New VP/longtime security chief Omar Suleiman prefers
"not to use police tools"... thereby implying he just might
Starting to look like the party's almost over in Cairo: popular support for the protesters is fading as the dug-in Mubarak regime offers measured concessions... whilst preparing to
turn the screws-
turn the screws-
VOA:
Egypt's vice president says the government will not tolerate prolonged anti-government protests in Cairo's main square, where hundreds of thousands of people gathered Tuesday in the latest effort to force the ouster of long-serving President Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt's state-run MENA news agency quotes Vice President Omar Suleiman as saying that a crisis triggered by 16 days of anti-Mubarak protests in Tahrir Square must end "as soon as possible." Suleiman was speaking late Tuesday to a group of Egyptian newspaper editors.
MENA says Suleiman told the editors that the presence of anti-Mubarak activists and satellite television stations in the square was making Egyptian citizens "hesitant to go to work" and disrupting daily life. He accused the satellite television stations of "insulting" Egypt, without naming them.
But, Suleiman also is quoted as saying the government does not want to deal with Egyptian society using "police tools" and prefers to use dialogue to try to address the protesters' demands.
Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Tahrir Square Tuesday in one of the biggest protests of a two-week-old uprising seeking an immediate end to Mr. Mubarak's nearly 30 years in power. Thousands remained in the square Wednesday, after spending another night in makeshift shelters.
Egypt's state-run MENA news agency quotes Vice President Omar Suleiman as saying that a crisis triggered by 16 days of anti-Mubarak protests in Tahrir Square must end "as soon as possible." Suleiman was speaking late Tuesday to a group of Egyptian newspaper editors.
MENA says Suleiman told the editors that the presence of anti-Mubarak activists and satellite television stations in the square was making Egyptian citizens "hesitant to go to work" and disrupting daily life. He accused the satellite television stations of "insulting" Egypt, without naming them.
But, Suleiman also is quoted as saying the government does not want to deal with Egyptian society using "police tools" and prefers to use dialogue to try to address the protesters' demands.
Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Tahrir Square Tuesday in one of the biggest protests of a two-week-old uprising seeking an immediate end to Mr. Mubarak's nearly 30 years in power. Thousands remained in the square Wednesday, after spending another night in makeshift shelters.
.......
Suleiman also is quoted as warning against plans by some protesters for a campaign of civil disobedience, saying such a development would be "very dangerous" to society.
Radio Netherlands
NRC Handelsblad reports that the tide of popular opinion now seems to be turning against the anti-Mubarak protestors on Tahrir Square, in what it describes as “a heartbreaking development for the demonstrators who where there from the start”.
Those emotions are expressed by 22-year-old Mona Sayd who says “We were so happy. We were writing history. And suddenly we’re the bad guys ... It feels like I was pregnant and now I’ve had a miscarriage. Today it’s as if I can feel the blood flowing out of my body. And as if that wasn’t enough, now there are people turning round and telling me that my pregnancy was illegitimate in the first place.”