An Egyptian man embraced an army commander in Cairo’s Tahrir Square Saturday morning. More Photos »
By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: February 12, 2011
As a new era dawned in Egypt on Saturday, the army leadership sought to reassure Egyptians and the world that it would shepherd a transition to civilian rule and honor international commitments like its peace treaty with Israel.
Exultant and exhausted opposition leaders claimed their role in the country’s future, pressing the army to lift the country’s emergency law and saying no negotiations with the military had yet begun. They vowed to return to Tahrir Square next week to honor those who died in the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule.
In an announcement broadcast on state television, an army spokesman said that Egypt would continue to abide by all its international and regional treaties and that the current civilian leadership would manage the country’s affairs until the formation of a new government.
The army spokesman said a “peaceful transition of power” would “allow an elected civilian power to rule the country.” But the he did not discuss a timetable for any transfer of power.
A wary opposition stood its ground, even as disagreements surfaced over whether to leave Tahrir Square, the center of the revolution. And the impact of Egypt’s uprising rippled across the Arab world, as protesters turned out in Algeria, where the police arrested leading organizers, and in Yemen, where pro-government forces beat demonstrators with clubs. In Tunisia, which inspired Egypt’s uprising, hundreds demonstrated to cheer Mr. Mubarak’s ouster.
In Tahrir Square, some members of the movement that toppled Mr. Mubarak vowed to continue their protests, saying that all their demands had not yet been met, including an end to the emergency law that allows detention without charges, and the release of political prisoners. About 50 of them stood in the square on Saturday morning, as the military removed barricades on the periphery.
But the uprising’s leading organizers, speaking at a news conference in central Cairo, asked protesters to leave the square.
The group, the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, which includes members of the April 6 Youth Movement, the Muslim Brotherhood Youth and young supporters of Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent opposition figure, said it had not yet talked with the military and that on Sunday it would lay out a road map for a transitional government.
The coalition said that Ahmed Zewail, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, and other respected figures would work as intermediaries between the youth group and the military.
“The power of the people changed the regime,” said Gehan Shaaban, a spokeswoman. “But we shouldn’t trust the army. We should trust ourselves, the people of Egypt.” .
There were signs that not all the protesters were willing to give up. During the news conference, a protester said: “We should all head to Tahrir and stay there, until we ourselves are sure that everything is going as planned. The government of Ahmed Shafiq has to go!” Mr. Shafiq is the prime minister. The news conference ended soon afterward.
The army spokesman called on citizens to cooperate with the police, after weeks of civil strife, and urged a force stained by accusations of abuse and torture to be mindful of the department’s new slogan: “The police in the service of the people.”
Earlier, the defense minister, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, tried to drive to Tahrir Square, according to a paratrooper stationed in the square. But he did not leave his car.
In the rest of Cairo citizens measured their new reality with humor, mild arguments and celebrations. The official state press gave a measure of how much things had changed.
“The People Toppled the Government” read the headline in Al Ahram, the flagship state-owned national newspaper and former government mouthpiece, borrowing a line from the protest movement. Another article noted that Switzerland had frozen the assets of Mr. Mubarak his aides.
On state television, which for weeks depicted the protesters as a violent mob of foreigners, an anchor spoke of the “youth revolution.”
In Tahrir Square thousand of volunteers who brought their own brooms or cleaning supplies, swept streets and scrubbed graffiti from nearby buildings. On the streets surrounding the square, the celebrations from the night before continued, spurred on by honking drivers.
Traffic jams around the city, caused by the protests, persisted. A driver stuck in a traffic yelled: “The revolution has to do something about this.”
The president’s departure, for Sharm el Sheik, seemed for some to have stripped the country’s pressing political problems of some of their urgency. Mr. ElBaradei’s brother, Ali ElBaradei, said Mohamed ElBaradei was taking the day off and had not been contacted by the military. “They will call when they call,” he said.
Amr Hamzawy, who has acted as a mediator between the protesters and the government, said that “everyone is taking a break,” though he expressed concern with the vague nature of the army’s most recent statements.
“What is the timeline we are looking at?” he said. “Is it September?” He also said it was unclear whether the army council ruling the country favored amending the Constitution or starting from scratch, which is the preferred solution for many of the protesters.
There was also no clear sign from the military about whether it intended to abolish Parliament, Mr. Hamzawy said, adding that so far the military’s tone had been “very, very positive.”
Much of the confusion was caused by the way Mr. Mubarak left, he said. “He was trying very hard to stay in office, and he played his last card” by delegating authority to Vice President Omar Suleiman, he said. “It badly failed, and they pushed him out.”
Reporting was contributed by Anthony Shadid, Mona El-Naggar and Liam Stack from Cairo, and Thomas Fuller from Tunis.
Source: The New York Times
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