Clashes between Egyptian riot police and protesters stopped overnight for the first time in days on Thursday, though demonstrators occupying Cairo’s Tahrir Square vowed to stay put until the army relinquished power. “We want to stop these clashes, people are dying…they are young kids throwing stones at the police,” said 30-year-old protester Osama Abu Seree. In the first significant pause in violence since Saturday, clashes stopped at midnight in Tahrir and elsewhere after protesters agreed with police to stay in the square. But the thousands who thronged the square were undeterred in their determination to protest at the deaths of more than 30 people in the violence and reject the army’s offer of a referendum on its rule. “He goes, we won’t,” declared one banner in a reference to the head of the military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.
The army and the Muslim Brotherhood, which expects to do well in the election, says it must go ahead but many protesters are unwilling to trust the army to oversee a clean vote and hand real control of the country to the winner. The generals’ popularity has waned in the nine months since they nudged President Hosni Mubarak from office and swore to steer the country towards civilian democracy, as suspicion grew that they were manoeuvring to stay in power beyond elections.
“The military council must leave and hand power to civilians. They don’t want to leave so that their corruption isn’t exposed,” said 23-year-old student Ahmed Essam.
He said he joined the protests when he saw riot police raining blows on peaceful demonstrators on Saturday. “Everything is like in Mubarak’s time,” he said. In Tahrir Square, protesters on Thursday prevented anyone from entering and chanted “go back go back”. There had been marches in the square since Wednesday afternoon calling for an end to bloodshed. What started as a sit-in on Saturday night has turned into a mass demonstration reminiscent of the 18-day uprising against Mubarak as Egyptians appalled at the mistreatment of protesters joined them in solidarity. The Health Ministry said 32 people had been killed and 2,000 wounded in disturbances across the country of 80 million.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s military rulers apologised on Thursday for the deaths of demonstrators at the hands of police as a truce brought calm back to the outskirts of Cairo’s Tahrir Square, scene of days of deadly clashes. “An agreement has been reached between security forces and protesters to halt confrontations between the two sides,” the cabinet said in a statement on Facebook.
