In Egypt, streets fill with curfew defiers

Latest wave of violence leaves 60 dead

Egyptian protesters clash with riot police Monday near Tahrir Square in Cairo. At least 56 people have died in the recent wave of violence.

Egyptian protesters clash with riot police Monday near Tahrir Square in Cairo. At least 56 people have died in the recent wave of violence.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

— Protesters battled police for hours in Cairo on Monday and thousands marched through Egypt’s three Suez Canal cities in direct defiance of a nighttime curfew, despite efforts by the Islamist president to contain the crisis by imposing a state of emergency in three provinces.

Nearly 60 people have been killed in the wave of violence, which has led the military to deploy to Port Said and another city along the Suez Canal and has threatened to shake the control of President Mohammed Morsi’s government.

The main opposition coalition rejected Morsi’s call for national dialogue to resolve the crisis, demanding that he first make deep concessions to break what opponents call the monopoly that Islamists have tried to impose on power. The National Salvation Front said it wouldn’t join any dialogue until Morsi forms a national unity government and begins work to rewrite parts of the Islamist-backed constitution.

Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, which forms the backbone of his rule, have instead tried to take a tougher approach. Angry, and at times screaming and wagging his finger, Morsi went on national TV Sunday night and declared a 30-day state of emergency in the Suez Canal provinces of Port Said, Ismailiya and Suez, which are named after their main cities.

He said he had instructed the police to deal “firmly and forcefully” with the unrest and threatened to do more if security was not restored.

But when the 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew began Monday evening, crowds marched through the streets of Port Said, beating drums and chanting, “Erhal, erhal,” or “Leave, leave” - a chant that first rang out during the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011 but is now directed at Morsi.

“We completely reject Morsi’s measures. How can we have a curfew in a city whose livelihood depends on commerce and tourism?” said Ahmed Nabil, a schoolteacher in the Mediterranean coastal city.

In Suez and Ismailiya, thousands in the streets after curfew chanted against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. In Suez, residents let off fireworks that lit the night sky.

“Oh Morsi, Suez has real men,” they chanted.

In Ismailiya, residents organized street games of soccer to emphasize their contempt for the curfew and state of emergency.

Earlier Monday in Port Said - the hardest-hit city so far with at least 44 people killed in clashes over the weekend - thousands poured out into the streets for the funeral of six people killed during clashes the day before. They offered prayers on the dead at the city’s Mariam mosque and marched with the bodies to the city’s cemetery about a mile away.

Two army helicopters hovered above the funeral.

Clashes broke out Monday evening in the al-Arab district of the city, and a security forces armored personnel carrier opened fire, witness Ibrahim Ezzideen said. He did not have word on casualties. The same district saw heavy fighting the previous two days.

In Cairo, hundreds of young, stone-throwing protesters fought pitched battles Monday with riot police near Qasr el-Nil Bridge, a landmark bridge over the Nile River next to major hotels. One protester died of gunshot wounds, according to health and security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to reporters.

Anger over Morsi’s latest measures was evident at the site of Monday’s clashes, near Tahrir Square.

“People died to gain their freedom, social justice, bread. Now after 29 years of the despotic Mubarak, we’re ruled by a worse regime: religious fascist, more dangerous,” said Mohammed Saber, a 65-year old engineer who came to watch the clashes with his wife and children.

The wave of violence began Thursday and accelerated the next day, which fell on the two-year anniversary of the start of the anti-Mubarak uprising. Protests on Friday that turned to clashes around the country left 11 dead, most of them in Suez.

The next day, riots broke out in Port Said after a court convicted and sentenced to death 21 defendants for a mass soccer riot in the city’s main stadium a year earlier. Rioters attacked police stations, clashed with security forces in the streets and shots and tear gas were fired at protester funerals.

Throughout the past five days, anger over the policies of Morsi, who in June became Egypt’s first freely elected president, and the slow rate of change have helped fuel the protests and clashes.

Information for this article was contributed by Amir Makar of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 01/29/2013