Mubarak Steps Down From Power
Protests In Egypt
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak resigned Friday after 30 years in office, bowing to weeks of mass protests that paralyzed the country. Vice President Omar Suleiman announced the news on state television and said control over the affairs of state will be turned over to the military.
"In these difficult circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave the position of the presidency," Suleiman said in brief remarks just after nightfall. "He has commissioned the armed forces council to direct the issues of the state."
The moment the announcement was made, Cairo's Tahrir Square erupted in celebration. People ran through the streets hugging each other and shouting, "Egypt is free!" and "The people have brought down the regime!" Car horns and celebratory shots in the air were heard around the city of 18 million.
Egyptian anti-goverment demonstrators flood Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square early Friday.
Egyptian anti-goverment demonstrators flood Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square early Friday.
"It's the greatest day of my life," opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei told NPR. "I could never have imagined that I would live long enough to see Egypt emancipated. It's an electrifying feeling.
"We have finally hope to catch up to the rest of the world and bring our country where it deserves to be — a democracy."
The ruling National Democratic Party also has been dissolved and the recently appointed general-secretary of the party, Hossam Badrawi, has resigned. Badrawi told al-Hayat TV that his was "a resignation from the position and from the party."
"The formation of new parties in a new manner that reflects new thinking is better for society now at this stage," he said.
A senior White House official said President Obama was at a meeting in the Oval Office when he was informed of Mubarak's decision to step down. Obama watched television coverage of the scene in Cairo for several minutes. He was expected to make a statement later Friday.
Mubarak left Cairo on Friday as hundreds of thousands of enraged protesters swarmed across the capital and other major cities in Egypt demanding his resignation.
A local government official told The Associated Press on Friday that Mubarak was in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, some 250 miles from Cairo, where he has a palace.
The Uprising
Mubarak was thrust into power in 1981 in the chaotic aftermath of President Anwar Sadat's assassination by Islamic extremists at a military parade in Cairo and has ruled with a heavy hand for 30 years, making him the longest-serving Egyptian leader since the 19th century.
Mubarak had sought to cling to power, handing some of his authorities to Suleiman while keeping his title. But an explosion of protests Friday rejecting the move appeared to have pushed the military into forcing him out completely. Hundreds of thousands of people had marched throughout the day in cities across the country as soldiers stood by, besieging his palace in Cairo and Alexandria and the state TV building. A governor of a southern province was forced to flee to safety in the face of protests there.
Reports of the president's resignation came hours after the Egyptian military said it would support Mubarak's decision to remain in office through September elections.
The Armed Forces Supreme Council released a statement Friday endorsing the plan Mubarak unveiled Thursday night for constitutional changes and presidential elections and for transferring some powers to Vice President Omar Suleiman. The council also guaranteed that Egypt's hated emergency laws, imposed when Mubarak took power after the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat, would be lifted "immediately after the end of the current circumstances" — a reference to the mass protests.
The military also called for public services to resume and urged "the return of normal life in order to safeguard the achievements of our glorious people."
Hundreds of thousands of people across Egypt had watched Mubarak's speech Thursday in disbelief and anger as he refused to step down and made the symbolic gesture of handing over some authority to Suleiman. His defiant stance only emboldened the protesters, energizing their call for a "march of millions" Friday.
Protesters Mobilize In Cairo
Hours before Mubarak stepped down, about 2,500 demonstrators assembled outside the gate of the presidential palace on Friday, and more than 10,000 tore apart military barricades in front of the State Television and Radio building. The palace was protected by four tanks and rolls of barbed wire, but soldiers did not prevent people from joining the rally and chanting anti-Mubarak slogans.
Outside the palace, the words "You will be tried" were written in chalk.
Others massed outside the Cabinet, parliament and the state TV headquarters several blocks away from Tahrir Square, the center of the mass rallies that began Jan. 25.
Hundreds of demonstrators formed a human barricade around the building that houses state TV and radio, checking IDs and turning away those who work there. Tanks and barbed wire also surrounded that building overlooking the Nile, but troops did not keep protesters away.
In Egypt's second-largest city, Alexandria, NPR's Corey Flintoff said "tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands" were peacefully marching along a main boulevard that snakes along the Mediterranean seaside. Many waved Egyptian flags or carried banners and hand-lettered signs.
"We understand, too, that a great many people have gone to Cairo to join the protests in Tahrir Square," Flintoff said.
NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson and Eric Westervelt in Cairo; Corey Flintoff in Alexandria; and Deborah Amos in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this story, which contains material from The Associated Press.
Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters marched in Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city, on Friday.
No comments:
Post a Comment