EGYPT: Students join protests against military rule

Saad Abbas, a law student at Cairo University, believes it is "unethical" to attend classes while security forces crack down on pro-democracy protesters in the Egyptian capital and around the country. He and many other students joined demonstrations that have plunged Egypt into turmoil again and have deteriorated into violence.

"The revolution against [former President Hosni] Mubarak earlier this year was about human dignity and freedom of expression," Abbas (20) said.

"Nine months after the revolution, the authorities continue to act like the Mubarak regime," Abbas added. "They lifted no finger as scores of civilians were killed and injured by police using lethal weapons against them because they dared to hold peaceful protests."

Thousands of angry Egyptians converged last week on central Cairo's Tahrir Square, an epicentre of the anti-Mubarak uprising, in protest against the police's violent clampdown on demonstrators.

More than 40 people have have been killed and 2,000 injured in the crackdown on protests that began last weekend, according to health authorities.

The death yesterday of another demonstrator, who was run down by a police truck, sparked another wave of outrage amid concerns that ongoing protests could undermine parliamentary elections due to begin tomorrow, 28 November.

Associated Press reported that three American students studying in Cairo had been arrested during last week's protests. By yesterday they had been released and had left the country for home.

A military junta has been in control of Egypt since the January revolt forced Mubarak to step down after 30 years in power. An offer by the head of the ruling council, Hussain Tantawi, to hand over power to an elected civilian government by next June, has not impressed the protesters.

Ahead of the elections, Egyptians have become increasingly concerned about the interim powers of the military becoming entrenched, above a civilian government. Yesterday The New York Times reported that Tahrir Square protesters were supporting the idea of Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, as leader of an interim civilian government.

"The [ruling] military council must go. It has lost its legal status after condoning the killing of Egyptians at the hands of police," Abbas said. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has since apologised for the killings, saying it regretted "the deaths of martyrs from among Egypt's loyal sons".

Many university students flocked to Tahrir Square and vowed not to leave until the military stepped down from power.

'Marches of solidarity' with the Tahrir protestors have been held at higher education institutions around the country, denouncing what the protesters say has been excessive use of force by security personnel. The opposition has accused the security forces of unnecessary use of tear gas, birdshot and even live bullets against the protesters.

"Those killed are our brothers. We will not tolerate this. The military must leave," chanted hundreds of students in a protest at Cairo University, Egypt's biggest public university.

With intermittent clashes erupting between pro-democracy protesters and the police in Tahrir Square since 20 November, medical volunteers have set up two field hospitals near the plaza.

Dr Khaled Samir, a professor of medicine at the public Ain Shams University, who volunteered to work at one of the field hospitals, said that most of the injuries involved suffocation and fractures.

"Those killed in the clashes suffered gunshot wounds in the head and the chest," he said, adding that seriously injured people were referred to nearby hospitals.

Medical volunteers appealed to other medics to join them to help treat injured people. "The field hospital needs in particular medical professionals specialising in eye problems and surgery," said Samir. "We also need more medical supplies."

Samir, who is running in parliamentary elections set to begin on 28 November, said he had suspended his campaigning in protest against the violence deployed against demonstrators.

Paramedics in the square claimed the police had used colourless nerve gas to force protesters to leave the area. "At least 40% of the people gathering in Tahrir have suffered symptoms of this gas," said Dr Ahmed Farouk, a physician and human rights activist.

"While the symptoms caused by tear gas include suffocation and severe irritations in the eye and the nose, protesters are now suffering from bleeding and trembling because of this colourless gas," he told the privately owned Egyptian On TV.

The health ministry has said it is investigating claims about police use of expired tear gas and nerve gas against protesters.