Troops arrest 111 activists in & around Tahrir Square

CNN Arabic
مصر: اعتقال 111 بعد مواجهات مع الجيش بالتحرير

Aug. 4, 2011


القاهرة، مصر (CNN)-- أكد المجلس الأعلى للقوات المسلحة، الذي يتولى السلطة مؤقتاً في مصر، أن قوات الجيش اعتقلت نحو 111 شخصاً، أثناء فض اعتصام لقوى سياسية بميدان التحرير مساء الاثنين، على خلفية قيام عدد ممن أسماهم بـ"البلطجية"، بالاعتداء على أفراد الجيش، مما أدى إلى سقوط بعض الجرحى.

وقال اللواء إسماعيل عتمان، عضو المجلس الأعلى للقوات المسلحة، إنه ستتم إحالة هؤلاء "البلطجية" إلى النيابة العامة، وليس إلى النيابة العسكرية، "حتى لا يُقال إنهم سيُحاكمون عسكرياً"، وفق ما أورد موقع "أخبار مصر"، التابع للتلفزيون الرسمي.

وشدد عتمان، في مداخلة مع أحد البرامج التلفزيونية مساء الاثنين، على أن قوات الجيش لم تتعرض للمعتصمين، ولكن واجهت البلطجية الموجودين بالمكان حين بادروا بإلقاء الحجارة على القوات، وكان منهم من يحمل أسلحة بيضاء، منوهاً بأنه تم إصابة عدد من الجنود خلال هذه الأحداث.

كما نفى عضو المجلس العسكري وجود أية اعتصامات، في الوقت الحالي، أمام مسجد "عمر مكرم" بميدان التحرير، وسط العاصمة المصرية القاهرة، مؤكداً أن هدف القوات المسلحة هو "عودة الأمن والاستقرار إلى الوطن، مما يسهم في دفع عجلة الاقتصاد القومي."

Egypt: Troops forcefully disperse activists from Tahrir

The Associated Press
Egypt troops clash with activists in Tahrir Square

2011-08-01

SARAH EL DEEB

Egyptian troops clashed Monday with a small group of protesters camping out in Cairo's Tahrir Square to press demands for faster change and justice for demonstrators killed in the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

The clashes broke out after troops dismantled the protesters' tents on the square's median, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or arrests. Troops backed by armored vehicles and hundreds of riot police used clubs to clear the square after protesters ignored pleas over loudspeakers to leave. Military police fired shots in the air and protesters hurled rocks.

The operation brought an end to nearly a month of renewed daily protests in the central square that was the birthplace of the 18-day uprising that overthrew Mubarak in February.

Several hundred demonstrators had rebuilt the round-the-clock protest camp there on July 8 to renew the pressure on Egypt's transitional military rulers to swiftly bring Mubarak and other members of his regime to trial.

After the army's clearing operation, vehicle traffic instantly returned to the busy interchange in the heart of downtown for the first time in weeks.

Egypt's activists, many of whom are suspicious of the ruling military council's pledges to bring genuine reforms, are demanding Mubarak loyalists be weeded out from key state institutions like the judiciary, police and civil service.

Mubarak's trial on charges he ordered the killing of protesters in the crackdown earlier this year is scheduled to start in Cairo on Wednesday. Seeing him and other members of his regime brought to public trial is a key demand of the protesters.

Monday's clashes came after a small group of protesters decided to continue the sit-in at Tahrir Square even though most groups decided to end it to mark the start this week of the holy month of Ramadan, when devout Muslims refrain from food, drink, smoking and sex from dawn to dusk.

After the confrontations, the square's median was covered with the personal belongings of the protesters and the tents' torn canvass.

Many of those who had remained at the square were relatives of some of the 850 protesters killed during the uprising.

The relatives and other protesters wanted to continue with the sit-in until Mubarak appears in the first hearing of his trial on Wednesday. Others wanted to stay at the square until all other demands are met.

Mubarak, his security chief and six top police officers could face the death sentence if convicted of ordering the use of lethal force against the protesters.

Peaceful protest march ambushed; 200+ injured

Thousands of protesters marched peacefully from Tahrir Square, on their way to the military junta's HQs in eastern Cairo, on the evening of July 23. However, an army roadblock - set up hours earlier, on Ramses St. - in the neighborhood of Abbassiya prevented the protest march from advancing.


