Protesters have clashed in the streets for a second day with police who fired tear gas and birdshot in Cairo, as a deadly soccer riot focused rising public anger over lawlessness and collapsing security a year after Egypt’s uprising.
Eight people have been killed and more than 1,500 injured in the latest bloodshed that followed a violent riot and stampede after a soccer game on Wednesday in the Mediterranean city of Port Said, Egypt, in which 74 people died.
Egyptians streamed out of Friday prayers in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and several Nile Delta cities, criticizing police and calling on the military rulers led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi to step down.
Photo: EPA
On Cairo’s Tahrir Square — the heart of the uprising that ousted former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak a year ago — protesters raised banners and pictures of those killed in Port Said and chanted: “The people want to execute the marshal.”
The police force, which for decades was associated with torture and corruption in the Mubarak regime, is now being criticized in the soccer stadium deaths — whether from a lack of control or, as some alleged, on purpose.
For many Egyptians, the security vacuum is not just a sign of incompetence, but part of the larger overall failure by the military council to steer the country through its turbulent transitional period. They also see selectivity in policing the streets.
Leading democracy advocate Mohammed ElBaradei said delays in reforming the security apparatus was itself “a crime against the nation,” adding that the current violence is the “price we pay for stumbling in the transitional period.”
The clashes in Cairo began on Thursday as the bodies of the dead soccer fans were returned to the capital for burial, and the violence escalated. Protesters converged on the headquarters of the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior, which oversees police, throwing stones.
Police responded with tear gas and birdshot and protesters donned helmets and gas masks to battle their way through streets thick with smoke from tear gas and burning tires.
“I came because I’m trying to do anything to feel that I took part in getting people’s rights and voicing all that’s inside me,” said 20-year-old Ahmed Emad, who had two friends killed in Port Said. “If I sit at home, I will explode after all I’ve seen.”
The death toll from the clashes with security forces rose to eight yesterday. That figure included a security officer in Cairo, according to the official MENA news agency.
One protester in Cairo was killed after being hit by birdshot at close range, a volunteer doctor said on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisal.
Four protesters died in Suez after police opened fire on a crowd of about 3,000 demonstrators in front of police headquarters, local health officials said. A third protester in Suez was in critical condition with a wound to the neck.
The Port Said soccer riot began when fans of the home team, al-Masry, stormed the field after their club defeated al-Ahly, one of Cairo’s top teams. Police in black uniforms and riot gear were seen in television video broadcast nationwide standing by and largely doing nothing amid the chaos.
The bloodshed — the worst in the soccer world in 15 years — enraged protesters who were already frustrated with the slow pace of reform by the military leaders.
A network of zealous al-Ahly soccer fans known as Ultras, who were prominent police foes during the uprising, accused the security forces of deliberately allowing the al-Masry supporters to attack.
Some lawmakers suggested that the military allowed the attack to happen to show the need for a reinstatement of the recently abolished emergency laws, in which the police enjoyed nearly unlimited power.
For their part, police are resentful of the abuse they suffered during the uprising and they also fear being criticized or even prosecuted if they use excessive force, something that was tolerated and encouraged under Mubarak.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in