Calls for change in Egypt
February 11, 2012
The Egyptian capital, Cairo, saw a day of civil disobedience on Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of the ouster of long-time President Hosni Mubarak.
Opposition activists called the general strike to put pressure on the country's ruling military council to speed up its promised transfer of power to a civilian government.
In a joint statement, the groups that organized the planned work stoppage urged Egyptians "to support these strikes in order to end the unjust rule and build a nation in which justice, freedom and dignity prevail."
Protester numbers were down on expected figures and life in Cairo proceeded as per usual. Buses and the metro ran as normal and an official said the strike call had no impact on the Suez Canal, the waterway linking Europe to Asia.
University students also held protests on Saturday, concentrating at Cairo's Tahrir Square, the site of anti-Mubarak demonstrations that persuaded the president to step down on February 11, 2011.
Muslim and Coptic Christian clergymen had rejected the call for civil disobedience. The Muslim Brotherhood, which holds almost half of the seats in Egypt's newly elected parliament, said it could not support any action that would hurt the country's economy.
Security forces at the ready
The military council said it had deployed additional troops across the country for the protest action.
In a statement read out on state television late on Friday, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) pledged to maintain order.
"We will never yield to threats, and we will never give in to pressure," the statement said. "We are facing plots against the nation aiming to undermine the institutions of the Egyptian state, and to topple the state itself so that chaos reigns."
The council has crushed several protests by force over the past year.
At the same time, it reiterated a promise to hand over power to a civilian government.
"We have kept the first promise and returned legislative power to the people's assembly," the statement said, referring to the country's recent parliamentary elections. "Presidential power will pass to the president of the republic after the election ending the period of transition, and your faithful army will revert to its original role."
dfm/pfd/cmk (AFP, dpa)