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February 3, 2011
Crackdown in Egypt Widens but Officials Offer Concessions
By ANTHONY SHADID
CAIRO — The Egyptian government on Thursday broadened its crackdown on a 10-day up
rising that has shaken its rule, arresting journalists and human rights advocate
s across an edgy city, while offering more concessions in a bid to win support f
rom a population growing frustrated with a devastated economy and scenes of chao
s in the streets.
The campaign was a startling blend of the oldest tactics of an authoritarian gov
ernment — stoking fears of foreigners — with the air of sincerity of a repentant ord
er. Trying to seize the initiative from a revolt that has marked one of the most
decisive moments in modern Egyptian history, the government promised that neith
er President Hosni Mubarak nor his son Gamal, long seen as a contender for power
, would run for president and offered dialogue with the banned Muslim Brotherhoo
d, gestures almost unthinkable weeks ago.
As protesters battled crowds rallied by the government for a second day, organiz
ers sought to rally even bigger demonstrations for Friday — dubbed the “Friday of de
parture” — in hopes of keeping the momentum behind a popular uprising that has deman
ded that Mr. Mubarak step down after three decades in power.
Voiced often in the tumultuous scenes of defiance and determination in Tahrir Sq
uare was a fear that if they lost, the protesters and their organizers would bea
r the brunt of a withering crackdown.
“If we can’t bring this to an end, we’re going to all be in the slammer by June,” said M
urad Mohsen, a doctor treating the wounded at a makeshift clinic near barricades
, where thousands fought off droves of government supporters with rocks and fire
bombs.
Dr. Mohsen’s comments illustrated the changing dynamic of an uprising that has cap
tivated the Arab world, reverberating through Jordan, Sudan and Yemen, where the
re were peaceful protests on Thursday. New calls for protests went out in Algeri
a, Bahrain and Libya.
From festive scenes of just days ago, the revolt has become more martial, as exh
austed men defend what they describe as the perimeter of a free Egypt around Tah
rir Square. Their demands have grown more forceful and the uprising more radical
. After pitched clashes of two days that left at least seven dead and hundreds w
ounded, banners in Tahrir Square declared Mr. Mubarak “a war criminal,” and several
in the crowd said that the president should be executed. Major television networ
ks were largely unable to broadcast from the square on Thursday.
The United States joined a chorus of criticism, with Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton saying, “We condemn in the strongest terms attacks on peaceful demo
nstrators, human rights activists, foreigners and diplomats.”
The government’s strategy seems motivated at turning broader opinion in the countr
y against the protests and perhaps wearing down the demonstrators themselves, so
me of whom seemed exhausted by the clashes. Vice President Omar Suleiman, appoin
ted Saturday to a position that Mr. Mubarak had until then refused to fill, appe
aled to Egypt’s sense of decency in allowing Mr. Mubarak to serve out his term, an
d he chronicled the mounting losses that, he said, the uprising had inflicted on
a crippled Egyptian economy.
“End your sit-in,” he said. “Your demands have been answered.”
Mr. Mubarak said in an interview with ABC that he was eager to step down but if
he did, “Egypt would sink into chaos.”
In interviews and statements, the government has increasingly spread an image th
at foreigners were inciting the uprising, a refrain echoed in the streets. The s
uggestions are part of a days-long Egyptian media campaign that has portrayed th
e protesters as troublemakers and ignored the scope of an uprising with diffuse
goals and leadership.
“Millions turn out to support Mubarak,” read the banner headline on Thursday on the
front page of Al Ahram, the leading government newspaper.
The propaganda has been so pronounced that an announcer on Nile Television, Shah
ira Amin, quit. “I cleared my conscience and walked out,” she said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said it had 100 reports of attacks on journ
alists. Al Jazeera, the influential Arabic channel, said government supporters s
tormed the Hilton Hotel in Cairo, searching for journalists, and two of its repo
rters were attacked. A Greek journalist was stabbed with a screwdriver and other
s were beaten and harassed.
