Protests flare up in Cairo once again, 4 wounded

Protesters want Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi to step down One man died on Saturday as protesters pressed their demand for an end to army rule in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Protesters clashed with police nearby, rejecting the military’s choice of prime minister just two days before a parliamentary vote. Police responded by firing tear gas.
The Interior Ministry said the vehicle had hit Sayed by accident, an account backed by Ahmad Zeidan, 18, an activist at the sit-in who said he had seen the youth being run over.
"It wasn't deliberate. They (police) were retreating quickly because (protesters) were throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at them," he said. The demonstrators had come from Tahrir to confront police vehicles apparently heading for the square.
"Down, down with the marshal," a group chanted in Tahrir, near tents set
Hundreds of demonstrators camped through the night and one group marched to the nearby parliament building early in the morning to protest against the army’s appointment of Kamal Al-Ganzouri, a premier under Hosni Mubarak, to form a cabinet.
Police dispersed the crowd with teargas and protesters said at least four people were wounded, witnesses said. The brief flare-up was the first outbreak of violence since a truce two days earlier ended a week of clashes that killed 41 people.
“Down, own with the marshal,” a group chanted in the square, near tents set up on grassy patches. They were referring to Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the ruling army council and was also Mubarak's defence minister.
Tens of thousands gathered on Friday to demand the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces speed up a transition to democracy which they believe requires the generals to leave power now.
The political turmoil and violence are compounding the economic woes of a country where livelihoods have been hit by a year of turmoil after Mubarak was toppled.
The generals have shown no sign of giving way to the demand to quit now. Instead, they have responded by promising that a new president would be elected by mid-2012, sooner than previously announced, and appointing Ganzouri, 78, to head a “national salvation government.”
Protesters in the square quickly rejected Ganzouri's appointment, saying he was not the man to lead a transition to democracy.
"We do not want someone who has been selected by the military council, we want a civilian who was with us in Tahrir during the revolution, someone who has the confidence of the people," said one protester, Omar Abdel Mansur.
Hundreds of demonstrators in the square branched off to the nearby cabinet offices to block Ganzouri from entering the building, chanting "revolution" and "Ganzouri is a former regime leftover."
"The youth of Tahrir had proposed (several) names. None of them were chosen. We have the feeling nothing has changed" since a popular uprising ousted Mubarak in February, said Mohammed Khattab, 30.
"Our mistake in the (January-February) revolution was to think that we had only to topple Mubarak."
The protesters proposed a list of presidential candidates to form a civilian leadership council, including former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent dissident during Mubarak's rule.
They were bolstered earlier by an announcement that the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest authority, had thrown his weight behind them.
"The grand imam (Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb) backs you and is praying for your victory," senior aide Hassan Shafie told them during a visit to the square, focus of huge protests first against Mubarak and now the army.
Sheikh Mazhar Shahin, an imam who led tens of thousands of worshippers in prayer at the square, said the protesters would stay there until their demands were met.
He called for a national salvation government with presidential powers.
ElBaradei, whose name has been widely touted to be part of a new salvation government, also joined the protesters in the square on Friday, who mobbed the potential leader.
Egyptian state TV reported that Al-Azhar official, Dr. Hassan Al-Shafey gave a speech at Tahrir Square on behalf of Grand Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayyeb.
In his speech, Al-Shafey said: “The Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb stands next to the protesters and prays for them."
Thousands of pro-democracy protesters also took to the streets in other cities, including at least 10,000 in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria and smaller crowds in Luxor and Assiut in southern Egypt.
About 5,000 supporters of the military staged their own demonstration on Friday several miles north of Tahrir Square in the district of Abbassiyah, not far from the defence ministry building.
"Waving giant Egyptian flags and chanting slogans praising Tantawi, the protesters filled every inch of free space under the Abbassiyah Bridge, some even lined up along its ramps despite the passing traffic," Al Jazeera's Malika Bilal reported from Cairo, referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the SCAF.
"The army and the people are one hand," they yelled in unison, the sound of drums and car horns adding to the chorus of sounds.
Speaking to the media on Friday, Ganzouri described his task as thankless and “extremely difficult” and listed his priorities as securing the streets and reviving the economy. Egypt’s pound has weakened to its lowest level in seven years.
"Previous cabinets over the past 60 years were given many powers by the president of the republic," Ganzouri told reporters in his first public statement after his appointment.
He had been granted "much more powers" than past premiers, said Ganzouri, who served as Mubarak's prime minister between 1996 and 1999.
In a later television address, Ganzouri said he would formalise his government "before the end of next week" and would allocate some portfolios to younger people.
Tahrir Square and the surrounding streets were relatively calm on Friday after the deployment of extra security forces in areas where youths had clashed with police earlier this week.
The violence has fuelled public anger at the military council and drawn more protesters to Tahrir Square.
In a boost to the military council, several thousand protesters demonstrated in support of the generals’ role in another Cairo square on Friday - an echo from the last days of Mubarak’s rule when loyalists took to the streets.
The demonstration highlighted the division between revolutionary youths wanting to overhaul the whole system and more cautious Egyptians keen to restore normality.
Ganzouri’s appointment has reinforced that divide.
“I favour him. He is a very good man, he did a lot of good things. If he had continued in his role (in 1999) the situation would have been much better,” said restaurant worker Osama Amara, 22.
The military council said on Friday each stage of voting would be held over two days instead of one to give everyone the chance to vote. Voting starts on Monday but will not end until early January because of the election's various stages.
In Tahrir, where the main political groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party have avoided demonstrating this week, some protesters said the vote should be delayed.
The Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organised political force, wants the election to go ahead as scheduled.
“Believe me, I don’t know who I am going to vote for,” said Hoda Ragab, a 55-year-old woman at Friday's protest in Tahrir.
“In all sincerity, it’s because I don’t have any programme for any party in these conditions. It would be better for the elections to be delayed a week or two, so we can get over these problems.”
The generals also apologised on Thursday for the killing of about 40 protesters in deadly clashes, mostly centred around Tahrir Square.
This was the longest spate of uninterrupted violence since the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak on February 11.
Washington, a close ally of Egypt, called for a quick transfer to civilian rule.
"The United States strongly believes that the new Egyptian government must be empowered with real authority immediately," White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon renewed calls for the military rulers to ensure a "peaceful transition" after talks by telephone with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of Egypt's military council.
"The secretary-general remains deeply concerned by the violence in Egypt over the last few days," Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky said in New York.
"He deplores the loss of life and the high number of injured.
"He reiterates his call for the transitional authorities to guarantee the protection of human rights and civil liberties for all Egyptians."
On Tuesday, the SCAF accepted the resignation of the caretaker cabinet headed by the once-popular Essam Sharaf, whose fall from grace was due to his perceived weakness in the face of the army.
The violence, in which at least 41 protesters have been killed -- 36 of them in Cairo -- and more than 3,000 injured since Saturday, was cited as one of the factors that led to the cabinet's resignation.
The SCAF has said repeatedly that it does not have political ambitions and plans to hand power to an elected civilian authority after presidential elections set to take place no later than the end of June 2012.
But it has also insisted it will not bow to pressure from the protesters in Tahrir, saying they do not represent the whole country.