Civil disobedience in Egypt set for February 11 Cairo – Akram Ali Thirteen Egyptian political movements and coalitions called for a strike and civil disobedience, starting on February 11, and going on until the handover of power to a national consensus government formed by the elected parliament, followed by electing a civilian president for the country.
Egyptian movements and coalitions released a statement on Saturday evening, expressing regrets over security conflicts and the SCAF holding on to power, which both cause Egyptians to suffer. They called for an open-ended civil disobedience, starting on February 11, and going on until power transfer.
The statement accused the military and security services, of continuing to protect and the authority and its interests rather than the Egyptian people.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Advisory Council recommended to the Supreme Council of Armed forces (SCAF) to open candidacy gate on February 23.
The Advisory Council recommended taking fast influential action, accelerating the presidential election, to hold it directly after the elections of the Shura Council. It condemned the lack of security during Port Said events, and offered their condolences to the families of the martyrs. They called on SCAF to speed up the investigation and prosecute those responsible for the tragic events.
The Advisory Council headed by Mansour Hassan stressed the need to suspend all police officers accused of killing demonstrators and have them tried in court. In addition, they asked to release the results of investigations that took place in the events of the Egyptian revolution and the aftermath.
Meanwhile, calm started spreading around the Egyptian Ministry of Interior, following clashes between protesters and security forces that lasted for three days, resulting in the death of 7 protesters and the injury of 2000 others.
Clashes almost stopped in Mansour Street, near the Interior Ministry, after concrete blocks were placed in the middle, separating protesters and security forces. Armed forces started building the “separation wall” at dawn, after setting up another one in Falaki Street to close all entrances to Interior Ministry.
Traffic flowed normally in Tahrir Square as a large number of protesters gathered at the Square entrance from Mohamed Mahmoud Street, participating in discussions, where most are trying to persuade the rest to “stick to the Square” in order not to give “thugs” a chance to carry out acts of violence and chaos, which protesters are often blamed for afterwards.
On a different note, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Health for medical treatment, Dr. Hisham Shiha, announced transferring 48 new cases to hospitals, on Saturday.
He pointed out that, most new cases suffer from fractures, burns resulting from Molotov cocktails, and injuries from bickering with stones.
In the same context, political activist and April 6 Youth coordinator Ahmed Maher stated, through his Twitter account, that he was transferred to Qasr al-Aini hospital for suffered a skull fracture and a concussion during the clashes, while attempting to establish a truce with the security forces last night in Mohamed Mahmoud Street.
Maher had participated in a 5-hour meeting organized by the parliamentary Youth Committee, Saturday, which aimed to activate the truce initiative to be joined by revolutionary youth and MPs.
The number of deaths among the demonstrators in the clashes with security forces around the Ministry of the Interior has now reached 7 people, whereas 228 from the security forces have reportedly been wounded, according to the Egyptian state TV.
Meanwhile, Abdeen prosecution ordered the arrest of 10 suspects under investigation, charged with destroying public and private property, in addition to provoking riots and assaulting police officers.
Prosecution released three others who were previously arrested in the Interior Ministry clashes.
In the same context, Egyptian Minister of Interior Mohamed Youssef Ibrahim stated that investigation is underway concerning the Port Said Stadium incident, stressing that former Interior Minister Habib el-Adli is “ in jail now and has no followers in the ministry.”
Ibrahim admitted, in a press conference held in Cairo, security deficiency and failure during the football game between al-Ahli and al-Masri in Port Said Stadium, which led to the disastrous death of dozens of youth. However, he stated that the transfer of Port Said Security Chief Essam Samak was on account of his “serious illness.”
\"There is an insistence (by protesters) on storming the interior ministry and implementing a plot,\" said Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, whose predecessor was sacked in a cabinet shuffle in November following similar clashes.
\"Because of their insistence, we have been placed in the position of defending the ministry,\" he said.
Ibrahim said police did not want to harm any \"revolutionaries\" among the protesters, but were prepared to confront others \"who want to ruin the country\".
Earlier on Sunday, the police had moved on protesters\' positions in the rock-strewn streets, firing birdshot and arresting medics at a field hospital, one doctor, Mustafa Nabil, told AFP. The medics were later released, he said.
The protesters denied they intended to storm the ministry, several hundred metres from Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the uprising that overthrew President Mubarak a year ago but left the military in charge.