By Marwa Al-A’asar
CAIRO: Calm returned to Cairo’s downtown streets Wednesday following clashes between protesters and central security forces outside the interior ministry, as the army deployed and cordoned the building.
About 30 suspects were reportedly questioned by the military prosecution, according to the army’s Morale Affairs Department, since the clashes first erupted Tuesday evening and continued into the following day.
A little before afternoon, dozens gathered outside the interior ministry gate on Mansour Street, throwing stones at the ministry and police forces there.
A Daily News Egypt reporter on the scene said security forces answered back by firing teargas at protesters as well as bullets in the air. The type of bullets was unclear. Police were also throwing rocks back at protesters.
Meanwhile, thousands protested in the nearby Tahrir Square.
Army forces were mostly absent since the situation first broke out Tuesday evening. Later on Wednesday military police forces had lined up outside the ministry building, cordoning off the area. Protesters started to retreat telling others to step back as well.
The interior ministry described the clashes in a statement released early Wednesday as riots, saying the numbers were swelling, accusing the protesters of “attacking citizens and private properties.” It called upon citizens not to listen to rumors that aim at causing a rift between the people and the police.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) made similar calls in a statement released early Wednesday. It said the Tahrir events aim at disturbing the security and stability of the country through a premeditated plan.
“The blood of the martyrs of the revolution is being used to cause a rift between the people and the security institution,” the statement read.
The health ministry said the total number of injuries reached 1,036. One hundred and twenty were transferred to hospitals, 104 of which were released, while 916 were treated on site.
The official Middle East News Agency (MENA) cited Assistant Health Minster Adel Adawy as saying that injuries were mainly bruises, minor cuts, burns and asphyxia as well as suspected concussions, some required surgeries.
Shadiya Abdel-Rahim, a volunteer doctor present in Tahrir since Tuesday night, said that in addition to asphyxiation and cuts, she had seen many pellet wounds.
Cabinet official spokesman Ahmed El-Samman denied that the clashes resulted in any deaths.
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said in a telephone interview with Egyptian state TV on Wednesday afternoon that there is a conspiracy to ruin the stability of the country, and urged the youth of the revolution to exercise self-restraint and to protect their revolution.
“I am following up with the Minister of Interior on the developments of the events and we have to wait for the results of the investigations, and I urge the youth of the revolution to take care and stand against those irresponsible people attempting to ruin the revolution,” Sharaf said.
The premier said that the government “is working on creating an institutionalized campaign to fund the families of the martyrs and funding the treatment of the injured.”
“The families of the martyrs are our main priority now.” Sharaf added.
In a statement released about 2 pm, the interior ministry reiterated its earlier decision to withdraw police forces from Tahrir.
“All police forces were instructed to exercise maximum restraint and not to deal with any peaceful protests,” the statement read, adding that the forces only respond to ongoing attempts to attack the ministry building.
By 3:30 no clashes or police presence were reported on Mohamed Mahmoud Street. Army forces and trucks sealed it off along with El-Sheikh Rihan, the streets leading to the interior ministry. No clashes erupted between the forces and the demonstrators.
State TV reported that all protesters suspected of being involved in the clashes in Tahrir and Agouza were referred to the military prosecution for interrogation.
Traffic began returning to normal in Tahrir Square, while hundreds of youths were still protesting in Mohamed Mamoud Street near the American University in Cairo.
Hundreds of demonstrators protested Wednesday evening in the iconic square calling for overthrowing the head of the ruling army council Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawy and sacking Interior Minister Mansour El-Esawy.
“The people want to overthrow the field marshal,” protesters chanted.
The demonstrators also called for handing former interior minister Habib El-Adly the death sentence. Others urged the Cabinet to resign.
“We also demand a speedy trial for El-Adly as well as other officials involved in killing protesters, many of whom are currently still in service,” activist Farouk Adel told Daily News Egypt.
Tuesday build-up
Tahrir Square, the epicenter of protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak, was sealed off as police continued to fire tear gas into the early hours of Wednesday and a thick white cloud hung over the square.
According to eyewitnesses, the clashes started earlier on Tuesday when police tried to clear a sit-in at the state TV building, which included families of the martyrs of the Jan. 25 Revolution.
Later in the day, a memorial service planned for the families ended in clashes. The ministry of interior said in a statement on Tuesday that “people who claimed to be families of martyrs … tried to break into the theater” in which the service was held.
Eyewitnesses said police showed up and attacked the families outside the Balloon Theater in Agouza.
The protest reportedly moved to the state TV building and then to the ministry of interior in Downtown Cairo. Rumor had it that two demonstrators wounded earlier in the day had been taken. It was not immediately clear what sparked the violence outside the ministry, but eventually protesters were hurling stones and security forces firing volleys of tear gas and blocking off streets around the building.
Throughout the night, protesters chanted against head of SCAF Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawy as well as Interior Minister Mansour El-Essawy. Some called on the minister to resign, while others asked the government as a whole to step down.
Mansour Street seems to have witnessed most of the action.
A doorman on Mansour Street told DNE that the martyrs’ families first appeared on the street accompanied by a number of men who looked like thugs.
He added that they first talked to a policeman who told them “go ahead and hold a sit-in outside the interior ministry.” The thugs later attacked the officer. The martyrs’ families objected to their action and left while the thugs paved their way to the ministry, the doorman explained.
Amr Mohamed Reda, a medical student who offered first aid to protesters in downtown Cairo, told DNE he saw men donning civilian outfits carrying knives to terrify protesters. “They looked like thugs,” he said.
Another eyewitness who lives in the area overlooking one of the main gates of the interior ministry told DNE the clashes erupted first at about 8 pm when suddenly dozens of young people appeared throwing the ministry with stones and rocks they extracted after breaking the pavement.
“They kept shouting: ‘the interior ministry is still the same’,” he recalled. Refusing to mention his name, he said he recognized some of the activists’ faces but saw others that were there to stir tension
He said that as protesters kept flowing from nearby streets, central security forces, hiding behind barricades, kept throwing rocks back at them. “They seemed to have taken it personally,” he added.
The clashes then shifted to the nearby Tahrir Square. In a sight unseen since the early days of the uprising, lines of central security troops in riot gear sealed off the main streets leading into the square, while dozens of security vehicles were parked in side streets.
The government response shocked many of the protesters, who compared it to the heavy-handed tactics used by the security forces before Mubarak’s fall.
The clashes went on throughout the night with both police and protesters advancing and retreating in battles throughout the scene. Both sides hurled stones at each other.
During the day, witnesses told AFP that buses unloaded young men armed with sticks and knives, accusing remnants of the old regime of stirring chaos.
When protests erupted on January 25 to demand Mubarak’s ouster, the veteran leader’s loyalists used hired thugs to beat back protesters.
Meanwhile, the security measures around the embassies in Garden City neighborhood intensified, one employee at the US Embassy told DNE. –Additional reporting by agencies and Omnia Al Desoukie and Farah Saafan for Daily News Egypt.
