Miret El Naggar is a Special Mclatchy Correspondent based in Cairo
DANYA NADAR
(VOICE-OVER), TRNN: Inspired by the mass protests that brought down the
Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January 25, tens of
thousands of Egyptians across the nation joined in protest of rising
food prices, increasing joblessness, and calling for an end to 30 years
of emergency law and President Hosni Mubarak's rule. According to Al
Jazeera, one police officer in Cairo and two civilians in the eastern
city of Suez died amidst the rallies. On the same day of nationwide
demonstrations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated her
confidence in the Mubarak regime by stating, quote, "Our assessment is
that the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to
respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people."
Since 1979, the United States has been providing Egypt with $1.3 billion
in military aid, the second-largest after Israel. In a 2009 report by
Ahmed El-Naggar from Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic
Studies, a major Egyptian think tank, he says that this aid does not aim
to strengthen Egyptian military power against any external threat, as
this would be contrary to the declared US objective of ensuring Israeli
security and maintaining Israeli military supremacy over its Arab
neighbors, including Egypt. Instead, this aid is devoted mainly to
strengthening the regime's domestic security and its ability to confront
popular movements. The demonstrations calling for Mubarak's ouster
continued throughout the day. The Real News Network spoke to Miret El
Naggar, special correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers in Cairo.
MIRET
EL NAGGAR, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS: These were the biggest demos Egypt has
witnessed in decades. They were orchestrated by informal youth
movements, as one called the April 6 Youth Movement, which urged
Egyptians to join what they called a day of revolt. And they called on
them on the social networking site Facebook to join this protest today.
At first it started as a trickle, but then it really galvanized into
thousands of people who marched down Cairo's downtown streets and in at
least five other cities across Egypt, from the northern port city
Alexandria on the Mediterranean to the southern tip in Aswan. It's hard
to give a clear estimate of how many people attended. It was in the
thousands, basically. Today's revolt marked the Police Day, which is a
national holiday. However, it was to remind the police that they should
be protectors rather than harassers, as they have been, as the Egyptian
public criticizes them of being for the past few years. Egyptians on the
street today were demanding better wages, a dignified way of earning
their bread and butter, and less torture by police. So the grievances
are very similar to those shared by the Tunisian people, and in effect
by people across the Arab world. Egyptians have been making these
demands for some while. They seemed--the protests have lost a little
steam in the past few years, but this Tunisian uprising, I think, gave
them momentum again and reminded him of their grievances and made them
actively ask for them again. The police tolerated the demos for a while,
but then, towards the afternoon, they dispersed the protesters with
tear gas, rubber bullets, water hoses. However, the protesters managed
to regroup again in side streets. Later in the day, the government
interrupted access to online news sites and Twitter and jammed the cell
phone signals in downtown Cairo, which are all measures that show the
Egyptian government is perhaps more alarmed than it is admitting, since
President Hosni Mubarak's regime generally allows such outbursts and
venting, rather than giving real political concessions. It'll take much,
much more effort and many more protests to even shake the Egyptian
regime, simply because the police and military are much more unified and
supportive of Mubarak's regime, and they widely benefit from it as well
[snip] said--Tweets that said policemen were saying we'd like to join
you but we can't. I don't think that is significant of the entire police
corps. There are just so much more policemen than there are protesters.
Tough, the protesters were outnumbered today; even today, when there
were thousands on the streets, still they were outnumbered by black-clad
policemen in anti-riot gear. I just believe that the policemen would be
too afraid to even think of joining the protest. I don't think the
Muslim Brotherhood had anything to do with it, especially that I spoke
to one of their members today, and they said, we are not formally
endorsing this protest, but however, we allowed our young members to
join if they felt like it, we allowed them to join in their own cities,
but we're not officially behind these protests, despite what the
interior minister said. He was trying to pin it on the Muslim
Brotherhood. However, I don't believe this is true. The Muslim
Brotherhood was not behind this protest.NADAR: As night
fell, thousands of demonstrators attempted to an all-night sit-in in
Tahrir Square. Despite relative calm throughout the day, security forces
violently dispersed those who remained. This is Danya Nadar reporting
for The Real News Network.
End of Transcript
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