Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians marched peacefully in Cairo on Friday to demand an immediate end to President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule, but there was no word of his generals, or his US allies, squeezing him out just yet.
Hoping for a million-strong turnout nationwide to mark what they called “Departure Day”, men and women from across Egyptian society streamed past patient soldiers to join a crowd estimated at about 200,000 at Tahrir Square. Similar pro-democracy rallies were held in other cities.
The protests also claimed their first political scalps with prosecutor-general Abdul Magid Mahmud issuing an order banning hated former interior minister Habib al-Adli, steel magnate Ahmed Ezz (considered close to the regime), former trade and industry minister Rashid Mohammed Rashid and two former tourism ministers Ahmed el-Maghrabi and Zuhair Garana from leaving the country and having their bank accounts frozen. The prosecutor has started an investigation into their alleged theft of public money, profiteering and fraud.
Newly-appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq also said that Mr Adli and the others are under investigation. The ministers lost their posts last Saturday when an embattled Mr Mubarak ordered the dissolution of his Cabinet.
To Egyptians fed up with their government, Mr Adli and Mr Ezz symbolise two of the key things that had gone wrong with their country: crony capitalism and oppressive security forces. The announcement of the public prosecutor’s investigation was welcomed by the crowds at Tahrir Square. Said political scientist Diaa Rashwan: “For Egyptians, it’s a good step, but too late.”
“Leave! Leave! Leave!” they chanted after the Friday prayers in Cairo. A cleric praised the “revolution of the young” and declared: “We want the head of the regime removed.”
There was a festive, weekend atmosphere as secular, middle-class professionals and pious, generally poorer, members of the mass Islamist movement Muslim Brotherhood, mingled, sang and chanted under banners and ubiquitous Egyptian flags.
The defence minister visited the square, inspecting troops who have promised to protect demonstrators. There was no sign of Mubarak loyalists who attacked protesters on previous days. “The army and people are united!” the crowds chanted.
Thousands including families with children flowed over bridges across the Nile into Tahrir Square, a sign that they were not intimidated after fending off everything
thrown at them by pro-Mubarak attackers — storms of hurled concrete, metal bars and firebombs, fighters on horses and camels and automatic gunfire barrages.
Those joining in passed through a series of beefed-up checkpoints by the military and the protesters themselves guarding the square. In the afternoon, a group of Mubarak supporters gathered in a square several blocks away and tried to move on Tahrir, banging with sticks on metal fences to raise an intimidating clamour. But protesters throwing rocks pushed them back.
The Arabic news network Al-Jazeera said a “gang of thugs” stormed its offices in continuation of attacks on journalists by regime supporters that erupted on Thursday. It said the attackers burned the office and
damaged equipement. The editor of the Muslim Brotherhood’s website, Abdel-Galil el-Sharnoubi, said policemen stormed its office Friday morning and arrested 10 to 15 of its journalists. Also clashes with sticks and fists between pro- and anti-government demonstrators
erupted in two towns in southern Egypt.