"I’ve just returned from the first demonstration ever to take place against Mubarak’s rule — a significant milestone in the evolution of Egypt’s pro-democracy movement.
"There were some 500 activists, mostly from left-wing groups and human rights organizations, who gathered near the highest appellate court in the land in Downtown Cairo — the same place that overturned the verdict against Saad Eddin Ibrahim a couple of years ago.
"As usual, they were surrounded by an incredible number of black-clad troops from Central Security, the riot-control police, who must have been in the thousands around the demo and in the surrounding streets."
There's a lot more there - like with Chana'd Bahraini's great on the ground coverage of the Khawaja protests over the last few months, this is really fascinating stuff. Amrani gives a bunch more details, and promises to have videos and more information posted soon.
(link fixed, thanks. El Amrani has added more details, too.)
The link is broken. Just arabist.net works for now, though.
Posted by: Tom Scudder | December 12, 2004 at 07:22 PM
Interesting AP article on this on CNN that I just read: http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/12/12/egypt.protest.ap/index.html
Wow. Not that a protest of 1000 people is a lot in Cairo - in fact just 1000 people yelling could hardly be considered a protest at all in a city where there are always several million going from point A to point B and yelling at each other along the way -- but the fact that it happened at all is cool. And way cool that Nawwal S and Saad Eddine I. and others are running for Prez against Mubarak. Not that they will actually be allowed on the ballot. But cool nonetheless.
Posted by: Anna in Cairo | December 13, 2004 at 06:56 AM