Egypt Revolts Again, Morsi Called to Step Down

Gregg Carlstrom wrote:Cairo - Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Cairo and other cities across Egypt, demanding the resignation of President Mohamed Morsi amid sporadic violence that left several people dead.

The rallies started early on Sunday morning in Cairo's Tahrir Square - the cradle of the Egyptian revolution where Morsi had addressed a jubilant crowd exactly a year ago after being inaugurated as the country's first democratically-elected president.

The demonstrations swelled in the evening, as marches from various Cairo neighbourhoods reached the square. Tens of thousands of people also gathered around the presidential palace to press the same demands, chanting “irhal” - “leave” - and waving red cards to symbolically urge Morsi’s ouster.

"It's the same politics as Mubarak but we are in a worse situation," said Sameh al-Masri, one of the organisers on the main stage in Tahrir Square. "Poverty is increasing, inflation is increasing. It's much worse than Mubarak."

As anger against Morsi swept the streets, at least seven people were killed and more than 600 wounded in clashes between pro and anti-Morsi supporters, Reuters reported.

Five of the dead were shot in towns south of Cairo, one each in Beni Suef and Fayoum and three in Assiut. Two more were killed by gunfire during an attack on the national headquarters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood in a suburb of the capital, medical sources said.

‘Who’s going to pay?’

A few kilometres away from the presidential palace, thousands of Morsi supporters also staged their own sit-in to defend what they called the president’s “legitimacy”.

"If we are saying that we have a majority, and the opposition are saying that they have a majority, how can they decide," asked Nader Omran, a spokesman for the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of Muslim Brotherhood.

"What is the other solution for this dilemma, except the ballot box?"

Presidential spokesman Omar Amer said Morsi was serious in his repeated calls for national dialogue.

   "(Morsi) announced to all of Egypt's people he made mistakes and that he is in the process of fixing these mistakes," Amer told a late-night news conference.

The duelling rallies on Sunday only further highlighted the deepening political polarisation in Egypt. Morsi supporters are full of praise for his first year in office, insisting that the president has strengthened civilian rule in Egypt and done his best to manage a flailing economy. Many of them dismissed Sunday’s protests as the work of ex-regime figures and “thugs”, fuelled by a hostile media and Western governments.

Anti-government protesters, on the other hand, dismissed Morsi’s first term as a failure and described him as a dictatorial leader. Many accused him of backing Hamas and other militant groups; one well-dressed man in Tahrir insisted that Morsi planned to cede the Sinai peninsula to Hamas.

But their main complaint was the worsening economy, which has been in free-fall since Morsi took office, with the Egyptian pound losing nearly 20 percent of its value and industry crippled by fuel and electricity shortages.

"He's borrowed money from everyone in the world," said Said Ahmed, referring to $11bn in loans Egypt has received from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to prop up the central bank. "Who's going to pay for that? Our children."

‘Hoping’ for a coup

Sunday’s anti-Morsi protests were organised by a grassroots campaign called Tamarod or “rebellion”, which claims to have collected 22 million signatures calling for the president’s ouster.

"We gave him the confidence to ... correct what Mubarak had done to Egypt, but he didn't. So we have the right to withdraw the confidence that the Egyptian people gave him," said Eman el-Mahdy, a spokesperson for Tamarod.

Some police officers could be seen on the streets of Cairo waving red cards and chanting against Morsi.

Rising political tensions have reignited fears of military intervention in the country.

General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the defence minister, warned last week that it was the military's duty to "prevent Egypt from slipping into a dark tunnel of civil unrest".

“They’re adamantly opposed to the Brotherhood and this government, and there are in the officer corps those who have more hardline views on the Brotherhood,” said Michael Hanna, an analyst with the New York-based Century Foundation. “But this is a cautious military leadership. They’re not going to make a decision unless they have to.”

Many protesters nonetheless seemed to be hoping for another military intervention, believing that would be the only means of removing Morsi from office.

“We are hoping for a military coup. It’s the only thing that we can hope for, because they are armed and they can help the people,” said Umm Mohamed, an elderly woman sitting in the square with her husband. “Otherwise we will be in civil war.”

Asma Alsharif and Tom Perry wrote:CAIRO (Reuters) - The headquarters of Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood was overrun and looted on Monday as President Mohamed Mursi refused to heed millions who took to the streets demanding he resign.

The Islamist movement, which operated underground until the overthrow of autocratic President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, said it was looking at how to defend itself.

Cities were quiet after Sunday's mass rallies that were bigger than anything seen since the Arab Spring uprising, but the ransacking of the Brotherhood's office highlighted deepening political polarization, prompting the movement to talk of acting in self-defence.

Four non-Brotherhood government ministers resigned from the cabinet, apparently in sympathy with the protesters, underlining a sense of isolation for the party that won a series of elections last year.

