The latest victim: Ahmed el Sayed Soroor killed this morning

After waking up I checked the newssites AlJazeera and some Egyptian ones, and was reliefed to find that no massacre had happened at night, and that apparently, for a third day in row everything was quiet and calm. Then I signed in to Twitter, looking at the thread for #Tahrir, and learnt that this morning a young man named Ahmed el Sayed Soroor had been killed in front of the cabinet. Some tweets report his dead as a consequence of the police (or: military police? Amn Markazy in Arabic) breaking up the sit-in in front of the Cabinet. Yet, a video allegedly showing the events leading to Ahmed's death, to me does not seem to show the break up of a sit-in. And also the actual chain of events remained rather unclear - yet, what sticks to the mind is the image of the blood on Ahmed's back, flowing from the wound that would kill him little later. 

Another short video shows ho a group of men carries the wounded away and eventually enters a bus, while those remaining outside shout "there is no God but God". If you want to follow latest events you can follow the threads #Tahrir and #OccupyCabinet.


In light of news like these reaching us nearly every day, for me it seems difficult to remain optimistic. But others, like Firas Al-Atraqchi, are still hopeful and see what is happening as the birth of a new Egypt. In an article for Huffington Post he speculates: "It is now that the seeds of a true revolution are being planted. Ten months ago, shortsightedness and political infighting allowed the pillars of the old regime -- the medieval Ministry of Interior and State media -- to survive.Today, however, protesters in Tahrir and other governorates have realized what it is they failed to do.By taking to the streets they are creating a new convention between the military and the people, and redefining the concepts of citizenship in their country."

Should I stay or should I go? ...Thoughts of Tantawi and Ganzouri

In a press conference yesterday, military's representatives stated that the police had shown "self restraint" in dealing with the protesters who were allegedly intending to attack the Ministry of Interior. The SCAF affirmed that police had used nothing bur teargas on the protesters - an assurance slightly at odds with an  earlier statement by the health ministry confirming that 7 deaths had been due to gunshot wounds.

And while 77-years-old new and former prime minister Ganzouri is still pondering whom to appoint as minister, the people holding a sit-in in front of the cabinet buildings have already appointed their own salvation government, according to Al Ahram Online. According to some participants interviewed by Bikyamasr, protestors had moved to this new location for symbolic reasons: "It sends a better message than Tahrir, meaning we can take the parliament(...)We aren’t going to take Tahrir, we are going to take other streets." I am wondering whether it wasn't rather the understanding that they would be unable to hold the Midan because of a lack of people...
While it seems more like a symbolic move so far, the appointment of a civilian transition government would be in line with the latest demands of the US as well. Other than in the last days, the US government seems to now voice its support for the immediate transfer of power to civilian authorities: "Most importantly, we believe that the full transfer of power to a civilian government must take place in a just and inclusive manner that responds to the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people, as soon as possible". Yet, according to the British The Guardian, the US' move rather intends to empower and back Ganzouri than an entirely new revolutionary government made up of various presidential candidates as proposed by groups of protesters.

Some good articles and impressive pictures

Cairo -based reporter Nate Wright describes what the truce looked like in practice, depicting an incident where the situation nearly escalated but could be reigned in in the last minute: Crowdsourcing the truce

Another awesome piece by Nate Wright pointing out that the violence in Sharia Mohammed Mahmoud was sustained by protesters, and accusing the SCAF for failing to defuse the situation early on: Violence in the new revolution

BBC's Wyre Davies summing up the events and describing the tense and ambiguous situation on Wednesday night: Unrest continues near Cairo's Tahrir Square

Al Ahram posted a video that clearly shows it was police who broke the truce on Wednesday.

 
An article on the nature of police-society relations in Egypt, the role the police and individual officers find themselves in post- January 25: Egypt police struggle to regain pride on still-skimpy salaries

A caricature showing a "November martyr" meeting a "January martyr" (that's what the capture says), one of them telling the other (approximately): "Don't worry, they will get our rights for us." 

A photo showing Midan Tahrir this morning during prayer time.

An article about the arrestment of Mona ElTahawy, a well-known Egyptian-American journalist who was arrested, beaten, severly injured and harassed by security forces: Prominent columnist briefly detained

A non-professional article summing up the events and providing some links to footage and reports by human rights organizations accusing the most recent HR violations

And of course I recommend as usual The Arabist. He is up to date, concise, analytically sharp, and just has a very good grasp of the country and its woes. His chart displaying the current positions of various political actors in regards to the protesters' demands is brilliant.

