It seems that the 'day of departure' did not turn out to be so literally, however the protestors have clearly redoubled their determination and people joined the protests in the hundreds of thousands in both Cairo and Alexandria. The military are taking an active role in keeping Mubarak's men away from them now, and it appears that the kind of massed attacks we saw the other night have faded. There are also reports that military police are arresting some protestors away from the square... it's all a bit hard to follow, and nobody but the protestors seems to have fully committed. The army's role seems more protective, but not quite supportive. Violence still breaks out as Mubarak supporters approach, but it seems to be on a relatively small scale around the major protests.
Some videos from Thursday. It's a curious atmosphere. There's something bizarrely normal about it, until the fighting starts. And then there's
this flickr account, the same place where we put photos of days out to castles, quiz nights, and lazy screen grabs of a game we're playing, except these are taken during the Battle of Tahrir, when the shooting started and Mubarak's goons came out in force.
And then there's
this guy, speaking last week (I think Friday). It's cropped from a much longer compilation, which very annoyingly has silly music over it, but his bit was the highlight, and just about the most succinct summary of these protests as anyone has managed.
Estimates of the dead so far range from 11 to 300. You can probably guess which one of those figures is from the establishment, and which from the UN. Something in the hundreds seems likely according to the other estimates going on, but I doubt anyone will have a clue until this is over and the country comes back together. Many thousands have been wounded.
We seem to now be at the stage where the protestors have all but won and they know it. They are determined that Mubarak and his lackeys (including Suleiman) must go. There is still the question of who will step in, but everyone seems to be agreeing that the military will help form an interim government while the reforms and new constitution are implemented. The US appear to be backing Suleiman because he's exactly their kind of cunt, but this isn't a given, and there are alternatives. Mohammed El Baradei, a former director of the international atomic energy agency, was mentioned and still has some support, and Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, seems to be considering it. There's also the possibility that someone from among the protestors will be put forward - there are several million of them after all, and statistically, there's a damn good chance they've got some bloody good political material in there. For now though, the protestors seem content to remain and wait until their demands are met.
For those of you wanting more context about the protests and what might follow, and in particular, a breakdown of all the administrative and political branches involved in Egypt's regime (as opposed to "hm, if Mubarak goes, Saddam Hussein will rise from the grave and take his place, because I am scared of Muslims" line that the Americans insist on clinging to, despite the overwhelming shows of tolerance and secularity by the protestors), Al Jazeera, once again,
have it covered. I freely admit that I was only vaguely familiar with Egypt's situation myself before all this, and am still far from being an expert, so this ought to be pretty useful for anyone with an interest.
This Associated Press piece also discusses some possibilities from about halfway down.
Foreign support from the media and civilians is still growing, in contrast to the embarassingly poor government response. A
New York Times column.
Quote:
Amr (I’m not using some last names to reduce the risks to people I quote) was being treated for a wound from a flying rock. I asked him as politely as I could what a double-amputee in a wheelchair was doing in a pitched battle involving Molotov cocktails, clubs, machetes, bricks and straight razors.
“I still have my hands,” he said firmly. “God willing, I will keep fighting.”
As for Al Jazeera, I have to say, if we don't see an absolute shedload of awards coming their way over the coming months, I'll be pretty unimpressed. Their courage and integrity in defying the regime and securing first hand footage from third parties has been remarkable. The coverage has been absolutely top notch, and it's been interspersed with some interesting and wide-ranging news and documentaries you'd never hear about on the BBC (there's one about a sort of travelling court in rural China that goes out to the villages and takes care of legal and social matters for people who have trouble reaching the court. Really hard to explain, it probably has to be seen to be appreciated). Considering that the US has twice "accidentally" bombed their offices, they're remarkably measured in their reporting of American interests, too.
They'll be the first place I go for an awful lot of news from now on, I think.
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