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There appeared to be more protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Monday than on previous days. More Photos »
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: January 31, 2011
CAIRO — The political forces aligned against President Hosni Mubarak seemed to strengthen on Monday, when the Army said for the first time that it would not fire on the protesters who have convulsed Egypt for the last week. The announcement was followed shortly by the government’s first offer to talk to the protest leaders.
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The offer of negotiations on constitutional and legislative reforms was made by the new vice president, Omar Suleiman, who did not offer further details. But it seemed to represent an attempt to blunt the devastating effect of the Army’s statement, which came as the Egyptian economy reeled and on the eve of what organizers hope will be the largest demonstrations yet — a “march of millions” and a general strike — on Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear who Mr. Suleiman addressed his offer to, or whether the opposition would accept. While the protesters have consistently demanded Mr. Mubarak’s resignation above all else, they have lately indicated a willingness to discuss a unity government leading to elections. On Sunday, Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood and the secular opposition said they had chosen a prominent government critic, Mohamed ElBaradei, to represent their side in possible negotiations with the Army over Mr. Mubarak’s departure.
The Army’s announcement — delivered on state TV with no elaboration by its official spokesman — declared that “freedom of expression through peaceful means is guaranteed to everybody,” and promised to recognize the “legitimate demands” of the protesters.
While the carefully worded statement was seen by some as a veiled threat to use force against those who do not use peaceful means, an associate of Mr. Mubarak’s said it should be taken at face value.
“The Army is not a puppet in the hands of anybody,” including Mr. Mubarak, said Mahmoud Shokry, a retired diplomat and a friend of Mr. Suleiman. “The Army does not want to make any confrontation with the youth.” He said the generals would “ask Mr. Mubarak to leave” before they would accept orders they think could lead to civil war or risk their credibility with the public.
Still, opposition leaders said they were not prepared to celebrate the announcement as the turning point it proved in Tunisia, where the government collapsed after the military refused to shoot at its own people.
The military’s announcement followed a cabinet reshuffle by Mr. Mubarak that the opposition dismissed ahead of time as window dressing. The president appeared fatigued in a ceremony broadcast on state television in which he welcomed a new interior minister, Mahmoud Wagdy, a retired general, who replaces the widely reviled Habib el-Adly. Mr. Mubarak left several longtime associates in place, including the foreign minister, the minister of information and the defense minister.
Since the demonstrations began last Tuesday, Mr. Mubarak has stayed mostly out of sight, apparently intent on waiting for the protesters’ passions to cool. But as the tens of thousand of demonstrators gathered in Liberation Square on Monday shouted for his ouster, and as the Egyptian economy sagged and financial chaos loomed, that strategy was beginning to look threadbare.
With the Internet still broadly disrupted, Egyptians gathered at mosques around the city for noon prayers and then marched by the hundreds and thousands toward Liberation Square on Monday, passing groups of security police and soldiers.
“I brought my American passport today in case I die today,” said Marwan Mossaad, 33, a graduate student of architecture with dual Egyptian-American citizenship. “I want the American people to know that they are supporting one of the most oppressive regimes in the world and Americans are also dying for it.”
“Come down, Egyptians!” chanted one group heading to the square, drawing men into their march from the buildings they passed. The group, led by older men, linked hands and kept to one lane of traffic, allowing cars to pass.
At the square, they joined protesters who had stayed all night in defiance of a curfew that the authorities are now seeking to enforce at 5 p.m., an hour earlier. The numbers in the square appeared to exceed those of previous days, despite efforts by the military to corral the protesters into a narrower space.
Army troops checked the identity of people entering the square and began placing a cordon of concrete barriers and razor wire around its access routes, news reports said. But there were no immediate reports of clashes with the protesters, who have cast the military as their ally and protector. As military helicopters circled overhead, demonstrators jabbed their fists in the air, chanting, “The people and the army are one hand.”
Mr. Mubarak’s government came under pressure from another front as well: the swift deterioration of the economy. The protests, and the specter of looting that followed the police withdrawal, have devastated tourism, the source of half of Egypt’s foreign income, and shut down transportation.
