The entire scene is unreal. Cairo and other parts of Egypt are quiet, it is only Tahrīr that appears as a war zone.
On Saturday I went to see our board member Dr. Amīn Makram 'Ubayd who is living close to Tahrīr. The Qasr al-'Inī street was blocked for traffic at the Qasr al-'Inī hospital and police was directing traffic to go against the one-way direction of the traffic on the Corniche. It was obvious that all streets entering Tahrīr had been closed, traffic was directed to go around it which created a traffic chaos.
Around 5.00 pm Dutch friend Eildert Mulder called me and asked me if I knew of the clashes at Tahrīr. I was only on a few hundred meters distance from Tahrīr where life was normal and traffic was moving. He had seen terrible images on TV in Holland while I was so close and had noticed nothing.
I later saw the images myself. A young woman, half naked dragged away, possibly dead. A soldier stepping with his boots on her. Other soldiers beating demonstrators with sticks, five or six beating in on unarmed civilians. Terrible scenes. I receives emails from Egyptians in the West, angry. This is not the way they want the Egyptian army to be. Of course not!
I do not understand the military. They know that different broadcasters are now permanently stationed at Tahrīr square and they know all they do will be filmed. I have full understanding for them that they try to prevent demonstrators go towards the Ministry of Interior. I also understand they want to end the demonstrations. But why do they behave this way?
Thus when I was at the Mugamma building on Sunday morning I wanted to see these demonstrators for myself. The tents I had seen in the past two weeks were violently removed by soldiers. The area was now being cleaned from the rubble that was there.
It is not difficult to get into discussions with demonstrators. They are full of anger against the military and want them to return to their barracks. I saw one man carrying the anti-riot police shield and stick, there must have been obtained from a soldier in a fight.
It is a mix of students and young people from slums, mostly male but also women. Amazing were the children of 12 to 15 years old, eager at throwing stones over the wall after which the military were. I was told by one person to look to the roofs close to the Scientific Research Center. “These are our boys,” he said about young men throwing stones to the military below in the streets.
The young men showed me the remains of burned books and told me that not they but the military had set fire to the Scientific Research Center. “Why would we do this?” one of them said. “We did not know what this building was. If we would have wanted to target a government building we should have done so with the Mujama' which is operating with hardly any security protection.”
Today I had to go back to the Mujama' to pick up my passport. Today I saw a new wall built in the beginning of Shaykh Rayhān street. Yesterday this was not there. Compare these photos of yesterday and today.
There were less youth then a day earlier and I no longer saw youth throwing stones from the roofs. But a child of perhaps 12 years old was preparing a Molotov cocktail. Unbelievable! There were a few older people trying to talk into them to stop.
Why would they not be willing to wait for the elections to be completed and a new government to be formed? But they want the military to leave now. I agree with the many Egyptians I spoke to that this would only increase the chaos in Egypt.
The image of the young woman being dragged away was published in different newspapers that spread among the demonstrators, arousing anger. I Egyptians I spoke with were less understanding for these youth. They want them to end their demonstrations. Most shops at Tahrīr are closed. People wants tourists to return but as long as these images are spread tourists are not likely to return to Egypt.
Egyptians speak about the demonstrators at Tahrīr as 'baltajīyah' or 'thugs'. But certainly not all youth are thugs. Others, however, are. Some come from middle class Egyptian families while others are from the slums. I heard one young man, perhaps 15 years old, coming from Banhā city of Qalyoubia governorate. What made him motivate to come to Tahrīr? Frustration only? Are some perhaps paid to create chaos? Who set the fire to the Scientific Research Center that destroyed a magnificent collection of books? Accusations fly back and forth and there is nothing certain that I would be able to say about this.
The role of the army and/or police is poor. The soldiers behind the walls must be under tremendous pressure, stones almost continuously hurled at them. And when they get a chance to beat these demonstrators they do so violently, not taking into consideration the filming that continuously takes place. It has all appearance that they are poorly prepared for the job they need to do.
