Hundreds of Thousands Protest Across the Mideast
By SHARON OTTERMAN and J. DAVID GOODMAN
Published: February 25, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/world/middleeast/26unrest.html
CAIRO — Tens of thousands of protesters turned out in cities across the Middle East on Friday to protest the unaccountability of their leaders and express solidarity with the uprising in Libya that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi is trying to suppress with force.
In Iraq, demonstrations for better government services spiraled out of control in many places. Protesters burned buildings and security forces fired on crowds in Baghdad, Mosul, Ramadi and in Salahuddin Province, north of the capital, killing at least four people.
Large-scale demonstrations in Yemen appeared to proceed more peacefully, even festively. More than 100,000 people poured into the streets on Friday, after Yemen’s embattled president pledged on Wednesday not to crack down on protesters.
In Egypt, tens of thousands of people returned to Tahrir Square in central Cairo to celebrate one full month since the start of the popular revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
In Bahrain, pro-democracy demonstrations on a scale rivaling the largest ever seen in the tiny Persian Gulf nation blocked a downtown Manama highway and filled a central square on Friday for a second time in a week. In a shift from Tuesday, when antigovernment protesters brought more than 100,000 to the central Pearl Square, it was the country’s Shiite religious leaders who called for people to take to the streets on Friday, a development that could change the dynamic in a country where a Shiite majority is ruled by leaders from its Sunni minority.
“We are winners and victory comes from God,” protesters chanted. A small number of black flags — a Shiite mourning symbol — could be seen for the first time in the vast sea of red and white, the colors of Bahrain.
Throughout the unrest that has gripped the region for more than a month, protest organizers have mounted their largest demonstrations on Fridays, a day off punctuated by an important Muslim prayer service at noon.
The violence in Iraq came after demonstrators responded to a call for a “day of rage” despite attempts by the government to keep people from taking to the streets. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki made a televised speech on Thursday urging Iraqis not to gather, and security officials in Baghdad banned all cars from the streets until further notice.
Demonstrations reached near the Green Zone as protesters in the capital pulled down two concrete blast walls that had been blocking access to a bridge that leads to the protected zone. Rock throwing demonstrators then clashed with security forces who, in turn, beat many of the protesters to prevent them from crossing the bridge.
As protesters took to the streets around the region, many kept their eyes on Libya, where the government has been waging a brutal crackdown against protesters, whose efforts over the past week have developed into a full-scale rebellion. Much of the east of the country is now in the hands of antigovernment rebels and clashes continue in the west. In Tripoli, which is under the control of mercenaries and militias as Colonel Qaddafi’s attempts to preserve the capital, protesters pledged to brave threats of violence to take to the streets.
Opposition leaders had also pledged to march to Tripoli from other cities, though the roads were reported to be thick with checkpoints and heavily armed forces that remain loyal to Colonel Qaddafi’s 40-year rule. But tens of thousands did turn out in Benghazi, the eastern city where the Libyan rebellion started over a week ago, and which is now in control of the opposition.
In Yemen, where protesters have faced sporadic violence from security forces and government supporters, roughly 100,000 people massed in the southern city of Taiz for demonstrations dubbed “Martyrs’ Friday,” in honor of two protesters who died in a grenade attack last week.
While weeks protests in the capital, Sana, have been tense, with repeated clashes between pro and antigovernment forces, the demonstration in Taiz, the intellectual hub of the country, took on a hopeful, exhilarated feel. Along with the youth who organized the protests on Facebook, older residents of the countryside flowed into the area of the town that protesters have dubbed Freedom Square.
"There are no parties, our revolution is a youth revolution,” read one banner. In emulation of Egypt’s Tahrir Square, the center of the protest zone in Taiz was filled with some 100 tents, where people had spent the night for more than a week, and there were national flags and large signs.
A cleric delivered a morning speech, reminding the people that the revolution was not against a single person but against oppression itself. And as noon prayers ended, the people broke out into the roaring chant that has now become familiar around the Arab world: “The people want to topple the regime.”
At the same time in the capital, tens of thousands of people were pouring into a square near the main gates of Sana University to call for the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh amid a tight security presence, The Associated Press reported.
In Cairo, tens of thousands of Egyptians flooded Tahrir Square as much to renew the spirit of Egypt’s popular revolution, which resulted in Mr. Mubarak’s resignation on Feb. 11, as to press for new demands. The square felt like a carnival, filled with banners in Egypt’s national colors of black, white and red. Vendors sold cheese and bean sandwiches and popcorn, a man fried liver on a portable grill, and others sold revolutionary souvenirs, like miniature flags, stuffed animals, and stickers for sale.
The utopian spirit of the revolution, which had included people from all aspects of Egyptian society, was still evident, as secular leftists, members of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, and women wearing full Islamic veils with children on their arms circulated through the crowd. Ismael Abdul Latif, 27, a writer, chatted with the religious women, only their eyes showing, as they drew revolutionary posters.
“I never dreamed in my wildest dreams that we would be talking to a munaqaba”—as women in full veils are called -- “in Tahrir Square,” he said. “A secular artist is having a political debate with a fully veiled lady and having a meaningful conversation. What’s the world coming to?”
But there were also signs of tension, as well as reminder that it was the military that ultimately remains in charge. Several hours into the demonstration, an army officer demanded that protesters dismantle the tents they were erecting in the center of the square, touching off a series of angry arguments.
There were fervent political demands as well, foremost among them, the resignation of the cabinet that Mr. Mubarak had appointed before his downfall, as well as the dismantling of the security apparatus, the release of prisoners still held under Egypt’s repressive emergency laws, and the prosecution of former leaders guilty of corruption.
George Ishaq, one of the founders of Kifaya, an early protest movement here, led chants through speakers, saying, “Our demand today is a presidential council in which civilians will take part. We want it to be one politician one judge, and one representative of the armed forces.”
“We are not leaving, he’s leaving,” the crowd chanted, referring this time to Ahmed Shafiq, the prime minister, with the slogan that had foretold Mr. Mubarak’s fall. “Mubarak left the palace, but Shafiq still governs Egypt.”
