Falling for London by Sean Mallen

Author:Sean Mallen [Mallen, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459741966
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2018-09-19T04:00:00+00:00

In Muslim countries, the period after Friday prayers often sees protests. In Cairo, on this Friday, the plan was to stage a “Last Chance Million-Man” rally in Tahrir. Last chance, I supposed, for SCAF to do the right thing and step aside in favour of a democratic, or at least non-military, government. Given the bloodshed of earlier in the week, trouble was a real possibility.

The generals delivered another nod to conciliation, hauling out another interim prime minister. But seventy-eight-year-old Kamal Ganzouri, who had been PM under Mubarak in the nineties, was not going to be the answer.

As we joined the throngs streaming into the square, I saw with alarm that there were many parents bringing young children.

I stopped one father to speak.

“It’s basically solidarity with the cause,” said Mohammed Omar.

I asked whether he feared for the safety of his children.

“It’s okay. As long as you don’t go over there,” he responded, pointing in the direction of Mohammed Mahmoud Street.

The rally was staged in honour of the “martyrs,” the victims of the clashes with soldiers and police earlier in the week. The wounded were given places of prominent honour.

Banners were paraded with pictures both of the dead and of some of the military leaders blamed for the violence. I shot a show-and-tell stand-up, pointing out the faces on display and the people who were holding up some grim souvenirs from the earlier clashes: expired shells from rubber bullets and tear gas canisters.

I noted one large photograph of a young man who looked at best twenty years old and figured he must have been among the dead. But when I asked Reem to translate the Arabic captions, she told me that he was a cop, reputedly a sniper who had been targeting the eyes of protestors. Now he was himself a marked man.

There was no single stage from which speeches were being delivered. Instead, there were mini rallies forming throughout the square: an impromptu festival of democracy in a nation where guys with guns and tanks still ran things. Pamphlets were being held out, polling people on who they would like to lead the country. The idealist goal was to have the square decide on the best candidates.

A huge picture was rolled out of Mohamed ElBaradei, the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency — a moderate that the West would have certainly liked to see in charge. Everyone in Egypt knew he had little chance. The Muslim Brotherhood was best organized and most likely to win any election. It had played little role in the Tahrir rallies, having been suppressed by the military for decades, and it was cagily awaiting the chance to run candidates in an election.

The crowds grew throughout the day, reaching a peak of about one hundred thousand by nightfall, and despite the fears it all remained peaceful. A few kilometres away, there was a counter-demonstration by supporters of the military. It was dwarfed by the Tahrir rally.

Before we left to file our story, a couple of soldiers arrived on the square to support the democrats.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.