CAIRO:
Protesters turned up the heat on Monday on an increasingly cornered President Hosni Mubarak, rejecting his new cabinet line-up and and vowing to topple his regime with indefinite strikes and million-strong marches in the capital and Alexandria.
Mubarak’s grip on power seemed tenuous as the all-powerful army said the demands of Egyptians were legitimate and vowed not to fire on those preparing for the strikes and marches, heeding the advice of US and several other Western countries. At least 140 people have been killed in the week-long unrest so far.
But while the posture the police will take in the face of the strike and marches remains unknown, the army said unequivocally it will not stop them. “To the great people of Egypt, your armed forces, acknowledging the legitimate rights of the people,” stress that “they have not and will not use force against the Egyptian people,” said a statement published by the state news agency, Mena.
Tens of thousands of protesters carpeted Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicentre of demands for an end to the corruption, deprivation and police oppression indelibly associated with Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
“We will stay in the square, until the coward leaves,” the crowd chanted.
The army has positioned tanks around the area and was checking identity papers but letting protesters in. Civilian popular committee members were also checking papers to make sure no plain-clothes
police get in.
State-owned national carrier EgyptAir said it was cancelling all domestic and international flights from 1300 GMT to 0600 GMT until further notice, coinciding with a curfew in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez.
Egypt’s banks and financial markets will be closed for a third day on Tuesday, the central bank said on Monday, adding it had not yet set a date for them to be reopened. “The situation will be followed on a daily basis,” deputy central bank governor Hisham Ramez told the state news agency.
The embattled president unveiled a new administration comprising a largely unchanged lineup but without widely hated interior minister Habib al-Adly or any businessmen. State television showed images of the new ministers being sworn in and shaking hands with Mubarak. Absent were Adly and the finance and culture ministers of the previous cabinet. Adly was replaced by Mahmud Wagdi, an army general.
The opposition Muslim Brotherhood rejected the new government and called for continued protests until the fall of the regime. It called on “the people to continue with their activities and join the mass marches all around the country until this regime leaves, with its president, its party, its ministers and its parliament.”
By the dozens volunteers came to Kasr Al-Ayni Al-Qadima hospital on Monday to stretch out their arms and give blood in solidarity with fellow Cairenes demanding regime change in Egypt.
“We are here for our brothers on the street,” said Hassan, a young man in his twenties, stretched out on a long bench in the blood bank at the university medical centre in the heart of the capital.
“It is the first time in my life that I have given blood,” he said, blood trickling into a plastic bag for eventual transfusion to those injured in clashes between protesters and security forces.
The United States stopped short of saying openly that it wanted Mubarak out. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton instead urged reform and spoke about “an orderly transition”. A senior US official, who declined to be identified, said the feeling among Obama’s national security aides was that Mubarak’s time had passed, but it was up to Egyptians to determine what happens next.
EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to immediately hold talks with the opposition Monday and respond to the aspirations of anti-government protesters.
“The legitimate grievances of the Egyptian people should be responded to. Their aspirations for a just, better future should be met with urgent, concrete and decisive answers, and with real steps,” Ashton said.
Foreign governments scrambled to ensure the safety of their nationals trapped by the unrest in Egypt. One group of tourists was hunkered down in Cairo’s Marriott Hotel.
Companies, from gas drillers to supermarkets, also pulled out staff as confrontation brought economic life to a halt.
Egypt Vice president to offer reforms
Egypt’s Vice President Omar Suleiman said on Monday that President Hosni Mubarak has asked him to start dialogue with all political forces, including on constitutional and legislative reforms, a demand voiced by anti-Mubarak protesters.
“President Hosni Mubarak has tasked me with opening immediate talks with the political forces to begin a dialogue around all the issues concerning constitutional and legislative reforms,” Suleiman said on state television.
Suleiman said steps were under way to implement decisions of the appeals court contesting results of autumn legislative elections in certain constituencies.
He also said the government would move to “deal as soon as possible with the priorities of fighting unemployment, poverty, corruption and reach the required balance between wages and prices.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 1st, 2011.
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