Universal Rhythm

18 Day of Protest Oust Leader of Largest Arab Nation
Mubarak Steps Down, Ceding Power to Military
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and ANTHONY SHADID
Published: February 11, 2011

The streets of Cairo exploded in shouts of “God is Great” moments after Mr. Mubarak’s vice president and longtime intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, announced during evening prayers that Mr. Mubarak had passed all authority to a council of military leaders.

“Taking into consideration the difficult circumstances the country is going through, President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave the post of president of the republic and has tasked the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to manage the state’s affairs,” Mr. Suleiman, grave and ashen, said in a brief televised statement.

Even before he had finished speaking, protesters began hugging and cheering, shouting “Egypt is free!” and “You’re an Egyptian, lift your head.”

“He’s finally off our throats,” said one protester, Muhammad Insheemy. “Soon, we will bring someone good.”

The departure of the 82-year-old Mr. Mubarak, at least initially to his coastal resort home in Sharm el-Sheik, was a pivotal turn in a nearly three-week revolt that has upended one of the Arab’s world’s most enduring dictatorships. The popular protests — peaceful and resilient despite numerous efforts by Mr. Mubarak’s legendary security apparatus to suppress them — ultimately deposed an ally of the United States who has been instrumental in implementing American policy in the region for decades.

His departure came after a 24-hour period that mixed celebration and anger, as Egypt and the outside world at first anticipated Mr. Mubarak’s imminent resignation on Thursday afternoon, then recoiled in outrage when he continued to cling to power in a combative televised address Thursday night.

Whether Mr. Mubarak’s speech represented a real attempt to hold on to power, or a prideful, deluded assertion of influence in defiance of political reality, was not immediately clear. But Obama administration officials said Friday that Egyptian officials explained that Mr. Mubarak had in fact been removed from his posts in favor of a military council and that the transfer of power was well under way.

The shift leaves the military in charge of this nation of 80 million, facing insistent calls for fundamental democratic change and open elections. The military has repeatedly promised to respond to the demands of protesters. But it has little recent experience in directly governing the country, and will have to defuse demonstrations and labor strikes that have paralyzed the economy and left many of the country’s institutions, including state news media and the security forces, in shambles.

Shortly before the announcement of Mr. Mubarak’s departure, the military issued a communiqué pledging to carry out a variety of constitutional reforms in a statement remarkable for its commanding tone. The military’s statement mentioned Mr. Mubarak’s earlier delegation of power to Mr. Suleiman, but also suggested that it would oversee implementation of the reforms.

Among Egypt’s scattered but triumphant opposition, the initial reaction to Mr. Mubarak’s departure and the military’s assertion of authority was ecstatic.

“Egypt is going to be a fully democratic state,” Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who helped organize the youth-led protests and became one of the movement’s most prominent spokesman, said. “You will be impressed.”

Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Laureate and Egyptian opposition figure said, “Egypt has been going down the drain for the last few weeks and we need to get it back to where it should be,” he said. “We need a democratic country based on social justice.”

There were voices of caution as well. Abdel-Rahman Samir, a protest organizer, said the movement would open negotiations with the military, but said demonstrations should also continue to ensure change is carried out.

“We still don’t have any guarantees yet — if we end the whole situation now it’s like we haven’t done anything,” Mr. Samir told the Associated Press. “So we need to keep sitting in Tahrir until we get all our demands.”

In the United States, Vice President Joseph R. Biden called Mr. Mubarak’s departure a “pivotal” development. The European Union welcome the shift in leadership and also emphasized its desire to see changes that lead to “a broad-based government.”In Switzerland, the foreign ministry said in a statement that it has ordered the assets of “the former Egyptian president” with immediate effect.

The military has been far more popular among the Egyptian people than the government of Mr. Mubarak, even though Mr. Mubarak and many of his top officials themselves had military backgrounds. Its standing was reinforced by its signals of support for the people’s demands, repeated visits to Tahrir Square by top generals, and its decision not to forcibly suppress the protests.

In its communique on Friday, the military reiterated that it intends to supervise political change, but also largely stuck to the main constitutional and electoral reforms that Mr. Mubarak and Mr. Suleiman had already promised to implement. Whether those changes are sufficient — and whether they can be carried out quickly enough — to satisfy protesters remains to be seen.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Suleiman would retain a role, under the military council, in running the country. State radio reported that Naguib Sawiris, a wealthy and widely respected businessman, has agreed to act as a mediator between the opposition and the authorities in carrying through the political reforms, a development that was cheered by protesters.

In Tahrir Square, the focal point of the uprising, many protesters were overcome with the emotion of achieving their unlikely but determined quest to overthrow Mr. Mubarak. More than an hour after Mr. Suleiman spoke, the din was undiminished, as the celebrants, some in tears, shouted, sang, embraced and chanted. The slogan of the revolution, “The people want to bring down the regime,” adopted from Tunisia, became, “The people, at last, have brought down the regime.”

Parents were seen putting their children on the tanks to have their photos snapped with the soldiers, while the soldiers reached down to shake hands with the protesters and people chanted, “The people and the army are one hand.” In a show of solidarity in at least lower levels of the army, three Egyptian officers shed their weapons and uniforms and joined the protesters.

“Now, we can breathe fresh air, we can feel our freedom,” said Dr. Gamal Heshamt, a former member of Parliament and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. “Now we can start to build our country. After 30 years of absence from the world, Egypt is back.”

Some people waved Tunisian flags, while young women danced on the hulking remains of burned-out armored personnel carriers.

The Qasr al-Nil bridge, the sight of ugly fighting between the protesters and Mubarak supporters, was crammed from one end to the next with people cheering and chanting, “Egypt! Egypt! Egypt!”

“The Egyptian people are heroes,” said Samia Mahmoud, 41, who said he works in the tourist industry in Sharm el-Sheik. “I’m hoping for a new Egypt.”

Amr Sayed, 20, who had been in the square for the last 15 days, said simply, “The people wanted to take back their rights, and now they have.”

David D. Kirkpatrick and Anthony Shadid reported from Cairo. Reporting was contributed by Kareem Fahim, Liam Stack, Mona El-Naggar and Thanassis Cambanis from Cairo, and Alan Cowell from Paris.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/world/middleeast/12egypt.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all