CAIRO: A few hundred Egyptians, waving the bright yellow or orange banners of their opposition movements, gathered on the grounds of Cairo University on Tuesday to rally against a range of topics.
Members of the Kefaya, or Enough, movement protested alongside the opposition El-Ghad Party, taking advantage of the day that marks both International Student s Day and the Egyptian nationalist student movement s 1946 struggle for Egypt s independence from British occupation.
Earlier in the day, about 400 Muslim Brotherhood students, including about 50 completely veiled women, had held their own demonstration.
Hundreds of police stood guard just outside the campus, blocking the protesters from moving into the streets. No clashes occurred.
Tuesday s protests focused on themes such as corruption, voter fraud in last year s parliamentary elections and perceived government negligence in the Feb. 3 sinking of a ferry in the Red Sea, in which nearly 1,000 people died.
“No matter how hard we work, all of our efforts go to the thieves, nearly 200 people chanted just inside the gates of the university. Another 150 were gathered around an obelisk outside the campus, holding banners in the bright yellow of the Kefaya movement, some of which read, Yes for an independent judiciary! and No to forging the people s will!
Hundreds of liberal judges have called for legislation that would make the judiciary completely independent of the government. This follows allegations of voter fraud in recent parliamentary elections, including some judges accusing fellow jurists of involvement in vote-rigging.
“Try the killers from the ferry! some shouted. Most of the nearly 1,000 people who drowned in the disaster were Egyptian workers returning from Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Gulf. AP