Angry local residents emerged from the side-streets of the neighborhood (along with hired thugs, and plain-clothed police) and quickly moved to hurl rocks at the peaceful protesters; knives and swords were brandished, while glass-bottles, Molotovs and bricks came raining-down from balconies.


In self-defense, hundreds of protesters fought back with rocks. A cordon of riot police was immediately deployed in the rear. Abbassiya residents, (along with thugs from other neighborhoods) positioned themselves behind the police and began hurling rocks, bottles, and petrol bombs over the cordon, at the protesters. The riot police then fired several teargas canisters at the protesters.


Some 200 activists, and dozens of local residents/thugs, were injured in these clashes. Several protesters were reported to be arrested; along with the abduction and disappearance of Activist/Blogger Amr Gharbeia.


The ruling military junta, along with the Ministry of Interior (and their hired thugs,) ambushed this otherwise peaceful protest march. The security forces chose to block traffic in central Cairo for hours, to instigate attacks upon the protesters, to pose as peace-keepers, and then to blame the violence upon the protesters.


Thousands of protesters marched back to Tahrir Square - to continue with the July8 sit-in, and to plan for the upcoming struggles; to defend the January 25 Revolution, and its democratic demands.

March against Egypt's military junta, attacked

New York Times
March Against Egypt’s Military Collapses Into Violence

July 23, 2011

David D. Kirkpatrick

CAIRO — The first major protest aimed squarely at Egypt’s transitional military rulers ended Saturday night in violent clashes with neighborhood youths, who are opposed to the continued demonstrations that threaten stability.

Egyptian Health Department officials said at least 25 people were hospitalized and 120 others were treated on the scene.

The demonstration, on the day Egyptians celebrate the 1952 military coup against the British-backed monarchy, underscored how liberal elements of the protest movement have increasingly turned on the army after the heady days of the demonstrations that forced President Hosni Mubarak from power.

But it also showcased both the mounting hostility toward the Tahrir Square activists in some precincts more worried about stability and economic growth than swift political change. And, following several other recent bursts of nocturnal street violence, it was the latest reminder that the potential for chaos is still present in this hot, overcrowded city where the still-despised police force has yet to reconstitute and reassert itself.

Late Saturday afternoon, thousands of demonstrators began marching from the two-week-old sit-in in Tahrir Square toward military headquarters to show their impatience with the pace of change, especially in the reorganization of the police and the prosecution of former officials.

A half-dozen army tanks and hundreds of soldiers behind a barrier of barbed wire blocked the final stretch of the road, and when the march reached the barricade around 7 p.m., young counter-protesters, including some armed with knives and machetes, started fistfights and threw rocks and, ultimately, Molotov cocktails.

Organizers pleaded with the demonstrators to hold back or retreat to Tahrir Square. In contrast to the discipline that prevailed before the revolution, these demonstrators quickly retaliated. About a half-dozen cars were set ablaze during a chaotic two-hour street fight as the military watched from behind its barrier without interfering.

The fight died down after hundreds of riot policemen arrived and showered the streets with tear gas. The protesters quickly departed before they came under direct attack. And within another hour, the demonstrators paraded out again, chanting, “We are going to the square.”

*Heba Afify contributed reporting.

Egypt: Police disperse Alexandrian protesters

REUTERS
Egypt police disperse Alexandria protesters: witness

July 23, 2011

Abdel Rahman Youssef

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian military police fired shots in the air and beat demonstrators blocking a main road in Alexandria on Friday, witnesses said, a move which could further sour relations between the army and civilians.

It was a rare incidence of violence in two weeks of largely peaceful protests in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Cairo and the Suez Canal city of Suez following a court's decision to free on bail 10 policemen accused of killing protesters during the uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in February.

The violence in Alexandria and an incident in Suez angered hundreds of protesters camping in Cairo's Tahrir Square, witnesses said.

They said a crowd of more than 1,000 began marching towards the headquarters of the ruling military council, chanting: "Down with the Field Marshal" -- a reference to the council head, Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi. Witnesses said military police fired in the air to stop them approaching the building.

The ruling military council, in a statement on its Facebook page, denied the authorities used force against demonstrators anywhere in Egypt and accused the April 6 Movement, one of the groups behind the uprising, of trying to drive a wedge between the armed forces and the people.

Egypt's interim rulers have reshuffled Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's cabinet and promised to speed up trials and political reforms, but thousands kept up protests across Egypt on Friday to back demands for the policemen's trials to be held soon.

