Egypt’s rulers tell crowds to leave or face consequences

CAIRO: Egypt’s army-backed government has urged supporters of deposed president Mohamed Mursi to abandon their protest camps here, promising them a safe exit if they give up without a fight.

The appeal, made by Interior Ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif on state television yesterday, followed the government’s warning on Wednesday

We are ready to die. An attack can happen at any moment

that it was ready to take action to end two weeks of sit-in protests by thousands of Mursi supporters at two sites.

Since the army ousted the Islamist Mursi on July 3, police have rounded up many leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood, mostly on charges of inciting violence. Wednesday’s threat raised the possibility of a potentially bloody showdown.

Latif said that if protesters left the sites peacefully, they would be guaranteed a safe exit. No deadline was set.

The protesters remained defiant yesterdaymorning and prepared for the worst.

At the Rabaa al-Adawiya camp, boxes and other rubbish that had littered the ground were cleared to allow easier ambulance access. Buckets of sand were placed throughout the camp to be used to extinguish tear gas canisters.

Behind a barricade made of bricks and sandbags, rocks had been piled up for ammunition.

“We are ready. We are ready to die for legitimacy. An attack can happen at any moment,” said Mohamed Saqr, a Brotherhood activist guarding an entrance to the encampment.

Egypt is now more polarised than at any time since the US-backed autocrat Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011, starting off a political transition fraught with unrest.

The government’s new transition plan envisions parliamentary elections in about six months, to be followed by a presidential vote. The Brotherhood says the army has mounted a coup against a legitimate elected leader and wants nothing to do with the plan.

The government has been buoyed by huge pro-army rallies last Friday in response to a call by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for Egyptians to give him a “mandate” to crack down on “violence and terrorism” – a reference to the Brotherhood.

Mursi has been in army detention since his overthrow and faces a judicial inquiry. The authorities brought formal charges on Wednesday against the Brotherhood’s three top leaders.