Egypt celebrates as Mubarak finally concedes and leaves office
A ROAR of joy rose up that could be heard around the world when the Egyptian people heard that their president, Hosni Mubarak, had resigned. In Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and Port Said, hundreds of thousands of democracy demonstrators chanted: “The people ousted the regime.”MICHAEL JANSEN in Cairo
“Hurriyeh, hurriyeh, freedom, freedom,” they shouted, dancing, hugging one another, weeping, laughing. “Goodbye, goodbye,” they called.
One moment the streets of the capital were almost empty, the next they were filled with honking cars flashing their lights in time with the hooting horns.
The ousting of Mr Mubarak (82) was announced at dusk on Egyptian national television by his grim-faced vice-president, Omar Suleiman, after an emissary from the supreme council of the armed forces delivered an ultimatum to the presidential palace, which had been besieged by thousands of democracy demonstrators.
Egypt’s streets and squares had been taken over by them over the previous 18 days of non-stop protests against the autocratic regime.
Mr Suleiman said: “In the grave circumstances that the country is pas- sing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position as president of the republic. He has mandated the armed forces’ supreme council to run the state. God is our protector and succour.”
The top man in the new regime is defence minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi. The army command took action 18 hours after Mr Mubarak announced, for the second time, that he would remain president until his term was set to end in September and his successor elected.
Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators had converged on Tahrir (Liberation) Square on Thursday night expecting him to at long last declare he was stepping down in a scheduled television and radio appearance.
However, their expected night of triumph was not to be. After Mr Mubarak’s announcement that he would not resign, Egyptians flooded in ever greater numbers into Tahrir Square and other prominent locations around the capital, calling for his immediate dismissal by the still powerful military.
The pro-democracy demonstrations, the largest people’s power movement ever seen in the Arab world, was launched on January 25th by youth activists from different cities and provinces who were connected by the internet.
Yesterday at noon, on the 18th day of their protest, the military announced it would end the state of emergency, one of their chief demands, but only when the demonstrators had ended their protest and gone home.
Then at 6pm, beneath the Belle Epoque domes of the building from which Mr Mubarak had ruled for so long, a cry went out that he was gone.
“For 18 days we have withstood tear gas, rubber bullets, live ammunition, Molotov cocktails, thugs on horseback, the scepticism and fear of our loved ones and the worst sort of ambivalence from an international community that claims to care about democracy,” said Karim Medhat Ennarah, a protester with tears in his eyes. “But we held our ground. We did it.
“My late father was part of a sit-in at the faculty of engineering in Cairo University in 1968 – the first protest seen in Egypt since Nasser took over in 1952,” he added. “His generation tell me that they were not as brave as us, but they started something and played their part. Today, we finished the job for them.”
More than 300 people died and 5,000 were wounded during the 18 days. Yesterday one person was reported killed in the port city of al-Arish where protesters attempted to storm a police station.
Mr Mubarak, a former air force commander, took power in 1981 following the assassination by Muslim militants of his predecessor Anwar Sadat, who was condemned for signing a peace treaty with Israel.
During his three decades in power, he maintained his grip by repressing dissent, promoting the interests of wealthy supporters, projecting his regime as a bulwark against Muslim fundamentalists and courting the support of the US. He refused to countenance calls for political reform, an end to rampant corruption and reconstruction of the country’s collapsing infrastructure.
Mr Mubarak rejected appeals to address unemployment, the deteriorating educational and healthcare system, and the hunger of the 50 per cent of Egyptians who live on or below the poverty line.
His fall came 32 years after the shah’s regime was toppled in Iran. – (Additional reporting: Guardian service)
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