhood under former President Hosni Mubarak, escalate their street protests despite continued casualties, or turn to armed insurgency as some members did in the 1990s?
1 of 3. Egypt’s interim President Adli Mansour speaks to the nation ahead of Eid al-Fitr celebrations, at El-Thadiya presidential palace in Cairo in this August 7, 2013 handout photograph provided by the Egyptian Presidency.
Credit: Reuters/Egyptian Presidency/Handout via Reuters
CAIRO |
CAIRO (Reuters) – Islamist supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi began marching to demand his restoration on Thursday after the military-led authorities that removed him held off from carrying out a threat to clear protest sit-ins by force.
Interim President Adly Mansour declared on Wednesday that international diplomatic efforts to resolve the political crisis had failed and the government warned protesters to leave their protest camps, saying the decision to remove them was final.
U.S. and European Union envoys left Cairo on Wednesday after the breakdown of their attempts to broker a solution, which had also involved Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
However, a person involved in the mediation effort said the authorities and Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood might yet step back from confrontation and implement mutual confidence building steps that could lead to a negotiated settlement.
“It’s not over yet,” the diplomat said. “It could work but we don’t have any guarantees. Everything is very fragile.”
Egyptian government and military sources also said the talks were not finished for good but had been frozen to assuage public anger over perceived foreign interference in Egypt’s affairs and among some at the authorities’ willingness to negotiate with the Brotherhood after months of demonizing them.
A military source said the authorities were holding back from using force to clear the protest camps partly due to fear that liberal Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei would resign, removing a key source of political legitimacy for army rule.
Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi visited the Central Security Forces with the interior minister in an apparent effort to calm hardliners impatient for tougher action.
“He assured them that the government places security at the top of its priorities and that there is no stable society without security that is founded on the law, and that protects the sovereignty of the state and the lives of its citizens and their possessions,” a statement from Beblawi’s office said.
FESTIVE PROTESTS
Thousands of demonstrators converged on a Brotherhood protest camp in northeastern Cairo in a festive atmosphere to attend prayers and a rally on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday after the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
“I came here because I want to make a small difference,” said Ghada Idriss, 35, who travelled from the rural province of Minya by car with her husband, two young sons, and two-month-old daughter Lougine.
“By sitting here peacefully, they will understand and know that we refuse the return of the system of Hosni (Mubarak).”
Secular and leftist groups have also called for mass demonstrations and public prayers across Egypt to support what they see as a popular revolution that led to the overthrow of Mursi by the military on July 3 after just a year in office.
In one apparent conciliatory gesture, prosecutors dropped the main charge against the head of the Brotherhood’s political wing, Saad El-Katatni, on Wednesday in a possible prelude to releasing him.
The Brotherhood allowed a human rights organization and a European Parliament delegation to visit the main Rabaa al-Adawiya sit-in, where anti-Mursi media have alleged that weapons had been stockpiled.
The person involved in the mediation effort said a sequence of statements and confidence building measures aimed at reducing tensions and reassuring public opinion might yet lead to direct or indirect negotiations between the two sides.
So far, the Brotherhood has refused to accept what it calls an illegal coup against Mursi and has publicly demanded the return of the elected president, who is detained at a secret location. The new authorities have accused Islamist leaders of inciting violence, frozen the Brotherhood’s assets and vowed to put them on trial.
TRAIN HAS DEPARTED
“The train of the future has departed, and everyone must realize the moment and catch up with it, and whoever fails to realize this moment must take responsibility for their decision,” interim president Mansour said in an Eid broadcast.
Diplomats have said any settlement would have to involve a dignified exit for Mursi, Brotherhood acceptance of the new disposition, the release of political prisoners arrested since the takeover and a future political role for the Brotherhood.
The United States and the EU said on Wednesday they were very concerned that the Egyptian parties had not found a way to break what they called a dangerous stalemate.
“This remains a very fragile situation, which holds not only the risk of more bloodshed and polarization in Egypt, but also impedes the economic recovery, which is so essential for Egypt’s successful transition,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.
Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans, who was visiting Cairo when the talks collapsed, told Reuters the country’s new rulers appeared to see no merit in talking to the Brotherhood now, but they would have to do so eventually and the sooner the better.
At the protest sit-in around Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, groups of protesters beat drums and chanted “Interior ministry – thugs!”, “Egypt, our country, Islamic!” and “Raise your voice, revolution anew!”
A pick-up truck blasted the catchy song “Egypt is Islamic”.
Several senior Brotherhood figures who escaped arrest have been holed up at the sit-in, including the movement’s guide, Mohamed Badie, and some former ministers and parliamentary leaders.
While violence has subsided in Cairo since a July 27 incident in which security forces shot dead at least 80 Islamist protesters, daily clashes have continued between Islamist militants and the army in the lawless Sinai Peninsula adjoining Israel.
The army said on Wednesday it had killed 60 militants in the province since Mursi was ousted on July 3, and medical officials have said the gunmen have killed about 40 people, mostly members of the security forces.
(Additional reporting by Paul Taylor in Paris; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Giles Elgood)
