DEMOCRACY | 30.01.2011

Mubarak under mounting pressure as Egypt protests continue

 

Egyptian protesters refused to observe the government's curfew

Western leaders have urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to avoid violence and enact reforms as anti-government protests continue in the country.

 

President Hosni Mubarak struggled to maintain power as his efforts to shake up his administration failed to quell angry anti-government demonstrations across Egypt.

Crowds began massing in several cities for a sixth day of protests on Sunday.

Mubarak forced his cabinet's resignation and named a new prime minister and his first-ever vice president on Saturday. He appointed intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as his deputy and former civil aviation minister Ahmed Shafik as prime minister.

But the reshuffle failed to satisfy protesters, who demanded that the president end his 30-year rule over the country.

International pressure

Meanwhile, the international community increased pressure on Mubarak to deliver on his promises for reform.

Protesters said they would stay in the streets until Mubarak stepped down

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy issued a joint statement late Saturday urging Mubarak to avoid violence "at all costs.”

"We call on President Mubarak to avoid at all costs the use of violence against unarmed civilians, and on the demonstrators to exercise their rights peacefully," said the statement.

"We urge President Mubarak to embark on a process of transformation which should be reflected in a broad-based government and in free and fair elections."

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle also threatened Saturday to reduce aid to Egypt if authorities did not ease off a crackdown against demonstrators.

Egypt is one of the largest recipients of German development aid, according to the foreign ministry website, with some 5.5 billion euros ($7.5 billion) sent to Egypt since the 1960s and more than 200 million euros pledged last June for the next two years.

"Our appeal to the Egyptian government is clear: abandon all forms of violence and (support) the right to demonstrate," Westerwelle said. "Germany stands on the side of freedom of expression and democracy."

Looters smashed several statues and damaged two mummies at the Cairo museum

US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley also expressed harsh criticism in his Twitter feed Saturday, writing "The Egyptian government can't reshuffle the deck and then stand pat."

Nobel peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who returned Thursday to Cairo from Vienna, strengthened his call for Mubarak to go.

"I respect Omar Suleiman and Ahmed Shafik, but we want an end to this Pharaonic regime," the would-be opposition leader told broadcaster Al Jazeera.

"Down with Mubarak"

Witnesses in Cairo said Saturday that soldiers maintained a non-aggressive posture as they kept watch over large crowds of up to 50,000 protesters, who showed open hostility towards police.

Mubarak confidant Omar Suleiman was sworn in as vice president

Protesters could be seen standing atop tanks, taking pictures with the soldiers. Many were jubilant, pumping their fists, waving the Egyptian flag, singing.

One tank was sprayed with the slogan, "Down with Mubarak," while protesters carried banners that said "The people have spoken."

In one incident, army forces opened fire with live ammunition on a crowd that tried to storm the country's interior ministry, reportedly killing two and injuring another. The bodies of several dead protesters were seen carried by angry demonstrators.

City scarred by looting and lawlessness

Thousands of prisoners also escaped from the Wadi Natrun correctional facility, north of Cairo on Sunday. Inmates reportedly overwhelmed guards in the jail, which holds many Islamist political prisoners and hardened criminals.

At least 22 people died in riots on Saturday in the town of Beni Sueif, south of Cairo, where protesters tried to burn down a police station. Another three protesters died in the capital and three policemen were killed in the Sinai town of Rafah, raising the death toll to at least 102 since the anti-government demonstrations erupted last Tuesday. Thousands more have been injured.

Social order disintegrated in Cairo Saturday as police withdrew from the streets when the army took over security for the city. Witnesses reported mobs storming supermarkets, commercial centers, banks, private property and government buildings in Cairo and elsewhere.

Egyptians have called for army intervention to bring back law and order. On Saturday, many protesters chanted "No to plundering and no to destruction."

Civilians armed with sticks and razors - and sometimes guns - have formed vigilante groups to defend their homes from looters in both poor and wealthy parts of the city.

Author: David Levitz, Gregg Benzow (AFP, Reuters)

Editor: Sonia Phalnikar   

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