Thursday, March 31, 2005
Rats in Cairo: A propaganda story?
I smell a rat, this article was is most major papers world wide, yet the protests were of the size that rarely makes the news, Most were under a thousand strong, and the largest was estimated at 2000. I think this story got spun up to make it look like it was a continuation of the mega-protests in Lebanon, and therefore part of "the springtime of the Arab peoples". My spidersense is tingling, cause most of the stories do not mention the size of the protests, so when I read the stories I caught myself assuming these were mega-protests. It wasn't until I saw that the secondary protest in Alexandria was 300-400 that my critical thinking kicked in.
Jax
Cairo, March 31. (AP): With strident chants against President Hosni Mubarak, protesters defied government warnings and staged a series of pro-reform demonstrations across Egypt on Wednesday.
Hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Cairo, Alexandria and at a Nile Delta university, but large numbers of police officers did stop the demonstrators from reaching their main target - parliament.
Two members of the Kifaya or "Enough" Movement were detained in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
Some 400 protesters, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, walked about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) across the city from the police cordon at parliament to the Press Syndicate, where they chanted slogans against President Hosni Mubarak on the building's steps.
"The one who strikes the Egyptian people is not fit to rule Egypt" one chant said. "The one who bars demonstrators should face the fate of Sadat," said another chant, referring to the 1981 assassination by Islamic extremists of President Anwar Sadat.
A few protesters who did manage to evade the cordon were stopped in the street outside parliament, where the director of Cairo security, police Maj. Gen. Nabil el-Ezabi told them their presence was illegal.
"I am warning you. You have to leave or we will take the legal procedures against you," el-Ezabi said. Police trucks were on hand to take away detainees.
After a few minutes, the protesters left.
El-Ezabi had warned Tuesday that the police would strictly enforce the emergency laws that forbid unauthorized protests.
Pro-democracy activists and Muslim Brotherhood members have staged a series of such demonstrations during the past four months.
The protests have called for President Hosni Mubarak and his son Gamal not to stand in the September elections and for constitutional reform in Egypt.
Some 2,000 students demonstrated on the campus of Mansoura University in the Nile Delta. Heavy lines of police barred them from leaving the campus.
About 500 students protested in Alexandria University, but were also confined to the campus. (Link)