Hassan al-Ruwaini, a member of the ruling military council, told state television the council was trying to meet protesters' demands, but it was up to the courts to free or convict suspects on trial.

Witnesses said the clash in Alexandria erupted after hundreds of protesters blocking the coastal road near the army's northern command headquarters refused to leave the area. Police fired shots in the air and charged demonstrators who responded by hurling stones at them.

"The military police are firing in the air. They are also beating protesters with batons and kicking them hard," a witness told Reuters.

Witnesses said up to 10 people were believed to have been hurt in the clashes. Many demonstrators fled but a group of men seized a police truck and set it on fire, witnesses said.

In Suez, the state MENA news agency said military police "foiled" an attack on the local security headquarters and detained four people after a crowd attacked the building with a firebomb and stones.

CABINET RESHUFFLE NOT ENOUGH

Sharaf, in a speech after his new cabinet was sworn in on Thursday, promised to set up an anti-corruption body and work to scrap a 30-year-old emergency law. He also said the interior minister would appoint a human rights adviser, and human rights and civil society groups would have access to prisons.

But activists said this was not enough.

"We are continuing the sit-in because the families of the martyrs have demands that have not been met yet," said Shadi Ghazali Harb from the Youth Coalition in Cairo.

Their demands include putting officers charged with shooting demonstrators into "protective custody so they would not intimidate the families of martyrs" and appointing a new prosecution team to look into outstanding cases of killings of protesters.

Activists, mainly representing secular, liberal and leftist groups, have been camping in Tahrir Square since July 8, after a court decided to release on bail the 10 policemen charged with the January killings in Suez.

About 300 people held a rally in another part of Cairo in support of the military council, calling for "stability" and an end to protests in Egypt.

Islamist groups, including the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist groups who advocate adherence to early Islamic teachings, plan to hold a rally in Cairo on July 29 to press for a return to stability in Egypt.

Political groups have called for a rally on Saturday to oppose trials of civilians in military courts, coinciding with the anniversary of the 1952 revolution led by the army.

"The July 8 protests were triggered by the pending demands of families who are angry with the slow pace of prosecution of those who killed protesters," he added.

Harb said the Youth Coalition was forming a committee to meet the interior and justice ministries to press the demands of families of the 840 Egyptians killed in the anti-Mubarak revolt.

Egyptians Back in Tahrir Sq. & Winning Victories

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Egypt: Back in Tahrir Square and Winning Victories

July 14, 2011

The Egyptian people have proven themselves to be a patient nation. They showed an active patience over the three decades of Mubarak rule, speaking out when they could but waiting for the right time to rise up in Tahrir Square and across the country to oust him.

Since the success of the Jan. 25 uprising, many in America have wondered whether the uprising died out prematurely after Mubarak’s resignation. The pace of reform has slowed, the military regime has dragged hundreds of protesters before unfair military trials, and the New Egypt looks suspiciously like the Old Egypt.

This week, they have their answer. Today, for the sixth straight day, thousands of Egyptians have returned to sit in Tahrir Square to demand their promised rights. Despite public warnings from the interim military rulers, the protesters are not budging and are preparing Friday to present one of the largest protests in Egypt since Jan. 25.

This is what change looks like. It’s not a straight line and it’s not inevitable. But what the Egyptian people are doing is effective. One of the critical demands from the people is that the government investigate crimes by the police and security forces under the Mubarak regime. This is a step the government hasn’t wanted to take, focusing instead on prosecuting Mubarak and a few top former regime leaders.

But the Egyptian protests forced the government on Wednesday to go farther, firing some 600 to 700 senior police officers. At least three dozen were specifically accused of being involved in the killing of protesters during the Jan. 25 uprising, according to Al Jazeera. That’s not enough, as Amnesty International’s documentation on Egypt’s corrosive security forces makes clear, but it’s a good victory, and it wouldn’t have happened without the protests. The military rulers have also acted to improve judicial transparency, particularly related to the upcoming trials of former regime members. That’s another victory for the protesters.

A second critical demand for protesters is justice and reparations for the thousands of people injured by the Egyptian security forces, particularly in the aftermath of the Jan. 25 uprising. A new Amnesty International video with Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, AI’s deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Program, documents the organization’s research on police violence in the Suez and the victims’ inability to date to get justice.

The protests have also led to a resignation of an unpopular deputy prime minister. But there has been resistance, with groups of armed men forcing their way into Tahrir Square and injuring at least eight people, according to al Jazeera.

