Robert Gibbs: “Het door de regering georkestreerd geweld is onacceptabel.” Vooralsnog doet Obama geen directe oproep aan Mubarak meteen op te stappen. Achter de schermen wordt uiteraard door Obama en het Foreign Office aan de touwtjes getrokken, dat werd ook in deze persconferentie weer duidelijk. Tijdschema, de rol van het leger, het verdwijnen van Mubarak, overgang naar democratische verhoudingen, alles is door en afgesproken, schijnt het. En de meest onberekenbare factor, de alles beslissende, de dictator blijft, mag voorlopig blijven. Heeft hij gedreigd zijn archieven te openen die een bijzonder licht zullen werpen op de relaties van Egypte met de USA en Israël? Waaruit bestaat die innige vriendschap tussen Obama en Mubarak, zullen we dat ooit weten?
Washington en Mubarak willen allebei tijd winnen en dat is overduidelijk in het voordeel van de laatste. Het geweld van vandaag zou een voorspel kunnen zijn wat Egypte nog te wachten staat. Voor en na bezit hij het geweldsmonopolie. Wat te denken van een leger dat niet ingrijpt, ook als er eenzijdig geweld wordt gebruikt?
Een zaak is zeker, de gebeurtenissen nu zullen gegrift zijn in de herinnering van de bevolking. Een stem uit velen zegt: “Long Live the Revolution of The Egyptian People.” Voorafgaande aan haar verslag eerst een ons bekende stem over de recente gebeurtenissen, die van Tariq Ramadan op de Canadese radio.
Long Live the Revolution of The Egyptian People
I am exhausted!
I can’t sleep. My head won’t stop and give me a moment to rest. Too many precious moments need to be etched in my memory and I have no time to linger on them.
I feel Like crying, laughing and screaming.
Images are racing by, I need to capture them. Just spit any vague words to remind me of them later. When Mobarak leaves I’ll have the time to stop at every image and savor it, for now this has to be enough:
They hit us bad. They shot tear gas at us, I saw ppl running and screaming, and all i can remember is the tweeted instructions ” Do not rub ur eyes” I tried, I really tried, but my eyes were on fire, I didn’t rub them though but ended up walking blindly into a wall. Then someone carried me up onto a small garden in the middle of Tahrir square, helped me and stayed there to make sure I am ok while bombs were still falling around us. This was 1 of many strangers I would momentarily bond with over the next dew days.
Then they beat everyone up. Total chaos. Rocks, Batoons, Water from fre trucks, I saw many wounded, minor wounds but they shocked me, I didn’t know yet that this was nothing compared to what awaits us in the next few days. Amidst all this my dear JarelKamar came running at me, shielded my back with his body and ran with me away from the flying rocks.
A while later I felt more at ease wt all these gases and flying rocks. I came prepared for minor injuries, so I walked around to check if anyone needs help. I tended to a few wounded then came 4 guys running at me, they looked like the kind of guys I would normally avoid in the street for fear of sexual harassment, but they were running for my help, one of them was injured from a rock thrown at him by the police, I helped them with it which was followed by a moment of them cheering me and my gad3ana. This was just so wonderful.
Ofcourse it helped that I had a recent scar on my chin with stitches which they asked me about and to which I laughingly said “I fell at work yesterday, I came to the demo fully prepared wt my own scar” and we laughed together before running again.
I walked the streets with men and women, of all sorts of backgrounds. Never have I felt a sense of belonging like then, like now. I was happy just to be in the streets sitting in close proximity with thousands of strangers, snuggled in a warm cocoon, liberating Tahrir square, marking it as ours.
There is much more to tell. Many stories that must be told. I owe it to the people who allowed me to briefly share it with them, but I am really exhausted now.
Around me, friends are sleeping on couches, on the floor, in any empty space they can find.
I call them friends eventhough half of them I’ve never met before this week, but so many things happened, together we shared intensely charged emotional days that we became friends rapidly.
Yesterday I was terrified, I was freaked out like never before. I was shaking in bed trying to convince myself to sleep. I actually thought of writing a note and posting it on my fridge incase I died. Now I feel elated.
I have lived to see the uprise of the Egyptian people and the downfall of Mobarak . I can dream about having kids and me telling them proudly that I was part of this extraordinary moment.
This is my place.
These are my people,
and we just seized our country back.
Bron afbeeldingen en tekst: Ma3t’s bits & pieces