Police also raided the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, a headquarters for many of the
international human rights organizations working in Egypt. The human rights wor
kers were told to lie on the floor and the chips were removed from the telephone
s, someone present in the building said, speaking on condition of anonymity for
fear of retribution.
As the day wore on, tension descended across parts of the city, which is still g
uarded by popular committees that banded together after the police withdrew Satu
rday. Government supporters roamed parts of the downtown, itching for a fight, a
nd looters set fire to a shopping mall along the Nile that was already looted an
d burned Friday.
The menace was a counterpoint to Tahrir Square, where the literati and well-off
demonstrators mixed with the poorest of rough-and-tumble neighborhoods in scenes
of camaraderie and determination that have made the square an emblem of the rev
olt. Protesters flashed V-for-victory signs at dawn, celebrating their success i
n holding the square and even pushing the barricades forward in clashes that dra
gged through the night.
Protesters accused government supporters of trying to block them from delivering
supplies to the square, but boxes of water, bananas, yogurt and medicine still
made it in. The Internet was working. Volunteers swept the streets, pushing pile
s of rocks to the curb that looked like bluffs of snow. Doctors staffed first-ai
d clinics, near graffiti that read, “We are writing the history of a free Egypt,” an
d men frisked people entering for weapons.
“Don’t incite them!” shouted Mahmoud Haqiqi, holding aloft a sign that read, “No to shed
ding of blood.” But even those who lamented the turn to violence blamed Mr. Mubara
k’s supporters for provoking them and vowed not to relinquish the square. “Right now
, it’s all here, protecting Tahrir Square,” said Hisham Kassem, a veteran activist a
nd publisher, who kept a wary eye on barricades built with corrugated tin, wreck
ed cars and trucks, barrels, buckets filed with sand and metal railing torn from
the curb. “We keep it tonight, and tomorrow the whole country is going to come ou
t.”
He surveyed the crowd and shook his head. “I can’t face the idea of this failing.”
For days, the government seemed to stagger at the scale of an uprising that over
whelmed Egypt’s once ubiquitous security forces on Friday. The concessions on Thur
sday marked its most concerted attempt to address at least some of the longstand
ing demands in a country that many believe has stagnated under Mr. Mubarak’s rule.
The newly appointed prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, apologized for the violence a
nd vowed to investigate who instigated it. Mr. Suleiman followed with a lengthy
television interview in which he recognized what he described as “the revolution o
f the youth.”
Mr. Suleiman sought to project an image of good will, offering dialogue with the
Muslim Brotherhood, which remains banned, even though it is the country’s most in
fluential opposition group. In a sign of the new landscape, Mr. Suleiman referre
d to it by name rather than the government’s usual coded language, though he and M
r. Mubarak have both suggested it was behind the revolt. Its followers have play
ed a forceful role in the protests, but its leaders have, so far, tried to remai
n in the background.
“We have contacted the Muslim Brotherhood and invited them, but they are still hes
itant about the dialogue,” he said. “I think that their interest is to attend the di
alogue.”
Other concessions came from Egypt’s public prosecutor, who issued a travel ban on
former government ministers and an official of the ruling National Democratic Pa
rty on suspicion of theft of public money, profiteering and fraud, state televis
ion reported. Among the four was the hated former interior minister, Habib el-Ad
ly, who commanded a police force that was widely despised for its corruption and
routine use of torture.
So far, the government’s concessions have done little to diminish the protests, bu
t the relentless message of officials that Egypt faced chaos seemed, at least an
ecdotally, to be finding an audience.
“This is enough,” said Ahmed Mohamed, a 22-year-old broker at the National Bank of K
uwait, hanging out at a rarity in Cairo, a coffee shop doing business. “I want lif
e to go back to normal. We want to go back to work. And what we have done in 72
hours we couldn’t achieve in 30 years. It’s only a few months until Mubarak leaves.”
David D. Kirkpatrick, Kareem Fahim, and Mona El-Naggar contributed reporting fro
m Cairo.
David D. Kirkpatrick, Kareem Fahim, and Mona El-Naggar contributed reporting fro
m Cairo.