Watch Egypt on Friday, when the protests should be the largest. The Egyptian people haven’t forgotten what Jan. 25 was about, and if the rest of the world supports them the New Egypt may be newer and come sooner than we thought.

Photos: Political graffiti & street art around Cairo

Simple message to the pigs.


All Cops Are Bastards. Letters in the image of AC/DC logo. Homeless man rests on sidewalk beneath the street art in Nasr City.


"The (Ministry of) Interior are thugs"


"I am the people." Stencil of the late comedian Nagah el-Mogy


"Their weapons." "Our weapons." Armed forces & police forces VS. civilians & their cameras


US $25 - Price of an imported tear gas canister. Similar canisters were fired at protesters on Mohamed Mahmoud St. during the recent clashes with police forces on June 28 & 29.


"Be realistic, demand the impossible" - Anarchist graffiti in Tahrir Sq. Revolutionary quote borrowed from the French Uprising of May 1968.


A message of non-violent resistance - to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces


One (Arab) nation - Third Intifada. Street art borrowed from the revolutionary Brazilian artist Carlos Lattuf.


The Mugamaa' (the massive administrative bureaucratic complex in Tahrir) is closed.


Nooses hang on the wall, awaiting the necks of Mubarak, Habib el-Adly and their criminal police officers. "Retribution." Street art by the Revolutionary Socialists.


"Now I understand you." Mubarak hangs. "Don't believe the SCAF hype."


Anarchy is order.


Stencil by 'Freedom Painters' on Ahmad Fakhry St. Nasr City


"He hasn't stood trial." Stencil of ousted dictator Mubarak with a swastika on his forehead, painted on Mugamaa Building in Tahrir Square.


Mubarak pulling the military council's marionette strings


Mubarak's loyal Minister of Defense for 20 years, chief of the ruling military junta. Fascist Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi (Swastika on forehead) behind bars.


Anarchy sign on Mugamaa' - "July 8 sit-in"


The word "revolution" in green, sprouting out of the word "martyrs," dripping blood.


Image of a "Military Council" arm striking with its hammer on the words "Popular willpower." The military junta's hammer shatters upon impact.


"I am heading out (to Tahrir) on July 8." A message encouraging more girls and women to participate in the ongoing revolution.


Artist paints "March 9" with prison bars. This piece of street art is meant to raise awareness and solidarity with 170 civilians protesters in Tahrir - who were arrested, beaten, tortured and imprisoned by the army on that day.


"The revolution has a guardian watching over it


"The revolution has revolutionaries protecting it." Red Sea Governorate Youth


Revolution first and foremost


Steadfast in our revolution - April 6th Youth Movement


We are resilient!


The revolution continues...


Massive mural on the street in Tahrir Square. Images and words speak of revolutionary "freedom" along with "change" and "social justice."


"The real revolutionary sees his/her revolution through, perseveres"

Egypt fires more than 600 top police officers

This act of appeasement will not suffice! All policemen and officers responsible for the injury/deaths of Egyptian protesters must be put on trial. Prison sentences and executions are due!

JC
*

Los Angeles Times
Egypt fires more than 600 top police officers

July 14, 2011

In a purge aimed at appeasing anti-government protesters, Egyptian authorities fire 669 police officials linked to the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak. The move comes as parliamentary elections are delayed.

Jeffrey Fleishman and Amro Hassan

Reporting from Cairo—

Egypt fired more than 600 high-ranking police officers Wednesday in a purge aimed at appeasing thousands of antigovernment protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square amid deepening divisions over wiping away the remnants of former President Hosni Mubarak's regime.

The move came on the same day the military council ruling the country announced that parliamentary elections planned for September would be delayed until October or November. The postponement will help new political parties challenge the more experienced Muslim Brotherhood, which was expected to win at least 25% of the seats in parliament.

Secular parties had pressed for a delay, fearing that a parliament heavily influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood's conservative agenda would threaten human rights and religious tolerance. The Islamist organization's reach may be further diminished by new regulations for choosing the 100-member assembly that will draft a new constitution.

The firing of 669 police officers was the biggest reshuffle in the Interior Ministry's history. It includes 505 brigadier generals, 82 colonels and 37 officers charged in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the weeks-long revolution that overthrew Mubarak on Feb. 11.

The announcement came during the sixth day of demonstrations in Tahrir Square by activists seeking to pressure the interim government to bring Mubarak and members of his regime to justice. The government and military council fear that the return of tents and banners to the square will further disrupt a nation facing labor strikes, a troubled economy and political unrest.

