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29/01/2011 | Egyptian protests intensify; demonstrators battle with police

Jeffrey Fleishman and Borzou Daragahi

Demonstrations against the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak gather strength as thousands take to the streets and troops move into Cairo. A curfew is in force but is largely ignored as protesters set fires and try to enter government buildings. Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei is doused by a water cannon, and the U.S. calls for a halt to violent measures by the government.

 

Police and protesters clashed across Egypt on Friday, and opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei was doused by a water cannon before escaping the swinging batons of riot police and taking cover in a Cairo mosque.

Late in the day, army tanks and trucks flowed into Cairo to augment the police. At least one building was on fire, and there were reports that President Hosni Mubarak would address the nation.

A 6 p.m.-to-dawn curfew was imposed, but it was ignored by many protesters, who remained in the streets well after dark. Sounds of gunfire could also be heard in in downtown Cairo after dark.

In Tahrir Square near the National Museum, protesters ignoring the curfew were swarming the area Friday night. Police had pulled back a few blocks away to protect the parliament building.

Protesters were setting fires at the headquarters of Mubarak's party, the National Democratic Party, and demonstrators were also seen trying to enter the Foreign Ministry and state TV headquarters. There was no major army presence in the area.

The chaos was a visceral sign that the government of Mubarak would confront even peaceful marches with tough, rapid force, including firing tear gas and concussion grenades. ElBaradei, who had been trying to lead a demonstration when he was forced inside, called the tactics "barbaric" and condemned the government for using "inhumane weapons."

As he sat shaken and drenched, his eyes stinging from tear gas, Elbaradei, 68, said protesters had called for nonviolent change, "but I think that opportunity is over. It's now the people versus the thugs."

He added it was "time for the international community to express its view on the so-called stability of the Egyptian government. If they don't do that now, they will lose the residue of credibility they have in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world."

In Washington, White House and State Department officials urged the Egyptian government to halt violent and repressive measures, and to take steps to begin sharing more power with the opposition.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the administration is "deeply concerned" by the government's use of violence, and called on it to "do everything in its power to restrain security forces."

She urged the government to allow peaceful protests, and to "reverse the unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communications" used by the demonstrators, such as Facebook and Twitter.

The demonstrations "underscore that there are deep grievances within Egyptian society. The government needs to understand that violence will not make these grievances go away," she said, calling on the Egyptian officials to "engage immediately" with the opposition.

Thousands of protesters swarmed streets and boulevards of the capital, battling police on bridges as tear gas canisters popped overhead and hissed, splashing into the Nile River. Rocks and stones peppered the air as protesters covered their eyes with scarves and breathed in the odor from onions to block the scent of the tear gas. By late afternoon, streams of protesters from all directions of the capital flowed toward Tahrir Square, where police waited.

"The police are trying to kill this protest as quickly as they can because they know they can't win in a long war with the people," said a protester, Ahmed Abdel Zaher. "We are rising now."

As tear gas canisters bounced over the pavement, Abdel Zaher, 25, twitched and hunkered down.

"I was born under Mubarak, and it seems I might die while he's still in power," he said. "But, God willing, this protest will be endless."

Throughout the day, the protesters smashed armored police vehicles and battled authorities for hours. Television footage broadcast across the Arab world showed protesters in Cairo and the city of Sinai battling security forces armed with truncheons and tear gas.

The protesters demand an end to Mubarak's rule, which they describe as corrupt, economically unjust and repressive. "The people want the fall of the regime," they chanted in one piece of footage as they swarmed a major thoroughfare in what appeared to be Sinai.

Earlier footage posted to the Internet, said to have been filmed in Cairo, showed huge crowds whistling, cheering and chanting, "Allah Akbar," or "God is great."

"Leave, leave, Mubarak; Mubarak, the plane awaits you," they chanted, in reference to the Jan. 14 flight of former Tunisian dictator Zine el-Abidine ben Ali, whose ouster after weeks of protests has inspired other demonstrations across the Arab world.

Mubarak's regime has responded to the a string of protests this week with mostly non-lethal but brutal force, and by clamping down on the Internet..

The protesters have used social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter to organize rallies and YouTube to publicize them. Contacts in Egypt described a total shutdown of the Internet on Friday as well as the jamming of satellite news channels such as Al Jazeera, which have broadcast footage of the protests.

Activists also said land phone lines in some neighborhoods of Cairo had stopped working.

"Internet is blocked. Phone lines have been cut," one activist in Cairo said on his Facebook page. "All major squares are armed with security. Security [is] preventing people from protesting, using heavy force. We're at war…We're at war."

By all accounts, it has been a day unlike any Egypt has seen in the last few decades. "The skyline in Alexandria is filled of smoke, scenes of injured being rushed to hospital," Al Jazeera reported on its Twitter page.

In Washington, Clinton said Egypt has "long been an important partner" for the United States, though she stopped short of praising the Mubarak administration, as President Obama did on Thursday.

Philip Crowley, the State Department spokesman, and Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, used Twitter to send out messages with similar themes.



**Fleishman reported from Cairo and Daragahi from Tunis. Special correspondent Alexandra Sandels in Beirut contributed to this report.

Los Angeles Times (Estados Unidos)

 


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