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Shotguns,
petrol bombs and rocks: Scores of protesters try to storm Muslim
Brotherhood HQ in Cairo
RT,
30
June, 2013
Opponents
of President Mohammed Morsi have attempted to storm the headquarters
of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, the organization’s spokesman
has said. Four people have been killed and over 200 injured on Sunday
as millions took to the streets.
Violence
had been widely anticipated ahead of Sunday’s
multi-million-strong countrywide protests against
the president on the anniversary of his inauguration, demanding his
resignation.
Gehad
El-Haddad, the spokesman for the Brotherhood, which nominated Morsi
as its candidate ahead of last year’s elections, said several dozen
protesters shot at the windows with shotguns, and threw Molotov
cocktails and rocks at the building, which had been fortified in
recent weeks.
El-Haddad
said the attackers were successfully repelled.
All
four dead were shot in Nile Valley towns south of the capital,
one in Beni Suef and three in Assiut.
Millions
took to the streets on Sunday to demand the resignation of President
Mohammed Morsi on the first anniversary of his inauguration. "It
is the biggest protest in Egypt's history," a
military source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Regional
offices of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its political affiliate, the
Freedom and Justice Party, have come under a barrage of attacks over
the past week. At least seven people – including an American
bystander – have been killed during the torchings, with an
estimated 600 suffering injuries.
Police,
who have persistently feuded with Morsi, and have mostly ignored his
instructions in recent weeks (news reports showed some police
officers joining anti-government demonstrations on Sunday) said they
had no intention of safeguarding Brotherhood buildings, due to “a
lack of manpower.”
A
man has been killed, and two dozen people injured in a scuffle
between anti-Morsi and pro-Morsi supporters in the Nile city of Beni
Suef, according to security sources.
Earlier
on Sunday, anti-Morsi activists ransacked the local Muslim
Brotherhood office, and tried to break into a school, claiming the
Islamist movement used it to store weapons.
The
Health Ministry has said that 228 people were wounded in clashes
across the country on Sunday.
Protesters
across Egypt call
for Mohamed Morsi to go
Hundreds
of thousands of demonstrators line streets to demand president's
removal on first anniversary of his inauguration
30
June, 2013
Hundreds
of thousands of Egyptians filled streets across Egypt on Sunday
calling for the departure of Mohamed Morsi on Sunday, hours after the
president told the Guardian he would not resign.
A
year to the day after Morsi's inauguration as Egypt's first
democratically elected president, up to 200,000 protesters swelled
Cairo's Tahrir Square calling for Morsi's removal. They then headed
to Itahadiya, the presidential palace in the north-east of the city
in the evening.
Security
sources said that at least four people were killed and nearly 200
wounded in clashes between Morsi's supporters and opponents.
All
four dead were shot in Nile Valley towns south of Cairo, one in Beni
Suef and three in Assiut. Across the country, the health ministry
said, 174 people were given medical treatment as a result of
factional fighting in the streets.
In
Alexandria, Egypt's second city, 100,000 rallied in the centre, with
similar rallies reported in dozens of other Egyptian cities. The
headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi's Islamist group, came
under attack as night fell.
A
spokesman for Morsi said last night that the president knows he has
made mistakes and is working to fix them. Omar Amer added that Morsi
is serious in his repeated calls for national dialogue.
"(Morsi)
announced to all of Egypt's people that he made mistakes and that he
is in the process of fixing these mistakes," Amer told a
late-night news conference.
He
said Morsi had "extended his hand" for dialogue and wanted
to listen to everyone, repeating the president's previous calls for
national dialogue, which the opposition has rebuffed as not serious.
"I
want to confirm one truth, if there is a total lack of response to
this initiative, no listening to it, no interest in it from any side,
what do you think the presidency can do?" the president's
spokesman said. "The presidency is now waiting for a reaction,
no matter how small, so it can build on it."
The
scale of the protests – which took place on the first day of the
Egyptian working week – surpassed predictions made by presidential
aides, who had expected only 150,000 people to take part nationwide.
Some
senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood spent the day travelling,
fearing for their safety. Morsi himself moved from Itahadiya to the
Quba palace, a state building in a safer part of Cairo.
"Egyptians
are doing it again," said Ahmed Said, a leader of the largest
opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front (NSF). "They
insist on regaining their hijacked revolution. We have revolted to
reclaim our dignity, and reclaim our dignity we will."
But
Morsi was defiant in the face of such dissent. "If we changed
someone in office who [was elected] according to constitutional
legitimacy – well, there will be people opposing the new president
too, and a week or a month later they will ask him to step down,"
Morsi told the Guardian in an exclusive interview.
