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Egypt detains 25 in protests for political reform
30 Mar 2005 17:39:21 GMT
Source: Reuters
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(Updates with official reaction, paragaphs 7-9) By Amil Khan CAIRO, March 30 (Reuters) - Egyptian police detained 25 demonstrators out of hundreds demanding political reform on Wednesday, three days after blocking the banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood from holding a similar protest. The Kefaya (Enough) Movement, a loose alliance of leftists and liberals, defied a police ban to organise Wednesday's demonstrations in Cairo, the northern coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Mansoura. Police picked up 22 in Alexandria and three in Mansoura for protesting without permission, a police source said. "They (the authorities) are threatened ... They think the situation is escalating," said a Cairo member of Kefaya, who asked not to be named. Cairo security director Major-General Nabil el-Ezabi said after the Brotherhood's attempted demonstration on Sunday that the authorities had decided not to allow Wednesday's protests. "The situation is out of control after every movement and organisation held demonstrations without notifying the police. This disrupts the movement of traffic and leads to confusion," he told the state news agency MENA. Another official also said Kefaya, which has held a series of previous protests, did not inform the authorities. The Kefaya Movement sprang up last year to campaign against a fifth six-year term for President Hosni Mubarak, who has governed since 1981, or any transfer of power to his son Gamal. It wanted to protest outside parliament but hundreds of riot police deployed there, penned a handful of protesters against a wall and ordered them to disperse. They moved on to the Press Syndicate, where between 300 and 400 people protested on the steps, ringed by police. Thousands of riot police deployed around central Cairo at least an hour before the planned start of the demonstration. "I came here from outside Cairo to say 'enough to Hosni (Mubarak), enough to corruption and enough to unemployment'," demonstrator Sayyid Abdullah said. The protesters chanted slogans against Mubarak, Gamal and ministers, the United States and Israel. "Enough, Enough, Enough. We have reached the end," they chanted in tune to the Egyptian national anthem. Around 2,000 protesters gathered at a university in Mansoura and 500 in Alexandria, an Interior MInistry official said. Mubarak has proposed multi-candidate presidential elections in place of the usual referendum on a single candidate chosen by parliament, which the ruling party dominates. The Kefaya Movement, like the Muslim Brotherhood and other Egyptian opposition groups, says proposed restrictions on who can stand in this year's elections will secure victory for the ruling party's candidate, widely expected to be Mubarak.
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