Egyptian generals to cede power early
Leila Fadel and Ernesto Londoño,
CAIRO — Egypt’s military chief announced Tuesday that the embattled armed forces leadership would hand over power to an elected president no later than July 1, 2012 — earlier than previously expected — even as he defiantly defended the military’s handling of mounting opposition protests.
In his first address to the nation since he took power in February, Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi appeared angry, accusing protesters of “insulting” the military despite its efforts to govern the nation during a difficult transitional period. He warned that “any other efforts aimed at hitting us and destroying our spirits and the trust between the armed forces and the people will not be helpful.”
Tantawi argued that the military has acted with restraint in the face of the largest protests since Hosni Mubarak was deposed as president on Feb. 11 following 18 days of popular upheaval.
“We never killed a single Egyptian, man or woman,” Tantawi said in his speech. “The Egyptian military believes it is part and parcel of the Egyptian people.”
Apparently confident of the military’s national popularity, Tantawi offered to put the question of its role to a popular referendum.
“We will go back to our barracks if the people ask us to do so,” he said.
As his speech ended, many protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square responded in unison with loud chants of “Get out! Get out! We will not leave! He will leave!”
The response was reminiscent of popular reaction to Mubarak’s defiant speeches before he was asked to step aside by Tantawi and his generals.
As news of the military’s concession broke, protesters in Tahrir were still on a war footing, creating human cordons to let ambulances approach the front line. Many said it was too little, too late.
In Alexandria, fierce battles continued as security forces bombarded protesters with tear gas and demonstrators responded with rocks and fire bombs. Protesters there declared an open-ended sit-in until the ruling generals step aside.
In Cairo, protesters and security forces continued to clash on the side streets leading to Tahrir Square, where tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered.
“All this should have happened sooner,” said protester Emad Abdel Halim, 28. “The violence needs to stop now.”
Pointing to the sea of people in the square, he added: “What you are seeing now will remain until the military hands over power.”
But some appeared more optimistic.
Ahmad el-Gammal, 27, speaking in Tahrir as he donated blood, said he was willing to give the military the benefit of the doubt. “That is enough for me,” he said. “I got the demands I came for.” He acknowledged that he was probably in the minority.
“Blood has been spilled,” Gammal said. “Some people are here with a spirit of revenge.”
The pledge to hand over power to a civilian leadership was first announced by presidential hopeful Mohammed Salim al-Awaa after a meeting with the ruling generals. The promise marked the biggest concession by the military leadership since anti-government protests began last weekend, mushrooming into a national revolt.
Although the military’s timetable for ceding power had been vague, it had appeared increasingly likely until now that the generals would remain in power until sometime in 2013.
But the escalating protests in the capital and other Egyptian cities, as well as the violent response by security forces, created enormous pressure on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to make additional concessions.
Awaa told the state-run news agency MENA that the generals agreed to halt the bloody clashes that have left at least 33 people dead, try individuals responsible for violence against protesters and release dozens of people arrested in the past four days.
Among those detained are three Americans studying at the American University in Cairo, who were accused on state-controlled television of participating in the violent demonstrations that are posing the greatest threat to Egypt’s military leaders since the ouster of Mubarak.
A university spokeswoman identified the three as Derrik Sweeney, 19, a student at Georgetown University who is from Jefferson City, Mo.; Luke Gates, 21, an exchange student from Bloomington, Ind., who attends Indiana University; and Gregory Porter, 19, of Glenside, Pa., and Drexel University. American University in Cairo President Lisa Anderson said the university is working closely with the U.S. Embassy to free them.
The U.S. State Department has formally requested access to the three men, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington.
The young men are accused of throwing flaming canisters at Egyptian security forces, engaging in what Egypt’s ruling generals say are foreign efforts to stir the anti-government protests.
“The three boys were throwing molotov cocktails and had no passports on them when they were picked up,” Adel Saeed, a spokesman for Egypt’s general prosecutor’s office, told CNN.
