Situation tense but under control in Egypt

CAIRO: The army deployed around Cairo’s Defense Ministry yesterday to deter protesters after a soldier died and 373 people were wounded in clashes during protests against the ruling generals, less than three weeks before a presidential vote.

Cleaners swept up debris after Friday’s violence in the Abbasiya where streets were calm but strewn with rocks and other projectiles hurled by protesters at troops, who fired teargas and charged the crowd to drive them from the ministry.

It was the second time in a week that clashes had erupted near the ministry where protesters had gathered to vent their anger over the army’s handling of Egypt’s troubled transition from army rule to civilian government. Eleven people were killed on Wednesday.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said 18 journalists had been assaulted, injured or arrested while covering the clashes.

“We call on the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to identify the attackers and bring them to justice immediately, as well as to release journalists in custody,” Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’S Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said in a statement issued late Friday. A presidential election, which starts on May 23-24, will choose a replacement for Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in February last year. Generals have governed since then but their rule has been punctuated by violence and political bickering.

Many protesters who gathered near the ministry were Salafists furious that a candidate they backed for president was disqualified from the race. Liberals and others were also there, accusing the army of seeking to manipulate or delay the vote.

The military has dismissed those allegations, insisting it will stick to its timetable of handing over power to a new president by July 1, or even earlier in the unlikely event of an outright winner in the first round of voting this month.“our mission ends with a successful handover of power, and we will not let anyone change the declared schedule,” an army source told the website of the state-owned Al-ahram daily.

The authorities detained more than 170 people in connection with Friday’s violence after the army warned protesters a day earlier it would not tolerate threats to any of its installations. The funeral for the soldier killed was scheduled for later yesterday, state media reported.