Supporters of deposed president Mohammed Mursi carry posters bearing his portrait during a demonstration in Cairo yesterday.
CAIRO: Islamist backers of Egypt’s deposed president Mohammed Mursi staged defiant rallies yesterday, with police firing tear gas at them, after the government ordered their protest camps broken up.
The new marches came after US Secretary of State John Kerry angered Mursi loyalists by saying Egypt’s military had been “restoring democracy” when it deposed the Islamist leader.
World powers pressed both sides to resolve the impasse peacefully, with US Under Secretary of State William Burns expected in Cairo on for more talks. Burns’ visit follows trips by EU Middle East envoy Bernardino Leon and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.
Mursi supporters began to march after Friday prayers, pouring out of several Cairo mosques. The afternoon rallies passed off peacefully, with demonstrators marching along main thoroughfares in the capital.
Early evening, they held smaller demonstrations, including at Cairo’s Media Production City on the outskirts, where security forces fired tear gas after protesters “tried to storm” the building, a security source said.
Protesters tore up the pavement to make barriers as police in armoured vehicles fired tear gas. “I am a Muslim, not a terrorist,” demonstrators chanted.
Witnesses reported clashes between residents in Alf Maskan area and Mursi loyalists after they tried to set up a protest site.
The Anti-Coup Alliance of groups calling for Mursi’s reinstatement said it planned to make Alf Maskan a sit-in site.
It also announced evening marches to four security buildings in Cairo, including two army headquarters.
The marches came a day after Kerry in an interview with Pakistan’s Geo TV appeared to defend Mursi’s ouster. “The military was asked to intervene by millions and millions of people, all of whom were afraid of a descendance into chaos, into violence,” he said. “And the military did not take over, to the best of our judgement — so far. To run the country, there’s a civilian government. In effect, they were restoring democracy,” he added.
A spokesman for Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood denounced Kerry’s comments, accusing the US of being “complicit” in the coup. “Is it the job of the army to restore democracy?” asked Gehad Al Haddad.
Mursi supporters have remained defiant in the face of mounting threats from the army-installed interim government.
The state-owned Al Ahram newspaper said police had prepared a plan to end sit-ins, but had not decided when to implement it, with the cabinet still hoping for a peaceful resolution.
Agencies
