Egypt's ruling generals have opened crisis talks with civilian political leaders, Jack Shenker writes from Cairo, after the entire government tendered its resignation and widespread street violence continued to plunge the country into turmoil:
With under a week to go until nationwide parliamentary elections are due to begin, beleaguered interim prime minister Essam Sharaf announced he and his cabinet were willing to step down in a bid to quell the growing unrest. But the offer – which has yet to be accepted by the military junta – appeared unlikely to appease demonstrators who continued to flock to city centres across the country demanding that the Scaf cede power and hand Egypt over to civilian rule.
In a late-night statement to the nation, the army generals appealed for calm and expressed 'deep regret' for the deaths of protesters. But as fierce fighting between revolutionaries and armed police showed no sign of letting up and video footage of police and army brutality against unarmed demonstrators continued to circulate, their calls for self-restraint seemed destined to fall on deaf ears.
"The Scaf only have two choices – they obey the will of the people, or Egypt burns," said Ramy el-Swissy, a leading member of the April 6th youth movement which is one of several organisations that has announced plans for a 'million-man' occupation of Tahrir today.
A broad coalition of revolutionary movements from across the political spectrum, including leftist, liberal and Islamist organisations, also threw their full weight behind the protests. "We confirm our readiness to face all the forces that aim to abort the revolution, reproduce the old regime, or drag the country into chaos and turn the revolution into a military coup," said a joint statement by 37 groups.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest organised political movement, added its voice to the chorus of discontent, accusing Scaf of contradicting 'all human, religious and patriotic values' with their callousness and warning that the revolution that overthrew former president Hosni Mubarak earlier this year was able to rise again.
"What happened is a heinous crime, expressing a dark deep desire, an attempt to lure faithful patriotic citizens in order to crush them and spread chaos everywhere," said the Brotherhood in a statement. "All this proves that there are certain parties who have no problem burning Egypt, our homeland, and killing young people in order to herd the entire public into blind obedience, into tyranny and corruption and slavery yet again."
The organisation also announced it was temporarily suspending all electoral activities, but unlike many liberal and leftist parties it has yet to cancel its campaign.
That's it for today, thanks for reading. Check our Middle East page for full coverage of the million man march tomorrow.
The Guardian's leader column asks "what happens now?" in Egypt, with elections due to begin a week today.
As Tahrir battled the birdshot and teargas, clear demands emerged: that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) sets a date for relinquishing power, that a civilian interior minister be appointed, and that the army withdraw to its barracks. Long before this weekend's bloody events, the military had squandered the gratitude of the Egyptians in helping them push a dictator out of power. But after these events, SCAF could soon have as big a problem with its legitimacy as the ousted dictator had.
What happens now? All this is days before a complex six-week long election process is due to start. Just as it did 10 months ago, the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood had yesterday to play catchup with the demands of the revolution. One statement issued by its Freedom and Justice Party had to be strengthened by another one. The first called for the military council to investigate crimes committed against the protesters and for demonstrators to exercise restraint. A second one demanded that SCAF releases a timetable for handing over power to a civilian authority next year. The last thing that the Brotherhood wants is to postpone elections which will see it returned as the major political force.
Elections should go ahead, however imperfect they are. If SCAF hangs on as the transitional authority, it will take elections to inject badly needed legitimacy to the political process. If SCAF realises after a mass march planned for Tuesday that the game is up and a civilian authority is formed, elections must also take place. One way or another, the democratic demands of the revolution must prevail. Egypt's military rulers are now only standing in their way.
Amnesty International says Egypt's military rulers have "completely failed" to fulfill their promises to protect human rights, according to AP.
In a report released Tuesday, Amnesty accuses Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces of adopting oppressive tactics used by the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak, including targeting critics, banning critical media coverage and torturing protesters.
Egyptian protesters in Tahrir Square. Photograph: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters
This picture from Tahrir Square gives a sense of the scale of the protesters, with Reuters reporting some 20,000 people have packed into the area.
From Reuters:
As midnight approached, about 20,000 people packed Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the anti-Mubarak revolt early this year, and thousands more milled around in surrounding streets.
"The people want the fall of the marshal," they chanted, referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's defence minister for two decades and head of the army council.
The Scaf has urged calm and called for crisis talks with political forces, according to Reuters.
The council voiced its "deep regret for the victims in these painful incidents", state news agency MENA said.
"It called on all sections of the nation to show the greatest degree of self-restraint so that the matter does not lead to more victims and casualties," the agency added.
The military council did not say whether it would accept the resignation of the cabinet, tendered on Sunday. A military source said it was seeking agreement on a new prime minister.
