04:50 GMT 21st December 2011
Dismayed by the painfully slow pace of political reform since Mubarak's overthrowal, the protesters are demanding an immediate end to military rule.
Most Egyptians welcomed the army's takeover of power as caretaker government in the aftermath of Mubarak's resignation in February. In the months since, discontent with military rule, exacerbated by sluggish progress in implementing urgent reforms, has been growing steadily. The protesters who are back in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of the protest movement that deposed Mubarak, have lost faith in the military rulers overseeing Egypt's rather rocky transition to democracy.
There have been pitched battles between protesters and security forces, with demonstrators hurling stones at riot police, who responded with teargas, rubber bullets and batons. Protesters have said the security forces used live ammunition. At least 35 demonstrators died in the first four days of the unrest, which started on November 19, and hundreds of others were injured.
Trouble began when the interim government, appointed by the military after Mubarak's removal, unveiled a draft document for a new constitution. The ruling generals wanted to insert in the new constitution provisions that exempted the military from civilian oversight and which also kept its large budget a secret. The military's desire to preserve special powers for itself after the handover to civilian rule did not go down well with pro-democracy activists, prompting the current wave of protests.
Egypt's first post-revolution parliamentary elections were due to commence on November 28 and were expected to take place over a three-month period. Now the fresh wave of protests seem to have thrown the feasibility of the timetable into confusion and may jeopardise the poll. The military rulers have said that they are committed to the timetable for the elections and are appealing to political parties whose supporters are among the protesters to help contain the situation so that the poll can go ahead.
The military initially floated a vague timetable for handing over power, sometime between late 2012 and early 2013, after the approval of a new constitution and the holding of presidential elections. The protesters, who initially wanted a precise date for the military's handover of power, started to demand that the military council resign without delay and be replaced by a civilian interim council.
As the stand-off between protesters and security forces deepened, the country's interim cabinet, which was not seen to wield significant power, announced its resignation. In response, after holding emergency meeting with the leaders of the various political parties preparing to participate in the upcoming poll, the military said that a national unity government will be formed and presidential elections will be held by the end of June 2012.
The concession apparently did little to pacify the protesters in Tahrir Square who jeered when the announcement was heard at the square, breaking into chants of, 'We want the removal of the marshal,' referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the military council currently running Egypt.
Congregating by the thousands in Tahrir Square, as they did when they were demanding Mubarak's resignation 10 months ago, the protesters are digging in for the long haul- vowing that they will not leave until their new demands are met.
In the immediate aftermath ofMubarak's overthrow, protesters chanted 'the army and the people are one', offering soldiers flowers and sweets. Many of the same protesters who are now back at Tahrir Square, nearly a year after Mubarak's departure, feel that their confidence in the military was misguided. 'We should not have left the streets', the BBC quoted one protester as saying. 'We handed power to the military on a silver platter. The revolutionaries went home too soon. We collected the spoils [Mubarak's resignation] and left before the battle was over.'
The protesters now regard the generals ruling Egypt as an extension of the old regime. All senior members of the current military leadership were appointed by Mubarak and Tantawi himself served as defence minister under the former president.
Since taking over, the military has made no significant progress in tackling the pressing economic and social issues facing the country. Egypt is not as endowed with abundant natural resources, such as oil, as are many other countries in the region. Agriculture, concentrated along the banks of the legendary river Nile, is the country's principal economic activity. Tourism, another key sector of the Egyptian economy, has been hit hard by the political instability of the past months.
With its 82 million people, Egypt is the most populous nation in the Arab world and the third most populous in Africa, after Nigeria and Ethiopia. Rapidly growing population and limited arable land has put a serious strain on the country's resources and is adding to the post-revolution political crisis as people are impatient to see improvement in their daily lives. There is widespread unemployment, particularly among young people who are swelling the ranks of the protesters to express their frustration at the status quo.
Since Mubarak's removal, a series of constitutional changes have been approved but the military has not yet acceded to a key demand for the pro-democracy activists - the lifting of emergency measures which have been in place for the past 30 years. Other grievances that protesters have been voicing include continued trials of civilians in military courts, widespread torture of detainees as well as unwillingness on the part of the ruling generals to bring to trial officials of the old regime.
In addition to occupying Tahrir Square in central Cairo, protesters have been marching to the defence ministry, the headquarters ofthe ruling military council, to demand that the army hand over power to a civilian body. Demonstrations have spilled beyond the capital, taking place in Egypt's second city, Alexandria, and other important cities including Suez and Ismailia.
In this tense atmosphere, the military leadership said the scheduled November elections would take place as planned. The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group which was banned but whose activities were largely tolerated under the Mubarak regime, was expected to do well. The recent election victory for the Islamist Ennahda in neighbouring Tunisia could only add to the group's optimism as it enters a new phase as a legitimate participant in Egyptian politics.
As they had done to organise the mass protests that brought down Mubarak earlier in the year, young Egyptians have taken to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to denounce the brutality of the security forces and mobilise support. The Facebook page 'We are all Khaled Said', dedicated to the memory of a young man who was beaten to death while in police custody in Alexandra in June 20 l 0, became a focal point for protesters using the internet at height of the anti-Mubarak demonstrations.
Protesters are now using the same page to express their renewed commitment to the revolution, this time their anger directed at the military. 'They are mistaken ifthey think that the prestige of the state can be protected by killing Egyptians,' read a recent posting.
'We will stay in the square to save the revolution and restore the rights of martyrs. This time we will not leave the square until we return Egypt to Egyptians.'
Since the 1952 revolution that ended the monarchy, all Egyptian presidents have been drawn from the military, with which ruling elites have always maintained a close relationship.
Despite this, the military has managed to enjoy significant support and goodwill among the Egyptian public.
The army's restraint and unwillingness to open fire on demonstrators during the mass protests that toppled Mubarak enhanced its reputation for professionalism and integrity. The current stand-off seems to be eroding much of the trust that ordinary Egyptians have traditionally placed in the country's armed forces.
Although it has expressed deep regret at the deaths of the protesters, the military insists that it is only doing its job to guarantee the security of the nation. Tantawi, who gave a televised address to reassure the nation as the demonstrations escalated, stressed that the military was not interested in seeking power and that it was 'committed to self-restraint to the maximum degree'.
Senior Egyptian diplomats have condemned the latest wave of violence and criticised the military's handling of the situation. The UN human rights chief also condemned the 'excessive use of force' by the Egyptian riot police and called for an independent investigation into the deaths of protesters.
'The events in Tahrir Square are harbingers of serious and unprecedented developments in Egypt, which could pit the army against the people,' read a recent editorial in the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan, expressing regional unease about the renewed unrest in Egypt. 'The situation in Egypt requires all the forces to unite ... and work [together] to guarantee Egypt's security, as the stability of the region depends on the stability of Egypt.'
There is an overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction among the Egyptian youth, who joined in droves the pro-democracy protests that brought down Mubarak earlier this year and who now feel that an intransigent military is delaying democratic progress in Egypt.
The smooth and relatively speedy transition to democracy in neighbouring Tunisia, which served as an inspiration for Egypt, can only embolden the protesters in Tahrir Square, and elsewhere in the country, to dig in until they see meaningful change on the ground.
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