If you have your own recommendations to add, please comment, or send me an email with the respective links.

A busy week: Egypt is protesting military rule, hurling stones and teargas, treating their wounded, morning their martyrs and preparing for elections

It was a busy week in Cairo. While I was busy preparing my exams and catching up with an old friend, the Egyptian police was busy showering their fellow Egyptians in teargas and gunning them down with rubber bullets, shotguns and reportedly some rounds of life amunition. 

After last Friday's protest, which demanded the military to come out with a clear timeable for the handover of power to civilian rulers and which was the first protest in a long time with mass turnout, a small group of protesters stayed in Midan Tahrir over night. The reportedly around 200 protesters that camped out at the Midan were violently removed from Egyptian police forces early Saturday. The unnecessary and unprovoked brutality of the police enraged many others who heard of the events. So soon, the crowd in Tahrir started to swell again, throughout Saturday and Sunday. 

At the same time violent clashes broke out and continued for days in some streets bordering Tahrir, namely Sharia Mohammed Mahmoud (where the ministry of the interior is located), Sharia Sheikh Rehan and Midan Falaki. Police fired insane amounts of two different types of teargas, and apparently also used some kind of nerve gas on protestors in Tahrir on Tuesday night. Police shot with rubber bullets and at parts also life ammunition, reportedly aiming in specific at protesters' eyes an necks. While both teargas and rubber bullets are traditional tools of riot control, they can obviously also be used in order to kill. The amount of teargas fired from short distances, the firing of rubber bullets at sensitive areas from short distance and the documented brutal beating of protesters by police indicates that no effort whatsoever was undertaken to avoid injuries, the opposite seems to be the case.

At the same time, protesters themselves seemed determined to sustain the violence in Sharia Mohammed Mahmoud. Their throwing of rocks and pushing forward towards the distant end of the street was not appreciated by all of the protesters present in Tahrir.  According to an article by Nate Wright, it was this fraction of protestors who prevented fellow protestors from braking the truce that had come into being early Thursday morning. More than one attempt to negotiate a truce had failed before, and an earlier truce agreed upon had been broken by police on Wednesday after few hours.

The fighting and the dramatic pictures produced thereof (on some nights, another injured person was delivered to the field clinics on the Midan every 20 seconds! all this could be watched live on TV) drew more people, on Tuesday it was called for another million men march. And even though the number of 1 Mio might not have been reached, it was clearly the largest demonstrations Egypt had seen in a long time. I have heard many people say that until now the sacrifices of the Egyptian people, the death of so many "martyrs" had been in vain. 

Many (me included) sense that Egyptians are currently trying to bring to an end the revolution they had started in January - and abandoned inbetween in the (naive?) belief that the army would help implement the changes asked for. Now that it has become clear that the army is at most malicious and at least incapable, people are loudly voicing their demands for change again, shouting "The people want to bring down the military regime" or "The people want to bring down Tantawi" (the head of the SCAF, Supreme Council of Armed Forces). 

During the past days, the officials responded with various moves, yet none of them could satisfy the protesters demands. The government under prime minister Essam Sharaf resigned, Tantawi delivered his first speech ever (which was as boring as expected), the SCAF excused for the deaths on its facebook page (sic!) and Kamal Ganzouri was appointed new prime minister and expected to form a cabinet over the weekend. Yet, given that he had already been prime minister for several years under Mubarak it was hardly surprising his appointment was not appraised by the protesters in Midan Tahrir. 

The demands of various protesting factions vary if it comes to the institutional details (composition, competencies, timing of national salvation government and/or presidential council), but have in common that they ask for a handover of power to civilian institutions/individuals. Also, the demand for some form of transitional justice, the cleansing of the interior ministry and the reform of the police is central to the protestors' agenda. 

It is contested, whether elections can (and should) begin on Monday as planned. The Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis and the US State Department are pushing for elections to take place as scheduled. Also, various reports and opinion pieces state that the protesters and their demands are not backed by a majority of Egyptians, who supposedly simply want the elections to take place so calm can return to the squares and streets of their country. (Obviously I think this goal is illusive. Or to be more precise: the assumption real societal and political peace could be produced by holding elections on Monday is illusive.)

In any case, it is no understatement to say that today is a crucial day for Egypt. The turnout at the protests and the military's and police's reaction will be decisive for the days and weeks to come.

(For articles on all the above mentioned issues, see the separate post "Some good articles and impressive pictures".)