Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Egypt, updates from Tahrir Square

Scott Williams | 23.11.2011 02:03

Tahrir square, the beginning, and the transition back to the beginning and the revolution, after nine months of standing still, getting back on its feet again, violently, and raging with anger, non stop.

Ever since the revolution began there's been a protest on a semi weekly basis every Friday, as Friday is considered the weekend in Muslim countries and the day off for most people working in government firms as well as some private sector firms.
And these Fridays have been forming some sort of pressure on the Supreme council of Armed Forces, or as everyone else calls it, SCAF, which is the ruling authority in Egypt ever since Mubarak was toppled, the former president.
Normally the protest would begin after the Friday morning prayer, where Muslims pray the midday prayer and after the prayer they march towards the square, or if they've been praying in the "Omar Makram" mosque which is located in the square, they'd prepare for the day straight away.
Tahrir square usually is where people go to protest in Cairo, the Capital, but every city has its own square where people go to protest and express their opinions, for example Suez has its own "Arbe'en square" where the Arbe'en police station is located.
We will be talking about Tahrir because that's what I have been experiencing recently, a normal Tahrir protest is sort of like a scene from a Monty Python film, stages every where and people standing with microphones trying to attract people towards them, preaching their thoughts to the crowds, also you will see political banners hung almost about every where, where people are trying to advertise for their political party, whether a party with a religious flavour to it, trying to attract those simple minded religiously faithful Egyptians, such as the Noor party, which means the light, and they are the Salafi party, and the Freedom and Justice party, which is the Muslim Brotherhood's party.

The reason I had this very long and boring introduction, is that I wanted you to get the sense of what Tahrir is all about, and what usually took place that the media don't talk about, because it's too obvious, but still it'd be like the elephant in the living room if we don't mention it.

After the protest is finished, people gather their numbers, and then if they're satisfied with the day, and they've sent out their message properly to the ruling authority, they leave, and if not, they have a sit-in, till their demands are met, as a major twenty days sit-in has taken place in June, leading to the Mubarak trial, so, that's how they put pressure on the ruling authority, that's how SCAF responds to the demands.
Sometimes the security forces, the Central Security Forces, or the men in black, or the riot police, let's refer to them as CSF, they march in the square, and beat up people, arrest a couple, and clear the square, that happened in the ninth of March, and it was bloody, as well as the ninth of April, and also after the huge sit-in in June and many times, and they get away with it every time, once they disperse the crowds, they occupy the garden in the round about, in the middle of the square, to make sure no one is going to sit in, just like when a dog urinates on something to claim that it's his.

Now, reality, Friday, the Eighteenth, people, had a lovely protest, religious powers, stages, preachers, Islamic atmosphere, a show of power by the Islamic current one might say, The demand was asking SCAF to hand over the authority to a civilian power, by a maximum date of the April 2012. People started leaving at around five in the afternoon, and they were out at around eight, around that time, some called for a sit-in, but not everyone stayed.

In the square, those who were injured during the revolution were sitting in, regardless what their demands are, whether compensation for their losses, or free treatment on the country's expense, what ever it is, they were around two hundred, Saturday morning, the Nineteenth, CSF alongside the military police, marched into the square, beating people, dragging them by the hair, attacking them, insulting them, and there's been videos and pictures of what they've been doing to men and woman, boys and girls, and that was nasty, the most famous one, is a video of this first lieutenant, graduated 2009 from police academy, and he was targeting people's eyes on the Twenty Ninth of November, and in the video, he keeps shooting them in the eyes, in the first minute, someone says to him, oh, the kid's shot in the eye, Good job boss. Now his picture is all over the internet and they're looking forward to basically make him blind, people are trying to locate him.

From those who everyone knows are Ahmed Harara, who has lost his right eye in the twenty fifth of January, and his left eye on that day... As well as Malik, a photographer from an Egyptian Newspaper called "El Masry El youm" he lost his eye on Saturday...

So, what incited this, no one knows for sure, is it the harsh dispersing they did? Is it the violence? Is it the live ammo they used, or is it that protesters have just found an opponent again?

No one really knows, but ever since it started since Saturday it has not stopped, it's been ongoing, never ending, the crowds are increasing, all of that is because, according to what people are saying "Blood's been shed." "People have died.", and so, there's no turning back, now it's 3:30 am, the very early hours of the twenty third of November, I am over looking the square, it's just never ending, and the violence is concentrated on a certain circle, around the Interior Ministry building there are many streets leading to it, the one I am over looking and that's one of the very active ones, is Mohammed Mahmoud street, where this video was captured, as well as El Sheikh Rehan Street, Mansour Street, and many others, and in that big circle, the people are fighting with security forces in a never ending battle.

Injuries around the square are mostly Suffocation from the gas, many claim that this time they're using a different gas, Sarine Gas or C R gas, which is different than the normal C S gas used for dispersing crowds, O T has held a canister and he described it as silver with 2 red lines on it, says long range nerve gas, shelf life 3 month, Prod: 9/94, exp: 12/94..

And injuries from the rubber bullets, bird shots and few live ammo shots, many fields hospitals have been founded around the square, and the strategy protesters use to transfer the injured from the front lines to the field hospitals is that, they have organised a path from the front lines, all the way to the square, and from the square the ambulances can pick where to go, also motorcycles are used very efficiently as ambulances.

Now it's 3:30 am, the square is still chaotic, no one around here will get any sleep because of the sirens of the Ambulances running around the square, carrying people to the field hospitals, Egyptians have been donating blood, blankets, money to buy supplies, the square doesn't have any majority controlling it, wait, actually it does, it is controlled by Egyptians, not activists, not Islamists, not politicians, in fact, there's been a deal that no one will market their parties on the square.

What's happening now, is similar to the atmosphere of the twenty eighth of January, except this time is even more violent, clashes have been ongoing non stop for the past four days now, so similar that the ruling authority is taking the same steps the former president took, first speech, that was very late, trying with a desperate try to please the crowds, but as the crowd chanted "Too late" "The people want to topple the field marshal", "Down down with the military rule" you can get the sense that the people are fed up, and they're done with the military in power after being ruled by a military authority ever since Nasser took over in 1952.

And now the humorous Egyptians were saying, regardless of all the violence, "Al right, that's one speech, two more to go, and you're out Tantawi" -As before Mubarak stepped down, he gave three speeches-

Situation doesn't seem to be calming down any time sooner, but anyway, I will make a habit out of it to write something every night after the day goes by to keep you folks updated.

The video of First LT firing at protesters and the clashes from the Police side:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54-1qNeef0E

Scott Williams
- e-mail: zang@9.cn

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech