AP. 20 March 2003. Anti-war demonstration turns violent in Egypt. CAIRO -- Egyptian anti-war protesters clashed with riot police Thursday, hurling stones and metal barricades, pounding on cars and shouting against the United States and their own leaders in violence rarely seen at heavily policed demonstrations in Egypt.
Riot police used water cannons to keep stone-throwing demonstrators from making their way through barricaded streets to the U.S. Embassy. Thursday morning, a few hundred protesters, mostly students from the American University in Cairo, were turned back from the U.S. Embassy. They joined up with more protesters and made a second run, this time throwing stones but being pushed back by water cannons about 100 meters (yards) from the compound's high cement walls. By late afternoon, about 5,000 people had regrouped in downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square. As they set out again toward the embassy, police sprayed them with soapy blue water and stone-throwing resumed. "We want the flag down. We don't want America here at all," said a stone-throwing demonstrator who would identify himself only as Seoudi, 21. Security forces at the scene denied making any arrests. The number of injuries wasn't clear, though a few protesters and one soldier were seen with bleeding cuts and swollen eyes. Earlier Thursday, a smaller group of protesters began throwing metal barricades when riot squads tried to block them from joining about 500 Muslim Brotherhood and communist anti-war demonstrators about 50 meters (yards) away in Tahrir Square. Police took swings at demonstrators' heads with batons, but some also were heard to shout: "Don't hit them! Don't hit them!" Soon, the demonstrators had broken through. At the merged and growing rally, surrounded by riot police, protesters held a banner reading "Shame on U.S.A." and chanted, "the people of Basra (in Iraq) are our brothers; they are poor people like us." "American interests shouldn't feel safe in the Arab region," said Essam el-Eryan, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood member among the protesters. "Iraq should be supported to transform the swift war that the U.S. wants to gang and city fights, to make Iraq a graveyard to the Americans. This way, American people will revolt against this war." Demonstrators shouted "Down with Arab leaders!" and "Leave, leave Mubarak!" in reference to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak -- an indication of the anger many Arabs feel toward their own governments for failing, in their view, to act strongly enough to avoid war. Young people broke through police lines Thursday to block traffic near the Egyptian Museum, they pounded on cars and demanding revolution. They shouted: "Why, why, why, police? Are we in prison or what?" and "The price of freedom is blood!" Fadlallah Abu Wafia, 22, and head of the American University students union, had a swollen left eye and gash through his left eyebrow that he said came from a police baton as he and others tried to get to the U.S. Embassy early on. Blood stained his T-shirt. "We were supposed to go to stand in front of the American Embassy. We were not planning any violence. We just wanted to tell the Americans that they are no longer welcome here. We were holding banners to this effect. ... They (police) started hitting us," Abu Wafia said. When more demonstrators made a second run at the embassy later Thursday, they threw stones at police. Officers began hurling them back at the crowd, but were quickly ordered to stop. Authorities instead sprayed them with water and, not long after, the crowd backed off. Noha el-Faruki, a 27-year-old American University graduate, was among stone-throwers. "They (police) make us turn to violence," she said. "I know this is not the approach, but I lost it for a minute." Other protests were held in Cairo and throughout Egypt, though there were no other immediate reports of violence at any of them. In the Nile Delta town on Zagazig, some 10,000 students demonstrated against the war on Iraq inside the university campus protesting the war on Iraq. Others protested in the universities of Ein Shams and al-Azhar in Cairo and thousands turned out in Alexandria and the delta town of Kafr el-Sheik. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ProletarianNews http://www.utopia2000.org ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international -- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
