Defiant Mubarak stays put amid mounting calls to quit

Embattled Eyptian president continues to defy huge protests amidst growing calls for him to step down.

CAIRO: Egypt’s defiant strongman Hosni Mubarak showed no sign of quitting today after a “departure day” drawing tens of thousands opposed to his 30-year grip on power and international calls for him to quit.

Mubarak defied huge protests in central Cairo yesterday, where brief gunfire was heard in Tahrir Square – the epicentre of the protests – and in Alexandria aimed at forcing his ouster.

Protest rallies gained ground globally with demonstrations planned today in London and Paris.

Mubarak himself has said he would like to quit but feared that chaos would ensue.

On Thursday, ABC television’s Christiane Amanpour said that in an interview with Mubarak, he blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for the violence of recent days.

Clashes left at least eight people dead and more than 800 hurt on Wednesday and Thursday. According to UN estimates, more than 300 people have been killed since the protests began.

Mubarak was “fed up with being president and would like to leave office now, but cannot, he says, for fear that the country would sink into chaos,” Amanpour said.

Mubarak’s one-time foreign minister and a future possible presidential candidate, Arab League chief Amr Mussa, said yesterday he doubted his former boss would leave any time soon.

“I do not think he will leave. I think he will stay until the end of August,” Mussa told France’s Europe 1 radio before himself later going to Tahrir Square in what his office called a “calming gesture.”

At Cairo’s Tahrir (Liberation) Square more than 10,000 people stayed behind in a festive atmosphere after nightfall yesterday, many preparing to camp under canvas.

On the Muslim day of prayers and rest, tens of thousands of people from all walks of life earlier filled the square, which has seen 11 straight days of protests that have shaken the pillars of Mubarak’s three-decade rule.

A pro-government rally in the upscale Mohandeseen neighbourhood of the capital was attended by just dozens of people.

In isolated violence yesterday, however, Al-Jazeera news channel, which ran blanket coverage of the uprising after it erupted on Jan 25, said a “gang of thugs” had ransacked its Cairo offices.

Islamic state

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei fanned Western concerns about the turmoil in their key ally Egypt, calling on its people to rise up and create an Islamic state.

Defence Minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi – regarded by the US as a key plank of any post-Mubarak administration – visited Tahrir Square to appeal to demonstrators to end their protest in the light of Mubarak’s pledge not to seek re-election in September.

He urged opposition leaders, including the supreme guide of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, to join talks with the government on political transition.

Shafiq reiterated late yesterday that the anti-regime protesters would not be removed by force.

And a curfew imposed in Cairo and two other cities but widely ignored was shortened by four hours to between 7pm and 6am, state television said.

Anti-Mubarak protests were also held yesterday in Egypt’s second city Alexandria, where tens of thousands gathered in the city centre, and in a raft of provincial cities.

- AFP