Police have fired tear-gas at protesters in downtown Cairo, just hours after President Mohamed Morsi declared a state of emegency and a curfew in three Suez Canal cities.
Monday was the fifth consecutive day of street violence in Egypt. There were reports that one person was killed; he was not taking part in the protests, but was hit by a stray gunshot. Protests began last week to mark the second anniversary of the revolution that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak; nearly 50 people have been killed so far.
The cabinet, meanwhile, approved a draft law which would allow Morsi to deploy the army on the streets to “participate with the police in preserving security and protecting vital establishments.” The law still must be ratified by the upper house of parliament; it would last until after the next legislative elections, tentatively scheduled for April.
Morsi delivered a televised address on Sunday night and announced the emergency measures in Port Said, Ismailia and Suez. A curfew will take effect on Monday from 9:00pm local time (19:00 GMT) to 6:00am (04:00 GMT); he warned that more action would be taken to stem the violence.
“I have said I am against any emergency measures but I have said that if I must stop bloodshed and protect the people then I will act,” he said. He also called for dialogue with leading politicians starting on Monday to resolve the situation.
Several hundred people protested in Ismailia, Suez and Port Said after the announcement. Activists in the three cities pledged to defy the curfew in protest at the decision. On Sunday night, Morsi’s office issued a statement inviting political supporters and opponents for a national dialogue on Monday at 6:00pm (16:00 GMT) at the presidential palace in Cairo.
The spokesman for Egypt’s main opposition coalition said after Morsi’s speech that the move was “expected” and said he wanted more details about an invitation for dialogue with top politicians. “Of course we feel the president is missing the real problem on the ground which is his own policies,” Dawoud told the Reuters news agency. “His call to implement emergency law was an expected move given what is going on, namely thuggery and criminal actions.”
Hamdeen Sabbahi, a leftist politician and opposition leader, said that he would not attend any negotiations “unless the bloodshed stops and the people’s demands are met”. Mohamed ElBaradei, a leader of the NSF, said in a statement on Twitter that the dialogue was “a waste of time”. Heba Morayef of Human Rights Watch in Cairo said a state of emergency reintroduced laws that gave police sweeping powers of arrest “purely because [people] look suspicious”.
