2:37PM
Pro-Mubarak demonstration
Charles Levinson
There was a new twist to the anti-Mubarak demonstration in Cairo's Tahrir Square today. Taking a play from the Lebanon playbook, Mubarak supporters staged a pro-Mubarak demonstration right next to the opposition's demonstration. They waved "Long Live Mubarak" signs and chanted "Down with the traitors." They also included a sprinkling of anti-occupation in Iraq and Palestine signs, presumably to boost their street credibility. As usual, both demonstrations were surrounded by overwhelming security. Presumably the pro-Mubarak demonstrators were NDP functionaries of one sort or another. I don't think it's much of a stretch to assume that this was inspired by the competing demonstrations that have occurred in recent weeks in Lebanon.
Reader Comments (9)
I arrived late but demonstrators who where there from 12:00 saw the pro mubarak protesters come out of central security cars (they did look like their soldiers).
one of the pro mubaraks was a monaqaba with loads of gold on her arms (very dubious).
but the high point of their demo was the slogan مبارك قائدة الامة
probably this was a sly statement against the state of egyptian education.
This scares me. Having counter demonstrations calling the Kefaya people "traitors". Scary stuff, you can see which direction this will take, unless Kefaya make very strong efforts to emphasize what exactly their goals are. Mubarak has agreed to change the constitution, now what? Being arrested by the security police is one thing, and portraying these guys as 'traitors' is something else (in my view more dangerous than being arrested).
I was just expressing my worries regarding that to http://thisiscairo.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">'This is Cairo', and it seems there is something to be worried about here:
"You know, I'm worried that that's how you'll be portrayed. "What do these guys want now?!" So I think its very important to have the objectives stated in a crystal clear manner. Just chanting against Mubarak with no clear objective is very dangerous."
Cute Alaa... I didn't notice that sign. For those who don't read Arabic, I think this is what Alaa is referring to: the sign read "Mubarak is the leader of the nation," but the word leader is spelled wrong, with a feminine ending, implying Mubarak is a female leader.
After the Hezbollah march, I read someone wrote that even dictators such as Mubarak and Abdullah could also get out a million people if they wanted.
I laughed out loud when I read that, but in truth I don't really know much about Egypt (I have been there once though).
How many people actually came to the pro-Mubarak demonstration?
It's not unusual for boltagui (hired thugs) to be present at demos and be used to beat up people. I've often seem them around Al Azhar on Fridays when there was a demo scheduled, and saw them at work many times during the 2000 elections. There were even women boltagui who attacked other women who wanted to vote for the non-NDP candidate, they carried bottles of water mixed with shatta (hot pepper) and threw it on other women, especially their eyes. All this was at the district where Youssef Boutros-Ghali, the minister of finance and only powerful Coptic member of the cabinet, was running in Shubra.
Anyway, this time it seems that they've used people to stage a counter-demonstration, which isn't difficult when there are only a few hundred demonstrators. But at some point one can expect them to get nastier and start sending plainclothes thugs to beat up people. What's significant in this for me is not only that security has reacted and apparently used the Lebanese model, but that they've thought it was time to react at all. Perhaps they're getting nervous -- after all this was one of the first demos in Tahrir since the large one at the beginning of the Iraq war two years ago.
oh the numbers where not big, the pro mubarak one was not more than 300 (unless you decide to add the uniformed security soldiers and the nonuniformed torture thugs who come to challange anti torture activists among them, then it is tens of thousands).
the real demo started very small due to the usual confusion in timing, the tagamo party started one hour early (12:00), al arabi newspaper announced that the demo would be at 2:00 (on hour late), by the end we where around 500 (very rough estimate).
photos @ http://home.manalaa.net/cgi-bin/share_photos.cgi?photos/politics/mozahra_20m_2005/ watch for the cute new slogan
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I have learned about this at school today!