Anti-Mursi protesters react in Tahrir Square yesterday.
CAIRO: Jubilant crowds across Cairo cheered, chanted pro-army slogans and set off fireworks after the military suspended the constitution and overthrew President Mohammed Mursi yesterday.
Men, women and children waved red-white-and-black Egyptian flags as confetti twirled in the air, protesters stood on each other’s shoulders and families snapped pictures in Tahrir Square, the centre of demonstrations that drew millions out against Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood. “The people and the army are one hand,” they chanted.
Ealier, in a defiant midnight television address, Mursi vowed to stay in power and defend constitutional legitimacy with his life. “The price of preserving legitimacy is my life,” Mursi said in an impassioned, repetitive, 45-minute ramble. “Legitimacy is the only guarantee to preserve the country. We do not declare jihad (holy war) against each other. We only wage jihad on our enemies. Don’t be fooled. Don’t fall into the trap. Don’t let them steal your revolution.” But Mursi’s popularity slid in the year since he took office.
“We ousted one dictator and now we’ve ousted a second one. We’ll do it again if necessary, we are experienced now,” said Adal El-Bendary, a 45-year-old public relations employee. “This will be in the minds of the army or any politician in the future — they will not want to face the same destiny as Mursi or Mubarak.”
Haisam Haggag, an engineer, said Mursi’s fall was “a victory for the people”. “This is not a coup,” he said. “Look at the people on the streets. The people said this is a revolution.”
Protesters unfurled large flags and danced in circles and blew horns when word of the army’s statement reached Tahrir.
“Egyptians are telling the world, ‘We are not afraid of anyone’,” Hassan Amar, 22, said, his small daughter sitting on his shoulders. “We defeated Mursi, thank God.”
Graffiti and posters around the city supported this sentiment. One poster near Tahrir read: “This is the end of Brotherhood colonisation”. Another read: “Day 22 of the revolution,” implying the protests that started on Sunday were an extension of the 18 days of demonstrations it took to push out Mubarak. “He didn’t have the charisma of a head of state. He didn’t believe in our citizens. He didn’t work for the people,” said Amani, a 43-year-old woman in Tahrir.
Nearby, boys climbed on lamp posts and people leaned from windows and balconies. Fireworks vendors did brisk business. People carried around stuffed toy sheep and posters of Mursi depicting him as the farm animal.
One uniformed police officer waved his hands above his head as honking cars drove by. “Great Egypt is victorious,” he said. “Egypt is victorious over the Brotherhood.”
“Egypt, Egypt” and “Leave, Leave,” they chanted outside the defence ministry building. With broad grins, they sang patriotic songs they have become accustomed to hearing as the same tunes have been pumped out on state television in the weeks leading up to the crisis.
“Mursi deserves his end. He was the president of the Muslim Brotherhood, not of Egypt,” said Cairo resident Amr Mohammed, who carried his 40-day-old daughter in his arms as he marched to the Ittihadiya presidential palace.
A group of housewives put a table in the street and handed out dates and free cups of water, as celebrations erupted when a television station reported that Mursi had been placed under house arrest. Upon hearing the rumour, one elderly man kneeled down on an Egyptian flag and said “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).
That report proved unfounded, but officials did say that security forces had imposed a travel ban on Mursi and his top Islamist allies. Nehal Serry, a woman who helped to organise the refreshments, said: “This is for the sake of Egypt. We are celebrating that we are getting rid of Mursi.”
Earlier, tens of thousands of people massed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square for an anti-Mursi protest that dwarfed a rally by the embattled president’s supporters across town in Nasr City. “Come here O Sisi, Mursi isn’t my president,” the protesters chanted in the Square, referring to army chief and defence minister, General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.
In scorching heat, police officers handed out bottles of water to the demonstrators crammed around their patrol vehicle in the middle of Tahrir. The powerful military had issued a 48-hour deadline on Monday for Mursi to meet the “people’s demands”, a day after millions of protesters took to the streets across the troubled country calling for him to resign.
Reuters/AFP