"The firings are to gradually dismantle the police state we used to live in," said Ammar Ali Hassan, head of the Middle East Center for research and political studies. "Protesters have succeeded in forcing security officials and the police into such changes, despite police efforts to keep the system they had before the Jan. 25 revolution."

So far, only one police officer has been found guilty of killing demonstrators last winter. He was sentenced to death. The country is awaiting the trials of Mubarak and former Interior Minister Habib Adli, both of whom have been accused in the deaths of protesters.

Photos: July Revolution in Tahrir Square - Day 5

Tens of thousands converged on Tahrir Square, to protest against the interim government and the ruling military junta.


Protesters demanded that all the demands of the January 25 Revolution be met - including swift and just trials against Mubarak, his regime, and his criminal police force; the release of all political prisoners, and ending the referral of civilians to military trials.


Protesters march and chant slogans against Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, the chief of Egypt's ruling military junta. Egypt's revolutionaries demand that Tantawi be sacked, along with General Prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, and Interior Minister Mansour el-Eissawi.


Activists hang-up a massive banner demanding justice in the trials of the Mubarak regime, the trials of police forces responsible for the injury and/or murder of protesters. Other demands include limiting the powers of the military junta, and the elimination of military tribunals.


Tahrir's protests, songs, festivities; its occupation/liberation continues on into the sixth day.

Thousands rally for Egypt military chief's ouster

Agence France-Presse
Thousands rally for Egypt military chief's ouster

AFP | Jul 13, 2011

CAIRO: Thousands of Egyptians rallied on Tuesday for the downfall of Egypt's military leader, as anger mounts over the army's handling of a transition from the country's former autocratic regime.

Five months after a popular uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak, activists fear their revolution is in jeopardy and accuse the ruling military council of keeping an absolute grip on power that blocks the path to democracy.

Protesters have been camping out in Cairo's Tahrir Square, in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and in the canal city of Suez since mass nationwide rallies on Friday to demand political change.

"The people want the fall of the Field Marshall," chanted demonstrators in Cairo, in reference to Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's longtime defence minister who now heads the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

"Down, down with the Field Marshall," thousands chanted in Suez where the army erected barbed wire and formed a wall to block any attempt to reach the strategic Suez Canal.

Tahrir Square was bubbling with energy tonight, with speakers on podiums and a concert planned, amid tight security overseen by the demonstrators.

The army, which was hailed as heroes at the start of the January 25 uprising for not shooting protesters, has come under fire for using Mubarak-era tactics to stifle dissent and maintain an unchallenged hold on power.

But the council insisted it will not cede control over the transition.

"The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces stresses that it will not renounce its role in managing the affairs of the country during this critical time in Egypt's history," SCAF member Mohsen al-Fangary said in a speech broadcast on state television.

In a stern address, Fangary warned those who "deviate from the peaceful approach during demonstrations and sit-ins and obstruct the institutions of the state."

But Fangary's speech only furthered the protesters' resolve to pursue their sit-ins, they said.

"They think their warnings will drive us away from Tahrir, they obviously don't understand the revolution," said protester Mohammed Hamdy.

The protests -- dubbed the revolution's "second wave" -- have put Prime Minister Essam Sharaf under increasing pressure amid accusations he is too weak to face the military junta.

Free haircut & free music in Tahrir Square

While protesting in Tahrir Square, Barber Sobhi 'The Artist'- from Mansoura - offers his hairdo services free of charge. You can also have your photo taken while having your hair trimmed. Kid with apron takes a haircut and a photo-shoot; holds a sign reading: "Shave me, thank you."



Assistant holds up a sign reading "Free haircut - Barber of the Revolution." There are a couple of other revolutionary barbers in the square, who also provide free haircuts for protesters.


Arabic rock-fusion band (didn't catch their name) performing on the Omar Makram stage in Tahrir square.


Songs speak of freedom, the fight against corruption, and presidential candidates, along with other issues/concerns.


Many fine performers - including: Ramy Essam, Mariam & Abu, Iskenderella, Mostafa Saeed, amongst others - have played on this stage throughout the revolution.


Traditional Egyptian sing-along. Little circles of musicians, singers and clappers play in and around the square.


Just like this sign says.