My colleague Jack Shenker is in Cairo and says the number of people in Tahrir square is growing, irrespective of whether cabinet's resignation has been accepted.
News continues to drip out about the government's mass resignation, which as far as we can tell is yet to be accepted by the military council. But either way the crowds in Tahrir Square – who are calling for the downfall of the ruling generals, not a simple personnel change amongst the political leaders operating on their behalf – seem unmoved by the development and as the evening wears on, numbers are still swelling.
"I don't think this crowd cares at all about the government," said Khalid Abdalla, an actor and activist who has been demonstrating in Tahrir. "This is about a battle on the streets in which people are being killed."
The sentiment that this is far too little, far too late, is one shared by most in the square. If Scaf does believe that Sharaf's dismissal will solve this rapidly-escalating crisis then it appears to have severely misjudged the feeling on the street; it appears the only way that a change of government will calm the unrest is if it is accompanied by the departure of Scaf from political power.
A possible compromise could be if a new government of 'national salvation' is appointed, featuring ministers who carry genuine credibility with the demonstrators, and at the same time Scaf announces a concrete date – some have suggested April 2012 – on which it will return to its barracks.
But right now Tahrir is jam-packed and reverberating with the sound of tens of thousands of people chanting with one voice: 'The people want the downfall of the Field Marshal [Scaf head Mohamed Hussein Tantawi]'. As Mubarak found to his cost, once public momentum is building against you, every concession to your critics seems to only galvanise them further.
Egyptian state TV is said to be reporting that the Scaf has not currently accepted the cabinet's resignation.
Egypt's military council is seeking agreement on a new prime minister before it accepts the resignation submitted by the cabinet of prime minister Essam Sharaf, a military source has told Reuters.
"The source said no formal announcement would be made until the ruling military council had agreed on the candidate. He did not provide further details," Reuters reported.
Just before the Egyptian cabinet tendered its resignation the White House had urged restraint to be shown by security forces and protesters.
AP reports that the Obama administration said the eruption of violence in Egypt should not stand in the way of elections and a rapid transition to democracy.
Spokesman Jay Carney said the US is deeply concerned about the violence and is urging restraint on all sides. He says despite the clashes between security forces and protesters, Egypt must proceed with a timely transition to democracy.
The Egyptian cabinet has tendered its resignation to the ruling military council.
There is some confusion as to whether the resignation has been accepted by ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (Scaf). The move comes amid widening protests against the ruling military in Egypt, with some 33 protesters reported to have been killed in the last three days.
The cabinet said they will run the nation's day-to-day affairs until elections are held at the end of November, however plans for the elections have been thrown into chaos, with several political parties and individual candidates saying they will suspend their campaigns. Protesters are demanding that the military quickly announce a date for the handover of power to a civilian government.
Here's a summary of the day's events so far.
• Thirty-three people are reported to have been killed in the violence over the past three days according to morgue officials. The ministry of health said more than 1,500 have been injured in the latest clashes in and around Tahrir Square - the worst bout of violence in Egypt since the revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak. Witnesses said protesters had been hit by rubber bullets and suffocated with aggressive tear gas. Video has been circulating of police apparently beating protesters, including some lying on the ground. The International Federation for Human Rights accused the policemen of using live ammunition on protesters. Reports indicated that demonstrators were responding by hurling stones and molotov cocktails.
• Crowds in Tahrir Square have been growing and clashes continuing as night has fallen in the Egyptian capital. Riot police are continuing to fire teargas and casualties continue to be taken to the field hospital Chants have called for the trial or execution of Scaf head Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.
• The Revolutionary Youth Movement has called for a one million man march in the capital and across the country tomorrow. Other groups have reportedly echoed the call.
• Elections should go ahead as planned at the end of this month, but political leaders will head to Tahrir to 'protect' the protesters, a conference of political parties has said. The stance has provoked a mixed response from the protesters, who are relieved that the formal civilian political arena is finally joining the movement but are frustrated at an apparent unwillingness to confront Scaf head on.
• A spokesman for the military authorities said the victims of the violence were "thugs" rather than peaceful protesters. The Scaf general visited Tahrir Square and insisted the council respected the protesters' right to peaceful protest, the New York Times reported.
• Bothaina Kamal, Egypt's only female presidential candidate, has reportedly told a journalist that she was sexually assaulted when she was arrested during yesterday's clashes. Sonia Verma, from Canada's Globe and Mail, tweeted that Kamal told her about the assault during a telephone interview.
• Foreign secretary William Hague refused to call for Egypt's Scaf authorities to step down now, saying it was important that they oversaw the elections and then transfered power "as quickly as possible" to civilian rule. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Hague said the violence was "of great concern", but that Britain would not be taking sides.