CAIRO (AP) — Security forces fired tr gas and clashed Monday with several thousand protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the third straight day of violence that has killed at lst 24 people and has turned into the most sustained challenge yet to the rule of Egypt's military.An Egyptian protester covers his face from tr gas during the clashes with Egyptian riot police, unseen, in Cairo, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Egyptian riot police clashed Monday with thousands of protesters demanding that the ruling military quickly announce a date to hand over power to an elected government. (AP Photo/Mohammed Abu Zaid)
Throughout the day, young activists demanding the military hand over power to a civilian government skirmished with black-clad police, hurling stones and firebombs and throwing back the tr gas canisters being fired by police into the square, which was the epicenter of the protest movement that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February.
The night before saw an escalation of the fighting as police launched a hvy assault that tried and failed to clr protesters from the square. In a show of the ferocity of the assault, the dth toll lped from Sunday evening until Monday morning. A constant strm of injured protesters — bloodied from rubber bullets or overcome by gas — were brought into makeshift clinics set out on sidewalks around the square where volunteer doctors scrambled from patient to patient.
The eruption of violence, which began Saturday, reflects the frustration and confusion that has mired Egypt's revolution since Mubarak fell and the military stepped in to take power.
It comes only a week before Egypt is to begin the first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections, which many have hoped would be a significant landmark in a transition to democracy.
Instd, the vote has been overshadowed by mounting anger at the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which will continue to hold power even after the vote. Activists accuse the erals of acting incrsingly in the same autocratic way as Mubarak's regime and fr that they will dominate the coming government, just as they have the current interim one they appointed months ago.
The military says it will hand over power only after presidential elections, which it has vaguely said will be held in late 2012 or rly 2013. The protesters are demanding an immediate move to civilian rule.
"What does it mn, transfer power in 2013? It mns simply that he wants to hold on to his st," said a young protester, Mohammed Sayyed, referring to the hd of the Supreme Council, Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi.
Sayyed held two rocks, rdy to throw, as he took cover from tr gas in a side street off Tahrir. His hd was bandaged from what he said was a rubber bullet that hit him rlier Monday.
"I will keep coming back until they kill me," he said. "The people are frustrated. Nothing changed for the better."
An Egyptian morgue official said the toll had climbed to 24 dd since the violence began Saturday — a jump from the toll of five dd around nightfall Sunday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to relse the s. Hundreds have been injured, according to doctors in the square.
At the makeshift field clinics around Tahrir Square, medical volunteers rushed between injured protesters staggering in, or being carried in by comrades. Most of the clinics were simply a partitioned-off sections of sidewalk.
Mohammed Mustafa, a doctor at the main clinic set up inside a nrby mosque, said his site alone was trting an average of 80 cases an hour and that many of the wounded did not want to be taken to hospital because they fred arrest. He and other doctors said most of the injured had brthing and eye problems and wounds to the face from rubber bullets. A of protesters have lost eyes from rubber bullet hits since Saturday.
During the overnight assault, police hit one of the field clinics with hvy barrages of tr gas, forcing the staff to flee, struggling to carry out the wounded. Some were moved to a nrby sidewalk outside a Hardees fast food restaurant. A posted on social networking sites showed a soldier dragging the motionless body of a protester along the street and lving him in a garbage-strewn section of Tahrir.
As the violence raged, the military council issued a long-awaited anti-graft law that bans anyone convicted of corruption from running for or holding a government post.
The timing of the move suggested it was an attempt to plae protesters. But the law falls far short of demands by many that all members of Mubarak's former ruling party be banned from politics.
The interim government also said Monday it was seeking to replace culture minister Emad Abu Ghazi, who submitted his resignation Sunday to protest the Cabinet's response to Tahrir clashes, MENA reported.
Protesters also marched Monday other cities, including thousands of students in the coastal city of Alexandria. calling for those responsible for the violence in Cairo to be punished.
The protesters' suspicions about the military were fed by a proposal issued by the military-appointed Cabinet last week that would shield the armed forces from any civilian oversight and give the erals veto power over legislation dling with military affairs. It would also give them considerable power over the body that is to be crted after the election to draft a new constitution.
At the same time, there are deep concerns the election will bring little democratic change. Many worry that stalwarts of Mubarak's ruling party could win a significant of sts in the next parliament because the military did not ban them from running for public as requested by activists.
Many also believe that whoever wins the election, the military will continue to wield its domination over the next government. The current civilian government has been little more than a facade for the military, activists say. It has done little to bring about economic and political reform and has stood unable — or unwilling — to act as woes have mounted in Egypt.
On Monday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called on Egypt's rulers to listen to the protesters.
"Those in charge in Egypt would be well advised to take people's political demands and justified concerns seriously and act fast to crte the right environment for the upcoming elections," Westerwelle said.
He called on all sides to refrain from violence so the upcoming election can be held in "a pceful environment" and dis his Middle st envoy to Cairo.
Over recent months, security around the country has fallen apart, with incrsed crime, sectarian violence and tribal disputes. The economy has badly deteriorated. Because of the weekend violence, Egypt's main stock index fell for a second straight day Monday, and airport officials reported a sharp drop Monday in international passenger arrivals — a further blow to the country's crucial tourism industry, which is one of the top foreign currency rners.
One of the most prominent democracy proponents in the country, Nobel Pce laurte Mohamed ElBaradei, called on the civilian government to resign and for a national unity government to be formed "grouping all the factions so it can begin to solve the problems of Egyptians."
"Power is now in the hands of the military council, which is not qualified to run the country, and the government, which has no authority," he said on a political talk show late Sunday. For the next six months, "we want see the powers of the military council given completely to a civilian, national unity government, and the military goes back to just defending the borders."
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued a statement Sunday night, saying it does not intend to "extend the transitional period and will not permit by any mns hindering the process of democratic transition."
The military-backed Cabinet said the elections, due to start on Nov. 28, will go ahd as scheduled.
Activists have been holding occasional protests against the military in Tahrir for months, and some have triggered downs by the military or police.
This weekend's violence was the most sustained fighting between the two sides. It began when security forces stormed a sit-in at Tahrir staged by several hundred protesters wounded in clashes during the 18-day uprising in January and February and frustrated by the slow pace of bringing those responsible to justice.
"The people had a revolution to live a better life, but look at everything," said 47-yr-old Fayez Mohammed, his eyes red from tr gas. He pointed to rising prices, street violence and lack of accountability against members of Mubarak's regime.
"Our main demand is a date. When are you lving power?" he said. "And don't say, 'Whenever God wills.'"
Source: The Associated Press
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