20110213 Mubarak departs, crowds are ecstatic

Mubarak departs, crowds are ecstatic

TOPPLED:Hosni Mubarak’s downfall at the hands of the biggest popular uprising in the modern history of the Arab world has stunning implications for the region

AP, CAIRO
　

Anti-government protesters celebrate in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday after president Hosni Mubarak stepped down.
PHOTO: AFP

Cries of “Egypt is free” rang out and fireworks lit up the sky as hundreds of thousands danced, wept and prayed in joyful pandemonium after 18 days of peaceful pro-democracy protests forced Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to surrender power to the military, ending three decades of authoritarian rule.

Ecstatic protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square hoisted soldiers onto their shoulders on Friday and families posed for pictures in front of tanks in streets flooded with people streaming out to celebrate. Strangers hugged each other, some fell to kiss the ground, while others stood stunned in disbelief.

Chants of “Hold your heads high, you’re Egyptian” roared with each burst of fireworks overhead.

“I’m 21 years old and this is the first time in my life I feel free,” an ebullient Abdul-Rahman Ayyash, born eight years after Mubarak came to power, said as he hugged fellow protesters in Tahrir Square, where crowds remained all through the night.

An astonishing day in which hundreds of thousands marched on Mubarak’s palaces in Cairo and Alexandria and besieged state TV was capped by the military effectively carrying out a coup at the plea of protesters. After Mubarak’s fall, the military, which pledged to shepherd reforms for greater democracy, told the nation it would announce the next steps soon. Those could include the dissolving of parliament and the creation of a transitional government.

Mubarak’s downfall at the hands of the biggest popular uprising in the modern history of the Arab world had stunning implications for the US and the West, Israel and the region, unsettling rulers across the Mideast.

The 82-year-old leader epitomized the complex trade-off the US was locked into in the Middle East for decades: Support for autocratic leaders in return for stability, a bulwark against Islamic militants, a safeguard of economic interests with the oil-rich Gulf states and peace — or at least an effort at peace — with Israel.

The question for Washington now is whether that same arrangement will hold as the Arab world’s most populous state makes a potentially rocky transition to democracy, with no guarantee of the results.

At the White House, US President Barack Obama said: “Egyptians have inspired us.”

He noted the important questions that lay ahead, but said; “I’m confident the people of Egypt can find the answers.”

OVERWHELMED

The US at times seemed overwhelmed during the upheaval, fumbling to juggle its advocacy of democracy and the right to protest, its loyalty to longtime ally Mubarak and its fears the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood — or more radical groups — could gain a foothold. Mubarak’s fall came 32 years to the day after the collapse of the shah’s government in Iran, the prime example of a revolution that turned to Islamic militancy.

In Egypt, persecuted democracy activists frequently denounced the US government for not coming down harder on Mubarak’s rights abuses. Washington’s mixed messages during the crisis frustrated the young protesters. They argued that while the powerful Brotherhood would have to be allowed to play a future political role, its popularity would be diminished in an open system where other ideologies are freed to outweigh it.

Neighboring Israel watched the crisis with unease, worried that their 1979 peace treaty could be in danger. It quickly demanded on Friday that post-Mubarak Egypt continue to adhere to it.

Any break seems unlikely in the near term. The military leadership supports the treaty. Anti-Israeli feeling is strong among Egyptians, and a more democratic government may take a tougher line toward Israel in the chronically broken-down peace process. However, few call for outright abrogating a treaty that has kept peace after three wars in the past half-century.

From the oil-rich Gulf states in the east to Morocco in the west, regimes both pro and anti-US could not help but worry they could see a similar upheaval. Several of the region’s rulers have made pre-emptive gestures of democratic reform to avert their own protest movements.

The lesson many took: If it could happen in only three weeks in Egypt, where Mubarak’s lock on power appeared unshakable, it could happen anywhere. Only a month earlier, Tunisia’s president was forced to step down in the face of protests.

“This is the greatest day of my life,” said Nobel Peace laureate Mohammed ElBaradei, whose young supporters were among the organizers of the protest movement.

“The country has been liberated after decades of repression,” he said, adding that he expects a “beautiful” transition of power.

Perhaps most surprising was the genesis of the force that overthrew Mubarak.

The protests were started by a small core of secular, liberal youth activists organizing on the Internet who only a few months earlier struggled to gather more than 100 demonstrators at a time.

BITTERNESS

However, their work through Facebook and other social network sites over the past few years built greater awareness and bitterness among Egyptians over issues such as police abuse and corruption.

“Facebook brought down the regime,” said Sally Toma, one of the main protest organizers.

When the online activists called the first major protest, on Jan. 25, they tapped into a public inspired by Tunisia’s revolt and thousands turned out, beyond even the organizers’ expectations. From there, protests swelled, drawing hundreds of thousands. The Muslim Brotherhood joined in. However, far from hijacking the protests as many feared, it often seemed co-opted by the protesters, forced to set aside its hard-line ideology at least for now to adhere to democratic demands.

About 300 people were killed in the course of the turmoil. Police attacked the first protests with water cannons and gunfire, and then a force of regime supporters — believed to be paid thugs — assaulted Tahrir trying to dislodge the protesters, only to be beaten back in two days of pitched battles.

Wael Ghonim, a Google Inc executive who earlier this year secretly created a Facebook page that became a crucial protester organizing forum, said he “went mad” when he heard the news of Mubarak’s ouster.

“I expect a bright future. I trust in 80 million Egyptians,” said Ghonim, who was arrested immediately after the protests began and held for 12 days.

Mubarak, a former air force commander came to power after the 1981 assassination of his predecessor Anwar Sadat by Islamic radicals. Throughout his rule, he showed a near obsession with stability, ensuring control through rigged elections, a Constitution his regime wrote, a ruling party that monopolized the levers of state, and a hated police force accused of widespread torture.

He resisted calls for reform even as public bitterness grew over corruption, deteriorating infrastructure and rampant poverty in a country where 40 percent live below or near the poverty line.

Throughout the crisis, Mubarak backpedaled with concessions, replacing his government, purging his ruling party and moving to prosecute some of its most unpopular figures. However, the moves did nothing to diminish the regime’s power — and did not satisfy the steadily swelling protests.

Up to the last hours, Mubarak sought to cling to power, handing some of his authorities to newly appointed Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman, while keeping his title.

EXPLOSION

However, an explosion of protests on Friday rejecting the move appeared to have pushed the military into forcing him out completely.

Hundreds of thousands flooded the main squares of cities around the nation. Soldiers stood by and even threw cookies and biscuits to protesters who massed in front of Mubarak’s palaces in Cairo and Alexandria, chanting for him to go. Others blockaded the towering State Television and Radio Building overlooking the Nile River in Cairo, blocking employees from entering.

Ahmed Kassam, an engineer, said he marched with crowds for two hours across Cairo from Tahrir to the Oruba palace.

“We were shouting at people standing in their balconies and they came down and joined us. We have thousands behind us,” he said. “Today, I feel that something is going to change. I feel very, very powerful.”

Protesters stormed the main security headquarters in southern Egypt’s main city Assiut and two were killed by police opening fire before the province’s governor was forced to flee, escorted to safety by the army.

The ousted Mubarak himself flew to his isolated palace in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, 400km from the turmoil in Cairo.

Suleiman — who appears to have lost his vice president’s post as well in the military takeover — appeared grim as he delivered the short announcement on state TV on Friday night that Mubarak was stepping down.

“In these grave circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position as president of the republic,” he said. “He has mandated the Armed Forces Supreme Council to run the state. God is our protector and succor.”