Sacrificing government ministers is not enough: for the people to be satisfied, the president must be deposed
Peter Beaumont and Jack Shenker in Cairo
Peter Beaumont and Jack Shenker in Cairo
The Observer, Sunday 30 January 2011
"As evening fell across central Cairo's Tahrir Square, a black cloud of smoke welled in the distance from close to the interior ministry. The sound of shots rang out. First one. Then bursts. Then more shots: live rounds, rubber baton rounds, and gas.
If it was intended to frighten the crowds who had milled around the square all day, it seemed by early evening to have failed. "I've just been hit. They're shooting live ammunition at us. I can see blood on the floor," said veteran Egyptian activist Ahmed Salah, who had been hit by pellets and spoke to the Observer on the phone.
But he remained undaunted: "If we persist, then Hosni Mubarak will surely leave."
Yesterday, just as it has been for the past five days, Tahrir Square was the new centre of the surging revolution that has seized the Arab world.
Far from being cowed or placated, the thousands of protesters were instead determined to hold their ground. Determined – as they have been for days – to insist on the removal of Mubarak, Egypt's president for three decades. In Cairo it was scrawled across walls and written over statues: "Mubarak must fall."
As Egypt erupted in a fifth day of dissent and popular anger, the square nursed its wounds of revolution – as did the people, bandaged and bruised, who turned up to fill it again...."
"As evening fell across central Cairo's Tahrir Square, a black cloud of smoke welled in the distance from close to the interior ministry. The sound of shots rang out. First one. Then bursts. Then more shots: live rounds, rubber baton rounds, and gas.
If it was intended to frighten the crowds who had milled around the square all day, it seemed by early evening to have failed. "I've just been hit. They're shooting live ammunition at us. I can see blood on the floor," said veteran Egyptian activist Ahmed Salah, who had been hit by pellets and spoke to the Observer on the phone.
But he remained undaunted: "If we persist, then Hosni Mubarak will surely leave."
Yesterday, just as it has been for the past five days, Tahrir Square was the new centre of the surging revolution that has seized the Arab world.
Far from being cowed or placated, the thousands of protesters were instead determined to hold their ground. Determined – as they have been for days – to insist on the removal of Mubarak, Egypt's president for three decades. In Cairo it was scrawled across walls and written over statues: "Mubarak must fall."
As Egypt erupted in a fifth day of dissent and popular anger, the square nursed its wounds of revolution – as did the people, bandaged and bruised, who turned up to fill it again...."
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