How the crisis ends may depend on whether mass protests can be sustained, whether there is more violence and whether other forces including the military, clerics and worried foreign powers push the feuding factions to negotiate a compromise.

For those who declared the protests a continuation of the revolution that felled Mubarak, images of young men waving national flags at the scorched and shattered windows of the Brotherhood compound recalled the fall of Mubarak's ruling party offices, whose charred hulk still looks out over the Nile.

Eight people died in a night of fighting around the Brotherhood building, where guards fired on youths hurling rocks and fire bombs. A Brotherhood official said two of its members were injured.

The movement's official spokesman told Reuters that the attack had crossed a red line of violence and among possible responses might be to revive "self-defence committees" former during the 2011 uprising. "The people will not sit silent," Gehad El-Haddad said.

Mursi's movement complained at the lack of police protection, which can only heighten its sense of being under siege from both the liberal opposition and state officialdom inherited from the old regime.

NOT TALKING

The rival factions stuck to their positions after a show of strength by the opposition on Cairo's Tahrir Square and around the country.

Liberal protest organizers, who declared Mursi ousted by people power on Sunday, gave him a new deadline of 5 p.m. on Tuesday to quit and call elections or face a new mass rally.

Mursi, who has not appeared in person, renewed offers of dialogue via allies and pledged to work with a new parliament that could be elected if disputes over election rules can be ironed out.

The opposition does not trust the Islamist movement, which critics accuse of using a series of electoral victories to monopolize power. They want a total reset of the rules of a democracy imperfectly worked out over the past two years.

Mursi again acknowledged through a spokesman that he had made mistakes, adding that he was working to fix them and was open to dialogue. He made similar offers last week, which were dismissed by the opposition. But he showed no sign of quitting.

Senior Brotherhood official Essam El-Erian sounded upbeat on Facebook: "There was no civil war, as the liars advertised ... and there will be no military coup as the losers want.

"There is no alternative to unconditional dialogue to reach an understanding about forthcoming parliamentary elections."

An aide to Mursi outlined three ways forward: parliamentary elections, which he called "the most obvious"; national dialogue, which he said opponents had repeatedly rejected; and third, early presidential elections, as demanded by protesters.

But that, he said, "simply destroys our democracy".

The massive protests showed that the Brotherhood has not only alienated liberals and secularists by seeking to entrench Islamic rule, notably in a new constitution, but has also angered millions of Egyptians with economic mismanagement.

Tourism and investment have dried up, inflation is rampant and fuel supplies are running short, with power cuts lengthening in the summer heat and motorists spending hours fuelling cars.

Protest organizers called on Egyptians to keep occupying central squares across the country in a campaign of peaceful civil disobedience until Mursi goes. They plan a march on Tuesday evening to the palace where Mursi has been working if he has not stepped down by 5 p.m. (11:00 a.m. EDT) that day.

ARMY SPOTLIGHT

If protesters maintain their pressure, the spotlight will be on the army, which displayed its neutrality on Sunday, making goodwill gestures to the protesters after urging feuding politicians last week to cooperate to solve the nation's problems.

It warned last week it could intervene if violence got out of control but said it would defend the "will of the people".

While the Brotherhood has interpreted that as an endorsement of Mursi's electoral legitimacy, opponents believe the army may take account of numbers in the street - and help push Mursi to relent. Army helicopters were counting protesters on Sunday.

Diplomats said the army, which ruled uneasily during the transition from Mubarak's fall to Mursi's election, had signaled it was deeply reluctant to step in again, unless violence got out of hand and national security was at stake.

Some uniformed policemen marched among protesters in Cairo and Alexandria, chanting "the police and the people are one", and several senior officers addressed the Tahrir Square crowd.

Adding to the failure to protect the Brotherhood headquarters, that cast doubt on whether Mursi could rely on the security forces to clear the streets if he gave the order.

While the main demonstrations were mostly peaceful and festive in atmosphere, there was scattered street fighting. Security sources said 16 people died and 781 were wounded.

Opposition leaders, who have seen previous protest waves fizzle after a few days in December and January, were to meet on Monday afternoon to plot their next move.

Condemning the violence, their coalition leadership said: "We call upon the great Egyptian people who turned out in millions ... demanding democratic transition and early presidential elections, to maintain the peaceful nature of this great new revolutionary wave, and to remain steadfast in the streets and squares until their demands are met."

The United States and the European Union have urged Mursi to share power with the opposition, saying only a national consensus can help Egypt overcome a severe economic crisis and build democratic institutions.

(Reporting by Asma Alsharif, Alexander Dziadosz, Shaimaa Fayed, Maggie Fick, Alastair Macdonald, Shadia Nasralla, Tom Perry, Yasmine Saleh, Paul Taylor and Patrick Werr in Cairo; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Paul Taylor)

Gregg Carlstrom wrote:Cairo - The Egyptian army has asked President Mohamed Morsi to resolve huge protests against his rule or face intervention within 48 hours, placing huge pressure on country's first democratically elected leader.

