The scene at downtown Cairo's Tahrir square changed dramatically Wednesday afternoon as formerly peaceful protests turned violent with pro-Mubarak demonstrators fighting anti-Mubarak protesters near the Egyptian Museum on the edge of Tahrir Square. The violence broke-out when pro-Mubarak demonstrators, armed with knives and horses, filled the square.
Earlier before noon the same day, protesters–some of whom were joining the protests for the first time since the protests initially erupted on 25 January–reassembled in large numbers at Tahrir Square to participate in the peaceful demonstrations. Among them was Huda Ahmad, an accountant at al-Kasr al-Aini Hospital. She explained that the president’s speech last night “ridicules the people,” adding that if the Egyptian public accepts Mubarak’s pledges to reform, “things will simply return to the way they were because he made no real concessions.”
Meantime, groups of pro-Mubarak demonstrators began to form as they walked toward Tahrir Square from the direction of Egypt’s parliament building. Do’aa, a young woman who works as a house maid, called for allowing Mubarak to have a “dignified departure” by being permitted to finish his final term in office, even though she disagreed with how Mubarak was ruling the country.
Amid the peaceful atmosphere which dominated the atmosphere into the early afternoon, a group of young people waited at the square’s checkpoints to harass demonstrators who headed out to buy food for an estimated five-hundred people spending the night in the square. “They started cursing the elderly, provoking the youth, and triggering fights,” explains Saeed Mostafa Soliman, an anti-Mubarak demonstrator and businessman. “We have nevertheless promised to remain peaceful,” he said.
"I have left my belt at home on purpose so as not to be able to respond to anyone with violence despite provocations."
In early afternoon, with ongoing turmoil in Tahrir, some anti-Mubarak demonstrators tried to disarm their counterparts by confiscating weapons and horses, putting them aside and asking others not to respond to violence.
Nevertheless, defense lines formed in Tahrir Square as the protesters continued to engage in rock-throwing skirmishes. As of 6:30PM, television news network Al-Arabiya reported that 500 had been injured in the square among an unknown number of deaths.
Protestors reasserted their determination to stay put until their requests were met.
Mubarak has made no real concessions, explained Dr. Abdel Aziz Ezelarab, Professor of Political Economy at the American University in Cairo. “President Mubarak’s announcement that he will not run in the upcoming September elections might have been part of the original scenario,” he said.
“The National Democratic Party had kept people in the dark about its plans regarding who will run for the presidency this year,” he added.
“We have come with our shrouds,” an Egyptian expression symbolizing one’s willingness to die, “and have no intention to leave,” explained Ibrahim Moawad, a computer science graduate.
Haja Zeinab al-Sayad, a supervisor of the elections at the Sayeda Zeinab district, assured al-Masry Al-Youm that many of the “so called pro-Mubarak demonstrators” are actually thugs employed by the National Democratic Party since the parliamentary elections.
Soliman attributes the president’s unwillingness to leave to the fact that he fears being charged with war crimes. “If he had known this would happen, he would have left from 25 January. As more time passes, demonstrators’ demands increase,” says Sorour, as an increasing number of demonstrators had begun to call for prosecuting Mubarak after his departure.
“The concessions he made [regarding reform] would have been acceptable on Wednesday, but now it’s too late,” he adds.
“It’s no longer about whether the cabinet he selected is good,” explains Abdel Hakim, a middle aged advertising agency employee. “It’s about the credibility of the regime,” he continued.
“If the government had been appointed under different circumstances, they might have been welcome by the people. It’s too late for it to have any legitimacy now,” he added.
The country is paralyzed because of the demonstrators, conceded Ezelarab, who argued that the price of the damage is worth it for “the sake of having a different country with a real democracy.”
Amid mounting casualties, Ahmed Gharbiya, an anti-Mubarak activist, said that soldiers had abandoned their tanks, leaving them in the streets. He explained that if pro-Mubarak activists succeeded in reaching the center of the square, anti-Mubarak activists may become forced to withdraw as they seek to evacuate the injured.
