Egypt crisis: 'We have been tricked before. We will not believe it until we see it'

Published on Thursday 10 February 2011 19:29

HOPE quickly turned to despair in Tahrir Square last night as president Hosni Mubarak announced that he was clinging on to power.

"Leave, leave," shouted protesters as they waved their shoes in a traditional Arab expression of anger.

Despair having turned to fury, protesters made their way out of the square, many heading for the presidential palace.

Before Mubarak's dramatic speech, there had been an air of mixed hope and suspicion as the crowds gathered in Tahrir Square, waiting for him to step down. "We hope, we hope that he will step down," Hoda Marwan, 23, said. "But we have been tricked before. We will not believe it until we see it!"

They gathered around the central stage to listen to army officer Ahmed Ali Shuman, who stood on the podium in military gear, but without a gun. "The army and the people go hand in hand," shouted Shuman. "We are as one - Mubarak must leave!" The crowd drank in the words they had hoped to hear since the army took control of the streets more than two weeks earlier.

"We have the right to make Mubarak go!" Shuman led the crowd in the slogan. Arms raised, fists punching the air they shouted it back to him. "We are all Ahmed Shuman!" they cried to him.

No-one jumped to believe that Mubarak was leaving. "We don't know, we will wait, we will wait," said countless people in the square.

Others took the possibility with a shrug: "It is too late, but better late than never, I guess," said Iman Kami, as he struggled through the crowd with bags of nappies bought for the children of the women camped at the square.

Amidst the crush of men sitting against the barrier was an elderly lady, Wafa Mohammed. Placidly, patiently, she watched the crowds, listened to the slogans. She had left her five children - now grown up - at home five days before and come to live in the square. "I am waiting for freedom," she said simply.

Many of the protesters wanted to make clear their demands. "We will wait until all our demands are met; we want to remove the regime, all of it. We want freedom!" shouted Mustafa Adel, 23. "I want freedom, not just for Hosni to go!"

Rami Mustafa, reiterating calls made by workers that took part in strikes across the country yesterday, said: "We need freedom and a society where we have rights - we want better incomes."

For others, the moment was about expressing their anger at the suppression that they say they have felt under the regime. "Go to hell Mubarak!" said Ibrahim Mohammed, 20.

At this point, the announcement was said to be imminent. For those privy to inside information, Mubarak's departure seemed ever more of a reality."This is an exceptional moment in my life, and the life of every Egyptian" said Abdel Galil Mustafa, co-ordinator general of the National Association for Change - the opposition movement headed by Mohammed ElBaradei. Tears welled in his eyes and his voice broke down. He gathered himself, speaking slowly: "Now we are on the verge of getting rid of this dark era. Egypt is being born now."

Earlier yesterday, Major General Hassan Roweny told tens of thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square: "Everything you want will be realised."

People sang: "Civilian, civilian. We don't want it military" - a call for a freely elected civilian government.

Hopes for change reached fever pitch yesterday when state television showed footage of Mubarak, sitting behind his desk in silence, in a meeting with vice-president Omar Suleiman. Many saw his silence as a powerful signal that his power was at an end. It may simply have been the beginning of the end of his rule.