While
Morsi was elected in free elections, his opponents believe he has
failed to uphold the wider democratic values on which a well-rounded
democracy depends. In particular, he has been criticised for using a
presidential decree to force through an Islamist-slanted
constitution, viewed by many as the act of a dictator.
Among
many other complaints, Morsi has been accused of presiding over the
oppression of activists and journalists, and a marked drop in living
standards.
Once
a consensus candidate for Islamist and secular voters, critics say he
has alienated secular politicians and failed to achieve the unity he
was elected to build. Morsi blames the opposition for failing to meet
him halfway.
"Morsi
got elected in a democratic way," said one government critic,
businessman Hassan Shanab. "But since he took over, everything's
been polarised. All of a sudden, we see ourselves part of an Islamic
regime like Iran. Morsi's answerable to the Brotherhood, but they are
not answerable to us." As Shanab spoke, a crowd of protesters
nearby started pelting a giant poster of Morsi with stones.
The
president still has a vocal support base, 20,000 of whom have been
camped in east Cairo since Friday in a show of support for his regime
and for its democratic legitimacy.
Many
of them saw the protests elsewhere as counter-revolutionary and some
claimed they had been started by forces loyal to former dictator
Hosni Mubarak.
"I'm
here to defend my vote, and to defend a revolution I was part of,"
said Shaima Abdel-Hamid, a teacher and Morsi supporter. "We
chose a president and now they want to get rid of him when he's
dealing with 30 years of corruption. And they want to get rid of him
after only a year."
"Seculars
will not rule Egypt again," chanted one crowd of Morsi backers,
who come not just from the Muslim Brotherhood, but from other
Islamist groups such as Gamaa Islamiya, a Salafi movement.
Yet
many in Tahrir Square emphasised their religiosity, while rejecting
what they perceived as the Brotherhood's attempts to run the Egyptian
state along religious lines and to arbitrate on the correct
interpretation of Islam. "I voted for him," said Haga
Zeinab, a niqab-wearing protester in Tahrir. "But it turns out
he only thinks his own people can be Muslims."
Anti-regime
protesters created a carnival atmosphere in the square, with many
setting off fireworks. At Itahadiya, they bobbed to patriotic songs
played from a soundsystem resting on a first-floor balcony.
But
at the Islamist rally, the mood was tetchy, particularly after
several Brotherhood offices were attacked this week, and one former
Brotherhood MP was killed.
Many
donned cycle helmets and builders' hard hats, and held shields and
sticks in case of attack, waiting in defensive mode behind six lines
of security checks. Some carried homemade shields emblazoned with the
slogan: "Legitimacy is a red line" – a reference to
Morsi's democratic mandate.
But
with senior Muslim clerics warning of the prospect of civil war this
week, many of the Islamists promised to act if the presidential
palace came under attack from anti-Morsi protesters, and the police
or the army fail to defend it.
The
police have historically been no friend of the Brotherhood; across
Egypt there were isolated accounts of policemen expressing support
for anti-Morsi protesters.
"Now
we're seeing the revolution being threatened," said Mohamed
Sherif Abdeen, an IT teacher and member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He
was carrying a stick and wearing a hard hat – for self-defence, he
said. "We won't do anything if the army and police do their job.
But, if not, and they don't protect the presidential palace, we will
protect it with our chests."
At
Itahadiya, medics were taking precautions, anticipating night-time
attacks from Islamist forces or state officials. Tahrir Doctors, who
tend to the injured at most Cairo protests, set up three field
hospitals, staffed by about 30 medics. "If we get any injured
from any side, we will treat them equally," said Dr Amr
Shebaita, the group's head.
Egypt
has been rife with speculation about what will happen next. Two of
Egypt's best-known opposition leaders – leftist Hamdeen Sabbahy and
liberal Mohamed Baradei – were photographed marching arm in arm
towards Itahadiya on Sunday. Should Morsi fall, both are considered
potential key players in any transition scenario.
But
among Morsi's opponents, the most popular and startling choice of
successor – at least in the interim – may be the head of the
armed forces, General Abdel Fattah Sisi.
There
is widespread support for an army coup, particularly after Sisi
hinted at the possibility of military intervention last week. "Come
on Sisi," chanted protesters outside the presidential palace on
Sunday. "My president is not Morsi."
Demonstrators
camped outside Cairo's defence ministry – in yet another protest –
shouted: "The people and the army are one hand."
Others
feel uncomfortable with such sentiment. The Tamarrod campaign, a new
protest movement that spearheaded Sunday's protests, issued a
statement rejecting support for Ahmed Shafiq, the former air force
chief defeated at the ballot box by Morsi last year.
But
such arguments may yet be unnecessary. Allies of the president
believe that protests will dissipate if he can hang on until the
start of Ramadan in ten days' time.
A
message from the Egyptian people to the world 30th of june 2013 A
gate to the future
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