Police began returning to their posts in the Egyptian capital on
Monday, seeking to restore order after days of looting, but they stayed
away from the protester-thronged square that has become the epicenter
of the movement to oust President
As the dramatic standoff entered its seventh day,
protest organizers called for the biggest demonstrations yet, urging
that 1 million people flood the streets Tuesday.
Defying curfews, protesters have maintained an around-the-clock presence in
— worried that it will be sealed off by the military if they leave.
Army tanks continued to ring the sprawling plaza Monday, blocking off
some access routes, but people were still allowed to move in and out at
several points, sometimes in queues separated by gender.
Noisy protesters alternated among speeches, prayers
and anti-government chants. To keep warm overnight, crowds huddled
around small campfires and shared plastic cups of tea.
Foreigners, meanwhile, mobbed
international airport, seeking a place aboard one in the trickle of
evacuation flights on Monday. The State Department on Sunday had urged
U.S. citizens to consider leaving and said it would charter flights for
those wishing to do so. But many Americans in the Egyptian capital said
they had not been able to get any information about the flights.
The redeployment of the police — who have been
blamed for most of the violence against demonstrators to date — was a
sensitive issue. The army, made up of conscripts, enjoys far more
respect from the Egyptian people, and soldiers have been careful not to
manhandle those who are protesting peacefully.
The abrupt vanishing of the police from the streets
three days earlier had left a security vacuum, filled by vigilantes
wielding clubs and knives to defend their neighborhoods. The ad-hoc
neighborhood-watch groups managed to protect some areas against
looting, but the sight of roving gangs of armed men contributed to the
enveloping sense of chaos.
Demonstrations against Mubarak’s rule began
Mubarak has clung to power and resisted
demonstrators’ demand that he resign, instead shutting down access to
the al-Jazeera channel, the Arab world’s most popular news outlet, and
blocking Internet and cellphone traffic, though the latter has been
partially restored.
Mubarak swore in his intelligence chief,
as his first-ever vice president, named a new prime minister and issued
vague promises of change that have left even his most ardent supporters
in the West and
disappointed. On Monday, state television reported the appointment of a
new interior minister, but he was a ministry stalwart whose selection
appeared unlikely to appease protesters.
Protesters in
roaring traffic returned to the streets, and shops and businesses
reopened in outlying districts, though swaths of the center remained
blocked off.
Activists using social-media websites such as
Twitter and Facebook have begun calling for a “million-man march”
against Mubarak to begin Tuesday from
The mostly young protesters and the country’s
traditional opposition groups, including the Islamic fundamentalist
Muslim Brotherhood, have coalesced around the loose leadership of Nobel
Peace Prize winner and former International Atomic Energy Agency chief
Mohammed ElBaradei, who many say is a potential transitional figure if
Mubarak steps down.
Protesters had called for a general strike Monday,
but its effect was hard to gauge as banks, the stock exchange, offices
and many shops were closed because of security worries.
On
megaphones and voices hoarse from shouting took turns Monday keeping
the crowds energized. Many said it was important to stay loud and
boisterous to counter reports on state-run media that everyone had gone
home and the square was empty.
Relations with the military remained generally good,
but protesters whistled and waved defiantly at helicopters that flew
overhead periodically and rushed to stand in front of any tanks that
attempted to reposition from the square’s perimeter into the plaza
itself. After initially welcoming the army, protesters have grown
suspicious of its aims, worried that it will use its general popularity
to further Mubarak’s aim of reimposing control.
Protesters said momentum was on their side.
“We will stay until the entire world hears us,” said
tenuous peace. Many analysts predict that Mubarak ultimately will be
driven from power, a prospect that has inspired activists and shaken
authorities across the Arab world and beyond.
“The winds of democracy and freedom that shook the
entire world 20 years ago and were unable to penetrate the Arab states
now seem to be blowing across the Arab world,”
by the uprisings, disabled searches for the word “Egypt” on some
internet services, underscoring
continued concern over the Internet and its potential to access
anti-government information and organize opposition to China’s ruling
Communist Party.
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