Beginning of the End for Egypt’s Occupations?
Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces escalated over the weekend its antagonism toward the protest movements that since early July have occupied city squares in Cairo, Alexandria, and Suez.
On Friday evening the military dispersed a blockade in Alexandria, firing warning shots into the air and beating back stone throwing protesters. When news reached Cairo, outraged protesters began marching from Tahrir Square toward the headquarters of the military council but were prevented from reaching the building by several hundred soldiers and armored vehicles.
That evening the SCAF released a communique that accused the April 6th Youth Movement — a central force in the January uprising and the current occupation of Tahrir Square — with sowing discord by driving a wedge between Egyptians and the military.
It was to be the opening salvo, for Saturday was a national holiday, celebrating the 1952 military coup that overthrew the British-backed Egyptian monarchy. In Cairo, protesters had scheduled a march to the same military headquarters that they marched to on Friday in order to highlight the military’s decades long hold on power and to continue to push for their on-going demands (“justice” for martrys’ families, eradicating former regime elements from government, televised trials of Mubarak and other former officials, etc.).
The protest was again blocked at the same spot as the previous night. This time however, thugs and counter demonstrators showered the march with stones, bottles, and Molotov cocktails — some lobbing these objects off roof-tops. Knife wielding men attacked the protesters, too. The military remained behind bard-wire barricades without intervening, except to fire rounds of ammunition into the air. Riot police eventually arrived and dispersed the protesters, who retreated back to Tahrir Square.
I was at the demonstration Friday night. A man pulled a knife on me a block from the demonstration. Laughing and heading toward the protest, he seemed to be concerned with Egyptian protesters, rather than me. Still I decided against joining the Saturday march. Tensions were clearly high and a confrontation seemed inevitable.
The area of the military blockade allowed little chance of escaped due to a long high wall running along the north side of the street. The southern side led into the tight alleys of the Abbasiyya district. My past experiences in street battles told me that this was not good protest geography.
On Saturday, the protest was kettled: the military blocked the east side, while thugs attacked from the small alleys to the south. On the north, the wall, to the west more thugs and cops.
Over 300 protesters were injured. Video footage of the clashes can be found here.
Today, thugs attacked protesters in Suez, who have now vacated Arba’iin Square, where they have staged a sit-in since July 2nd.
So what does this mean for the revolutionaries that continue to occupy Tahrir?
The military is setting the conditions for clearing the square. But marches from Tahrir continue to attract tens of thousands and even liberal political figures continue to support — at least publicly — the protesters.
Yet, the month of Ramadan is set to begin and temperatures each day hover around the 100 degree mark. Outside of Tahrir support for protest is running thin. “Stability” remains a common aspiration.
It may be the military that seeks to clear Tahrir or it may come about through the use of proxy thugs.
The Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile, has put out a call for a protest next Friday. They’re calling it “Friday of Stability”.