In a telephone interview from Jefferson City, Sweeney’s father, Kevin Sweeney, described his son as a “huge believer in American freedom” and a Revolutionary War enthusiast who probably “got caught up in the hype with all these students” who were protesting in Cairo. Kevin Sweeney said he hoped that, in view of his son’s age, he would be released from custody and put on a plane home.
As the crowds grew once more in Tahrir Square on Tuesday, demonstrators held aloft the body of a dead protester in a wooden coffin, a symbol of the growing anger toward Egypt’s military chiefs. Protests also swelled in upper Egypt and the coastal city of Alexandria.
Dramatic videos of a girl being dragged by her hair through the street by police and of men apparently being beaten to death by police are circulating on the Internet, drawing enormous public attention.
After emergency meetings with civilian political leaders, the military council also said it would accept the resignation of Egypt’s caretaker cabinet and institute a national salvation government, MENA quoted Awaa as saying.
The cabinet, which offered to resign Monday to protest the crackdown by security forces, is still waiting for a written response from the generals, a spokesman said.
Several major political figures supported by the protesters refused to attend the meeting with the generals, including Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has emerged as a candidate to head a national unity government, and Shady Ghazali Harb, a leading member of the Revolutionary Youth Coalition and a close ally of ElBaradei’s.
“I refused to go because of the violence still going on in Tahrir Square,” Harb said. “We cannot negotiate with anyone still doing such violence. The legitimacy comes from the square, not the military council.”
Demands had been growing for a presidential council made up of civilians to replace the Supreme Council immediately, or for the generals to hand power to the Egyptian Supreme Court until presidential elections take place.
“We’re on a revolutionary trajectory,” said Hani Shukrallah, chief editor of Ahram Online. “People aren’t going to stop. People are going to keep escalating until something very drastic happens. There is an enormous amount of anger. . . . I don’t think people will accept anything less than really serious evidence that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is stepping back.”
Protesters cordoned off part of Tahrir Square to treat patients returning from a side street where security forces had fired tear gas. Dozens who had fainted were placed on dusty blankets. Volunteers passed out surgical masks, and vendors sold gas masks for 10 Egyptian pounds, or less than $2.
Mohammed Gamel, 19, was among those carried back from the stretch of Mohammed Mahmoud Street, where a sea of protesters was holding back riot police.
“When we tried to move forward, they fired a cloud of tear gas at us,” Gamel said. “My friend was standing right there with me last night, and he died.”
Crowds were building even without the official participation of the nation’s largest and best organized political force, the Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamist group announced Monday that it would not join any more sit-ins or marches, for fear of disrupting the parliamentary elections scheduled for Nov. 28, in which it is expected to make big gains.
The decision to opt out of demonstrations was not universally followed, however; many young members of the Brotherhood participated despite the ban. But the decision to stay away prompted extreme anger from many activists in the square, who said the Brotherhood was trying to play both sides.
Nuland, the State Department spokeswoman, said the United States was “deeply concerned” about the bloodshed and urged all parties to focus “on holding free, fair and peaceful elections as scheduled” on Monday.
The country’s generals were hailed as heroes when they sided with demonstrators and pushed Mubarak out of power in what amounted to a soft coup. Over the past nine months, however, the generals have tried thousands of civilians in military courts and have expanded the use of a despised emergency law that gives the government sweeping powers to detain people. As a result, some Egyptians now worry that they traded one autocratic regime for another.
In an apparent nod to protesters, the military announced a new “treachery” law Monday to stop former members of Mubarak’s National Democratic Party from running in the parliamentary elections. But the law, which activists said was too little, too late, would apply only to those convicted of political corruption.
The military council also said it has ordered an investigation into the causes of the clashes and would take legal action “against anyone who is proven to have been involved in the events.”
Special correspondent Ingy Hassieb contributed to this report.