Ragui Assaad, an economist at theUniversity of Minnesota, said the potential collapse of the economy was like a gun to Mr. Mubarak’s head. “If it’s a complete shutdown like this, and it lasts for a few weeks, that is going to be really serious,” he said.
On Monday foreign embassies scrambled to book charter flights to evacuate their citizens as thousands of people jammed the Cairo airport trying to flee the country. International companies, including those in the vital oiland natural gas industries, shuttered their operations.
As late as midday, however, Mr. Mubarak seemed to be trying to wait out the protesters. He appeared on television soberly shaking the hands of a new roster of cabinet ministers in a public demonstration that even though protesters may control the streets, he remained head of state.
He reinstated about half of the cabinet he had dismissed three days ago in a bid to soothe the unrest. Indeed, in a sign that he may be digging in for a prolonged battle, he added the position of deputy prime minister to the duties of his powerful defense minister, Mohammed Tantawi, who will serve under a former general he had appointed as prime minister.
The most notable cabinet change was in the official in charge of suppressing the protests. Mr. Mubarak replaced Interior Minister Habib el-Adly, criticized by human rights advocates for tolerating torture and other police abuses and widely reviled here. He was succeeded by Mahmoud Wagdy, a retired general who had been the head of the Cairo criminal investigations division and a former head of prisons.
The street protests were gearing up again, but with a notably different face. For the first time the Muslim Brotherhood stepped to the fore as the protest organizers called their most reliable foot soldiers as reinforcements.
Though outlawed here because of its Islamist ideology, the Brotherhood is the only group in Egypt able to call out a large and disciplined network of experienced organizers, and their presence on Monday was unmistakable.
Most of the week’s protests appeared to represent a nearly universal cross-section of the public, coming together spontaneously with little leadership or direction. But as hundreds poured out of midday prayers at a mosque in the neighborhood of Mohandeseen and marched toward Tahrir Square on Monday, they were shepherded through the streets by seasoned organizers, often middle-age men with beards or bruises on their foreheads from prayers. They arranged for rows of marchers holding hands to keep their cohorts packed together within single lanes of traffic. Others linked arms in rows as they marched.
The crowd initially included a mix of women, most of them veiled, and children. But as the marchers rolled through the streets, they shouted to the apartments above, “Come down, come down!” and “One, two, Egyptians where are you?” More men filed out of the buildings as the women and children fell away.
The crowd merged with others as it approached the square and the escorts hemmed it until it was a thick mass of thousands stretching for blocks. In the square, a troop of veiled women circled, chanting for the resignation of Mr. Mubarak.
When asked about the Brotherhood’s role, the escorts demurred, saying the protests represented all Egyptians. But there were mixed feelings in the crowds about the Brotherhood’s obvious role that could prefigure future divisions among the momentarily united opposition.
Several protesters said they were glad the Brotherhood could keep up the momentum and discipline when others might fall away or clash with the police.
“The people are too eager; the people are undisciplined,” one marcher said. “But the Brotherhood are very organized, very connected, and they have resources.”
But others wanted to step away. “I hate the Brotherhood,” said Mohamed Ismail, 23, an engineer. “I hate Islamism. I don’t want an Iranian regime. I want freedom and democracy.”
The government’s black-clad security police, a special paramilitary force dedicated to preserving order, began to redeploy around Cairo on Monday, and some protesters said they feared new violence.
“I brought my American passport today in case I die today,” said Marwan Mossaad, 33, a graduate student of architecture with dual Egyptian-American citizenship. “I want the American people to know that they are supporting one of the most oppressive regimes in the world and Americans are also dying for it.”
But after the surprise announcements from the military and Mr. Suleiman, the protest on Tuesday, optimistically dubbed the March of Millions and set to take place around the country, began shaping up as a potentially decisive moment. Mr. Shokry, the former ambassador close to Mr. Suleiman, cautioned that anything could happen.
“What will happen if there is a flare-up, a few bullets shot into the young men, a Molotov cocktail?” he asked. “A million people in the streets. How will we keep the peace?”
Kareem Fahim, Anthony Shadid, Liam Stack, Mona El-Naggar and Dawlat Magdy contributed reporting from Cairo; Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem; and Clifford Krauss from Houston.
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