Egypt: PM Plans Cabinet Reshuffle, Police Purge

Bloomberg
Egypt Prime Minister Plans Cabinet Reshuffle, Police Purge

July 11, 2011

Mariam Fam

Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said he plans to reshuffle his Cabinet within a week and ordered the purging of senior police officers involved in crimes against protesters, a demand of demonstrators.

“We are going through a historic moment,” he said yesterday in a televised speech. “I ask the great Egyptian people to give the new government the full opportunity to work for the future of Egypt and to realize the goals of the revolution.”

Sharaf ordered disciplinary action by July 15 against senior police officers involved in abuses of protesters and called for swift, public trials for all the “symbols of the former regime and the killers of the revolutionaries.”

He also said there would be a change of governors before the end of the month.

“We demanded that the ministers be changed,” said Sally Moore, a member of a coalition of protesting groups. “The problem is that there has been no change; nothing has changed,” she said before Sharaf’s speech.

Egyptian protesters continued sit-ins in Cairo and elsewhere, calling for the prosecution of former government officials accused of corruption and involvement in killing demonstrators during the revolt that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak.

Protesters in the capital’s central Tahrir Square have put forward seven demands, including an end to military trials of civilians and the firing of rogue Interior Ministry officials.

'LACK OF TRUST'

“There’s lack of trust in the prime minister and in the government in general,” Emad Gad, of the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said before the announcement. “If this is a large reshuffle that brings fresh faces to most of the ministries, then he may be given a second chance.”

Gad said many protesters have come to see the prime minister as “a front for the military council.” The council took interim authority from President Hosni Mubarak, who stepped down on Feb. 11 after mass protests.

Tahrir Square looks like February all over again

Los Angeles Times
EGYPT: Tahrir Square looks like February all over again

July 11, 2011

Amro Hassan


Cairo’s Tahrir Square is beginning to look and feel like it did last winter when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians protested, camped and fought for 18 days to topple President Hosni Mubarak. Activists have returned to the now-fabled square with banners and anthems in hopes of reigniting the passions of a revolution that stunned the Arab world.

A march on Friday started with tens of thousands filling the square and ended with several thousand holding a sit-in that has stretched into a fourth day in a provocative challenge to the ruling military council. Protesters are demanding speedier trials for members of Mubarak’s regime who have been charged with corruption and the murders of hundreds of protesters during the revolution.

Several other demands include an end to military trials set up for civilians detained in various incidents over the last few months, the firing of all former regime officials still holding public office and the setting of a minimum wage. An televised address to the nation on Saturday by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf promising meet some demands did little to calm the furor.

The protests in Tahrir are smaller than they were in January and February. Most of those joining the sit-in fear that the revolution is slipping away from them, and that the promises by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces and the interim government cannot be trusted.

“Many people are here to fulfill the remainder of the revolution’s goals, but I say that none of the revolution's main aims have been achieved,” Mohamed Fawzy, an 18-year-old aviation engineering student, told The Times from his tent in the square’s middle garden.

“Only 10% of what we were calling for was accomplished, and that’s ousting Mubarak, that’s if he actually stepped down,” he said, suggesting, like many here, that Mubarak and his aides are controlling the agenda from behind the scenes. The former president is in a hospital with heart problems and is expected to go on trial on Aug. 3.

One of the main issues that raised suspicions about the revolution's success is the constant delays in bringing Mubarak, his two sons and former ministers to justice. Although five former ministers, including former Interior Minister Habib Adli, were sentenced to prison for corruption charges, many protesters are dismayed that neither Adli nor any of the 120 police officers charged with killing protesters has faced a verdict yet on those charges.

It seems that Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the military council, is "trying to protect Mubarak, Adli and nine other former officials,” said Magdi Iskandar Saad, whose son Mina was killed by police officers on Jan. 28. “We feel there’s something cooking but don’t know exactly what.”

Fawzy said Egypt's destiny counts on the indictment of the “corrupt” ex-officials. He added: “Their presence outside prison bars is a great threat to the revolution. We’ve had a ruined tree that needs to be uprooted. Only then we can’t start rebuilding this country,” he said.

So Tahrir Square, once again scattered with tents and stages, has become reminiscent of scenes when the Mubarak regime unraveled. Many protesters escape the staggering afternoon heat of the Egyptian summer, heading home to rest and eat and returning in the evenings. Activists have called for a million-man march in Tahrir on Tuesday.

*Photo: Tens of thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square on Friday. Credit: Camille Lepage for the Los Angeles Times.