In a statement on Monday, the army called on all groups – opposition and pro-Morsi alike – to resolve the situation. "The army gives an ultimatum of 48 hours as a last ditch chance, as the homeland and the nation cannot tolerate any party failing to live up to its responsibilities," the statement said.

"The national security of the state is in severe danger", it said, adding that if there was no resolution, "We are compelled by our national responsibility... to issue a road map for the future and certain measures... for the participation of all [political] factions."

It described the mass protests on Sunday that brought out millions of Egyptians demanding President Morsi's resignation as "glorious".

It said protesters expressed their opinion "in peaceful and civilised manner", and that "it is necessary that the people get a reply ... to their calls".

'Huge pressure'

Al Jazeera's chief political analyst Marwan Bishara said the statement undermined the authority of Morsi.

"For the army to give the president 48 hours warning, the army are saying who is the boss," he said. "Morsi is no longer the same president as this morning in the eyes of those on the streets."

He said the statement placed "huge pressure" on the president to resolve the protests, "otherwise we can expect army intervention".

"That could be taking over the streets or taking over the government. This message is to the president. This undercuts his authority."

Tamarod, the main opposition group that has organised the protests, said the army tatement showed it was taking the people's side. It urged its supporters to stay on the streets and squares of Egypt until Morsi's rule was ended.

Meanwhile, supporters of Morsi called for a "million man" protest to be held at Cairo university square.

The statment came hours after five of Morsi's ministers resigned. They were the tourism minister, Hisham Zaazou; communication and IT minister Atef Helmi; the minister for legal and parliamentary affairs, Hatem Bagato; water minister Abdel Qawy Khalifa; and environment minister Khaled Abdel-Aal.

They handed in their letters of resignation together to Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, the official said.

Tourism minister Zazou tried to resign last month after Morsi appointed Adel al-Khayat, a member of an Islamist party linked to a massacre of tourists in Luxor, as governor of the temple city. Khayat later quit.

The resignations came during a second day of huge demonstrations against Morsi, who completed one year in office on Sunday.

Brotherhood HQ burned

In the capital, Cairo, the official building of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood to which Morsi belongs, was set ablaze before people stormed and looted the building. The interior ministry said that eight people had been killed in the violence.

People were seen leaving with petrol bombs, helmets, flak jackets, furniture, televisions and documents.

Mohamed ElBeltagy, of the Brotherhood, told AlJazeera that he rejected a claim that his members opened fire from inside the headquarters at attackers.

Many anti-Morsi protesters spent the night in dozens of tents pitched at Cairo's central Tahrir Square and the palace, positions organisers say they will hold until Morsi resigns.

In fewer numbers, supporters of the Egyptian president came out on Sunday to show their support and defend the legitimacy of the president.

In total, 16 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi groups.

Tamarod - Arabic for rebellion - gave Morsi a deadline of Tuesday to quit, threatening a campaign of civil disobedience if he stays.

The number of people who joined in protests on Sunday was between 14m and 17m people, the interior ministry told Al Jazeera.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Reuters via AbrahamOnline wrote:Egypt forces arrest Brotherhood leader's guards: Sources
Reuters, Monday 1 Jul 2013
Sources say shootout occurred when security forces went to arrest guards for alleged unlawful possession of firearms


Egyptian security forces arrested 15 armed bodyguards of the number two in the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, Khairat El-Shater, on Monday after an exchange of fire in which no one was injured, security sources said.

The sources said the shootout occurred when security forces went to arrest the guards for alleged unlawful possession of firearms they are suspected of having used to shoot at protesters attacking the Brotherhood's headquarters on Sunday.

Eight people were killed and more than a dozen injured in clashes around the Brotherhood building on a suburban hilltop overlooking Cairo.

Shater's family telephoned Al Jazeera television station to report that his home was under attack.

Shater's own whereabouts were not immediately known. He is widely regarded as the strongest personality in the Islamist movement, but who was barred from running for president last year because he had been jailed under toppled ex-President Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian rule.

The incident occurred on a day when the armed forces issued an ultimatum to Islamist President Mohamed Mursi to agree within 48 hours on a power-sharing consensus with opposition parties or face more direct military intervention.

Generals from Egypt's powerful armed forces ruled Egypt for six decades until Mursi was elected last year after an uprising in 2011 ended Mubarak's rule.

Shater, a wealthy businessman and influential Brotherhood leader, was seen by many Egyptians as the shadow power behind Mursi's throne. He was hated by Mubarak who put him in jail for many years.

One of Shater's bodyguards was sentenced to one year in prison earlier this year for owning an illegal weapon. A security source said his other guards had "illegal arms and were a threat to Egypt's security".

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/75433.aspx