Protesters remain unmoved as Egypt’s military retains power

In a climbdown following a crisis summit, the military council said the handover would be in July next year. It also consulted with political parties on forming a new cabinet.

Demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, which was the focus of protests which led to the ejection of President Hosni Mubarak nine months ago, rejected the move, threatening a “second revolution”.

Thousands again thronged the square in response to a call for further mass protests which have left nearly 30 dead since Saturday following a crackdown by the authorities.

“We are not leaving, he leaves,” chanted the protesters, demanding that military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and his council of generals immediately give up power to a civilian transitional authority.

“The people want to bring down the field marshal,” they shouted in scenes starkly reminiscent of the uprising early this year.

Aboul-Ela Madi and Mohammed Selim el-Awa, two politicians who attended a five-hour crisis meeting with the military rulers, said the generals accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf’s government and will form a “national salvation” cabinet to replace it.

Previously, the military rulers had floated late next year or early 2013 as the timetable for transferring power.

The military’s concession came less than a week before the first parliamentary election since the removal nine months ago of Mubarak.

The elections are staggered over three months.

“Our demands are clear. We want the military council to step down and hand over authority to a national salvation government with full authority,” said Khaled El-Sayed, a member of the Youth Revolution Coalition and a candidate in the forthcoming parliamentary election.

He said the commander of the Military Police and the Interior Minister, who is in charge of the police, must be tried for the “horrific crimes” of the past few days.

“This is the maximum we can reach. The (Tahrir) square is something and the politics is something else,” Mr Madi said.

He and Mr Al-Awa were among 12 political party representatives and presidential hopefuls who attended the meeting with the military council.

They also said the military agreed to release all protesters detained since Saturday and to put on trial police and army officers responsible for protesters’ deaths.

Security forces stayed away from the square yesterday to avoid confrontations after several failed efforts to clear the area in central Cairo turned violent.

But clashes broke out in streets connecting Tahrir Square to police headquarters, with black-clad security forces backed by military troops firing volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets to block groups of men, who responded by hurling stones and fire bombs.

The two sides have been engaged in intense clashes since the unrest began on Saturday with protesters trying to force out the generals who they say have failed to stabilise the country, salvage the economy or bring democracy.