Across the Arab world, protesters show fury at the resistance to change shown by interim authorities as well as old regimes.
The historic revolutions that have rippled through the
Arab world this year were in danger of eclipse on Friday night as protesters
returned to the streets to profess their disgust at how the movement is being
stymied by regimes old and new.
Six months after the Arab spring claimed its first
dictator, the main squares of Cairo and Tunis were again alive with protest,
teargas and fury at the resistance to change shown by interim authorities. In
Syria activists said at least 19 people had been killed in the latest crackdown
against protests that have convulsed the country for more than four months. At
least seven people were killed in Yemen amid a political limbo that appears no
closer to resolution. And in Jordan a heavy security presence policed pro- and
anti-reform demonstrations which turned violent.
The scenes served as a reminder that following the
euphoria of the Arab spring, little concrete progress towards reform has been
made. Elections in Tunisia and Egypt have been postponed. Offers of reform in
Yemen and Syria have been rejected as inadequate.
Egypt
Thousands of demonstrators descended on public squares
around the country to offer a "Friday of final warning" to the ruling
military junta, amid fears that the revolution which toppled Hosni Mubarak is
being betrayed by conservative forces.
Rallies and hunger strikes were reported from Alexandria
on the Mediterranean coast all the way down to Luxor in the south and Suez in
the east, with the main focus once again on Cairo's Tahrir Square where a large
sit-in is now over a week old and shows no sign of ending.
Protesters accused the Supreme Council of the Armed
Forces (SCAF), which assumed power in the aftermath of Mubarak's fall and
promised to make way for a democratically-elected civilian government later
this year, of stifling revolutionary demands and working to shield elements of
the old regime from grassroots political change.
"As many have been saying on Facebook, the
relationship between the people and SCAF is the same as the relationship
between a wife and a husband who she knows is being unfaithful," said
Shady Alaa El Din, a demonstrator in Tahrir.
"She tolerated it at first in an effort not to
destroy the family and hurt the children, but eventually she realised the
husband doesn't really care about the family at all, so now she has dropped her
act and is taking him on directly," he added.
"At first we lied to ourselves, we wanted to believe
they were with us. But now the street has woken up and it is saying to SCAF 'we
are the rulers, and you follow our orders – not the other way round. We are the
fucking red line, you do not cross us.'"
In common with most protesters, El Din was infuriated
this week by an address from SCAF spokesman General Mohsen El-Fangari, in which
he warned against those seeking to "disrupt public order" and adopted
a tone reminiscent of Mubarak in his final speeches to the nation. Pressure is
now mounting on interim prime minister Essam Sharaf, who appears unable or
unwilling to force through meaningful policy changes in the face of the
generals' intransigence and is now being urged to resign by many of his
original supporters.
Tunisia
For anyone new to the Tunisian capital, it was almost as
though the past six months had never happened. Balaclava-wearing riot police
armed with batons, teargas launchers and dogs squared up against a small crowd
of demonstrators who had gathered to express a sentiment widely felt in the
city: that the revolution has run into the sand, stymied by a caretaker
administration that they say has done little to implement revolutionaries'
demands.
The central government square or Qasbah was protected by
coils of barbed wire and armoured vehicles, as demonstrators waving Tunisian
flags chanted "peaceful, peaceful". Then the trouble started. The
first gas canister spewed a thick white smoke and was quickly followed by many
others. Protesters ran for cover into dark shadows against a white gas screen.
Two men held their ground, kneeling bare-chested and
facing the charging police. A third stopped a canister that whirled past,
picked it up and threw it back at police lines. As the fumes dispersed, the
demonstrators returned, their numbers now swelled into the hundreds. Some began
pelting police with small rocks.
"The people who tortured me are still there,"
said Malek Khudaira pointing at the ministry where he was held for 10 days
during the uprising that toppled the former dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
"How can I feel there is change and it's a full
revolution if everything is the same, I see those torturers walking in the
streets every day."
For hours a game of attack and counter attacked ensued.
Demonstrators would march, police would fire hails of canisters into their
midst. One man in black trousers, white shirt and sunglasses stood facing the
police when they fired a small canister point blank at his belly. He fell where
he stood. Others helped him away.
The organisers labelled the event as "the Qasbah
3". Number 1 was the uprising that toppled Ben Ali and forced him to flee
and number 2 was the sit-in that toppled the first caretaker government a month
later.
Syria
Activists reported at least 19 deaths across Syria and
dozens of injuries as people gathered for the main weekly prayers, which have
been used as a launching pad for dissent for more than four months.
Heavy clashes took place in parts of the capital,
according to activists and state media, who offered widely diverging accounts.
At least seven protesters were shot dead in neighbourhoods of Damascus as some
of the largest crowds since the uprising poured on to the streets.
Security forces have generally used batons and teargas in
Damascus to avoid inflaming protests in the heartland of the regime's power.
Elsewhere, scores of wounded were reported in the cities of Aleppo, Deraa,
Idleb and Homs.
Syrian officials again blamed armed gangs for the
violence – an indirect reference to Islamists who it claims are trying to
ignite sectarian chaos. However, activists said unarmed demonstrators were again
attacked by soldiers firing live rounds.
The use of violence has been unpredictable, changing by
week and location. In Homs, one resident in the well-off neighbourhood of
Inshaat said security forces appeared to be trying to avoid deaths. "They
have been shooting but seemed to be aiming at the legs rather that the
heads."
Two of the biggest protests took place in Hama and Deir
Ezzor, on a day when activists estimated that up to 1 million people may have
openly defied the regime nationwide.
Jordan
Ten people, mostly journalists, were injured on
Fridaywhen Jordanian police tried to intervene in clashes between pro-reform
demonstrators and government supporters in Amman.
Hundreds of protesters calling for political changes and
an end to corruption gathered in the centre of the capital but it was not clear
whether they would ignore official warnings against holding a sit-in of the
types seen in Egypt and Bahrain.
Jordan has seen sporadic unrest since January but only on
a small scale. Opposition demands – supported by youth groups, civil society
organisations and Islamists – are for changes within the framework of the
Hashemite monarchy. King Abdullah has pledged to pursue reforms that would
allow the formation of future governments based on an elected parliamentary
majority but gave no date.
The slogan "the people want the reform of the
regime" was in striking and deliberate contrast to demands elsewhere for
the "overthrow" of rulers.
The Amman protest was held with a heavy security
presence, with police, gendarmerie and special forces surrounding the area, the
Ammon News website reported.
Rallies for reform and against "rampant
corruption" also drew hundreds of demonstrators in the southern cities of
Tafileh, Maan and Karak, and in Irbid and Jerash in the north.
* By: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Jack Shenker, Nour Ali, Martin
Chulov and Ian Black