Dispatches from Cairo #7: Revolution 2.0?

The seventh installment of my Dispatches from Cairo series is now posted on The Daily Organ.

The largest protests since February have rocked Downtown Cairo over the last few days, leaving at least 3 dead and 800 injured. Events began on Friday, when Islamists mobilised to occupy Tahrir Square, their numbers in the tens of thousands. Since this relatively peaceful beginning the protests have broken down into chaos, with pockets of violence concentrated in several side-streets. 

Most businesses Downtown have entirely shut down, many people unable or unwilling to brave the violence to get to work. I, with a friend, spent the afternoon in Tahrir handing out Pepsi-soaked tissues to protesters to counteract the burning of the tear-gas. 

People continued to gather throughout the afternoon, brutal fighting taking place less than 50 meters in front of us. Motorcycle ambulances carried the injured to hastily-constructed field hospitals. Many people had been rendered unconscious by the intensity of the tear gas, while still more were bleeding from head wounds.

The protests were initiated as an outcry against SCAF’s recent controversial constitutional principles declaration which would give them unprecedented control over the new constitution, possibly even outweighing those of the elected legislature and president. There are also concerns that the decision to not hold presidential elections until 2013 is to allow SCAF the time to prepare a candidate themselves, possibly even Field Marshall Tantawi himself. 

Although the document has now been amended, the protesters on the streets have smelt blood, and show no signs of backing down. Their demands now include assurances from the armed forces that they will hold presidential elections by April 2012, and thereafter withdraw entirely from the political sphere. People currently feel that the armed forces have hijacked their revolution, and that the current regime is the same as Mubarak’s but with a different face.

At the time of writing the armed forces, apparently having learned nothing from the events of Maspero several weeks ago, are attempting to forcibly clear Tahrir square, and protests have spread to cities across the country. SCAF appear to have lost the trust of the people, and their actions today will do nothing to improve their image. Egyptians are determined to not allow their revolution to become a military coup, and will not leave Tahrir without a fight.