CAIRO – Thousands of protesters turned their anger on the army on Saturday demanding that Egypt’s ruling military council hand power to civilians and pressing for former President Hosni Mubarak to be put on trial.
The army, which has ruled Egypt since Mubarak was forced out of office on February 11, has become a growing target for a hardcore of protesters who say the generals are colluding with remnants of Mubarak’s network and thwarting calls for a deeper purge.
“The military council is part and parcel of the corrupt regime. It is made up of heads of the army that have benefited from Mubarak and his 30 years of robbing the Egyptian people,” said Abdullah Ahmed, 45, a protester in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. The army dismisses such charges and says it is guarding against any attempt by former officials to undermine reforms.
Protester ire was fuelled on Saturday after the army tried to clear demonstrators from Tahrir during curfew hours from 2am to 5am. Troops and police used tasers and batons. Sounds of gunshots rang out across the square overnight. Medical sources said two men died out of 15 wounded by gunshots. The army said it only fired blanks and its operation caused no deaths.
State television said one person was killed and 71 were wounded in acts of rioting, without giving details. It was not clear if there were any other armed people in the square when the shots were fired. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians had packed into Tahrir on Friday in the biggest protests since Feb 18, when millions turned out across Egypt to celebrate Mubarak’s downfall.
The army met opposition when it tried to rid the square of a few thousand hardy protesters who stayed late into Friday night. “Thank God, we resisted them (the army), and we are still here,” said one protester in Tahrir, which was the epicentre of demonstrations that pushed Mubarak out on Feb 11. Hundreds were still in Tahrir by early on Saturday morning. Those numbers rose to several thousand later in the day.
“Why is the army beating us? Why is the army firing at us?” protesters chanted overnight when the army moved in, a witness reported. Some protesters want the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to hand power to a civilian council and have called for the resignation of Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the army council. He has stayed on as defence minister after serving for two decades in that post under Mubarak.
“Either Field Marshal Tantawi puts these people — Mubarak, Gamal (his son), and the others — on trial, or he leaves his post and lets someone else do it. The slowness of the process makes people suspicious that the army (leadership) might be implicated,” said Ashraf Abdel-Aziz, 36, a shop owner.
In scenes reminiscent of the height of protests against Mubarak, three burned-out army vehicles were left in the square. Some protesters, angry at the army’s tactics, hurled rocks at the smouldering hulk of one of the army trucks.
