Egypt protests – Tuesday 8 February

• US welcomes release of online activist Wael Ghonim • Protesters are calling for further mass protests today • Human Rights Watch says at least 297 killed in protests ترجم هذه الصفحة إلى العربية 8.41am: Blogger and activist Omar Robert Hamilton says there is a sense of “semi permanence” about the protest camp in Tahrir Square. A revolutionary, organic, engaged, democaratic space has emerged in Tahrir Square. Numbers swell and fall throughout the day, people come and go, but intense and sophisticated political engagement remains a fixture. From debates about the relative merits of parliamentary vs presidential systems, to proposals about consititutional reforms, to suggested programmes of poltical transition, there is only one thing on everyone’s mind. Some debates are held around the numerous microphones, with crowds cheering or booing the speaker’s proposals. Some are held in small circles on the ground that attract passers by eager to listen or voice an opinion, all are open to everyone to participate. And as the square takes on a feeling of semi-permanence, representatives from all the other protest movements in Egypt have arrived. Young men and women from Alexandria and Suez, from Mansoura and all across the country are settling down in Tahrir to contribute towards the building of a new democracy. In Alexandria, a chant doing the rounds is The Mandate is with Tahrir. The question on everyone’s lips is how will a unified mandate emerge? Right now, no one knows for sure. But we do know two things. That whatever happens, for the first time in decades, there is a space in Egypt that is home to total freedom of thought and expression and political creativity. And that whatever mandate – or mandates – present themselves from the square, if they are not completely satisfying to the protestors, they won’t be going anywhere. A new society has taken root in Tahrir, and it wont be driven out until the people have won their freedom. 8.21am: Wael Ghonim release could help relaunch the revolution , argues Issandr El Amrani on his Arabist blog. This cathartic moment may be the spark that was needed to revive Egypt’s revolutionary fervor. The regime had, to some extent successfully, driven a wedge between the protestors and the majority of Egyptians who have spent the last two weeks terrified about the lack of security and hurting because the economy has come to a halt. It also spread insidious, xenophobic propaganda about how the people in Tahrir were foreigners, paid by the US to protest, agents of Israel and Iran (those two fight a lot but will always get together against Egypt, obviously), or simply that their behavior is “not Egyptian.” I thought that the next step for the people in Tahrir would have been to retake the initiative by suggesting its own roadmap for transition, or focusing on the many deaths and reports of the use of snipers that are coming out. After two weeks, the world’s media is getting tired of this story and there needed to be a relaunch. Who better than a marketing executive from Google to do that?… Today’s day of rage should be big, and with these few minutes of television the people in Tahrir may finally have a leader. 7.54am: Today’s planned rally will be a key test of whether the protesters can maintain momentum, Chris McGreal reports from the Cairo streets above the sound of car horns. It is the first one since the government tried to get Egypt back to normality. It is another million man march as they like to call them. What is likely to bring people out is that the government is trying to pretend that the protests in Tahrir Square are no longer relevant and that the process has moved on to political negotiations. I don’t think there is a danger of it [the protests] running out of momentum. It is more a danger of it being out manoeuvred and being strung out. They are trying to sit them out. That’s partly why today’s demonstrate will be a test of whether they do still have the momentum. The traffic is evidence that Cairo is returning to normal to some degree. But despite the government’s attempts to suggest that the demonstrations are isolated and minor now, there are a lot of people in this city who feel it hasn’t returned to normal. 7.48am: As we reported in Monday’s live blog, Human Rights Watch estimates at least 297 have died in the protests. In a new emailed statement it breaks down the figures and says it fears the actual figure is likely to be much higher. Human Rights Watch puts the death toll as at least 297 killed since January 28 – 232 in Cairo, 52 in Alexandria and 13 in Suez – and we believe it is an essential part of the picture of police violence against protesters in Egypt over the past two weeks. In order to get as accurate a count of the casualties as possible, Human Rights Watch visited three hospitals in Cairo, two in Alexandria and one in Suez. A colleague from a partner organization visited a further two hospitals in Cairo. We also believe that hospital officials were instructed to downplay the overall number of deaths. The actual number of deaths will likely be significantly higher than 297, because our count is only based on key hospitals in three cities. We have only included numbers of dead that we were able to verify ourselves. 7.26am: The US has welcomed the release of the online activist and Google executive and Egypt Wael Ghonim. State department spokesman PJ Crowley tweeted: ving been released in #Egypt earlier today, it is good to see @Ghonim back on line . In an emotional TV interview Ghonim said: I am not a hero. I only used the keyboard, the real heroes are the ones on the ground. Those I can’t name. Inside I met people who loved Egypt but their methods and mine are not the same. I pay these guys’ salaries from my taxes, I have the right to ask the ministers where my money is going, this is our country. I believe that if things get better those [who he met in prison] will serve Egypt well. Don’t stand in our way, we are going to serve Egypt. The website Alive in Egypt has provided English subtitles to Ghonim’s TV interview. Al-Jazeera his this report on his release. Tuesdays and Fridays have been the days for big demonstrations in Egypt and another mass protest is planned for today . But there are questions about whether the protesters can maintain momentum. Tens of thousands of protesters are expected in Tahrir Square today, but the hard core of those who refuse to leave has dwindled to around 1,000 . “Can Egypt’s revolution stay the distance?” asks the Independent’s Donald Macintyre in Cairo. The increasing signs of normality in parts of Cairo yesterday belied a continuing stalemate between the two sides in the fortnight-old conflict. Even as the regime tried to suggest that it was back to business at usual, the protesters who remain in Tahrir Square angrily argued otherwise. There may have been fewer of them than the day before, but they showed no sign of backing down, with the vocal rejection of the regime’s insinuations of growing agreement on constitutional reform only the most obvious sign of their determination to carry on. The protesters are deterred from ending the struggle in Tahrir Square by a real fear of arrest, victimisation and revenge by the authorities if they give up… Whether protesters will take to the streets today in the kinds of numbers that they did at the end of last week remains in doubt. The Guardian’s Ian Black explores the constitutional options for reform . One initiative calls on Mubarak to devolve to Suleiman the responsibilities of managing the transitional period, dissolving the Shura (consultative upper) council and People’s Assembly (lower house) and form a committee of legal experts and independent judges to prepare constitutional amendments. But some experts warn that Mubarak’s immediate departure could make it harder to carry out changes. “If he resigns, the situation will be dangerous because we will have a constitutional vacuum, which means that we will have no chance to amend the constitution,” Ibrahim Darwish, a constitutional lawyer at Cairo University, told al-Masry al-Yom newspaper. Egypt Hosni Mubarak Protest Middle East Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk

Posted by on February 8, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry