In the first clashes of any significance between the Egyptian military and the protesters since the fall of Mubarak, the army last night used batons and tasers to force a crowd of demonstrators calling for the resignation of the Mubarak-appointed prime minster Ahmed Shafiq from Midan Tahrir shortly after the start of the midnight curfew, according to reports by Al Jazeera, Reuters, and other news agencies. We were in a taxi trying to get home from a bar Downtown and found every street into Tahrir barricaded and a heavy presence of soldiers throughout the surrounding neighborhoods. We were stopped halfway to Garden City at a military checkpoint, where a soldier looked at our IDs and went through my handbag, then let us continue. I guess that's what we get for staying out past curfew.
Then this morning, in an apparent about-face, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued a formal apology addressed to the "Youth of the January 25th Revolution" expressing their regrets for what happened last night and reaffirming their commitment to the protesters' cause. The statement, in my rough English translation:
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces assures the Youth of the January 25th Revolution of its wish for the realization of the noble goals of the revolution, and that what happened yesterday during the protests of the Friday of Fulfillment resulted from unintended clashes between the military police and the sons of the revolution, and that it will not and did not issue orders of aggression against the sons of this great people, and that it will take all the precautions in its ability to see to it that this is not repeated in the future.
To pose a question that has been often on people's minds during these past few weeks: what's the military playing at?
Then this morning, in an apparent about-face, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued a formal apology addressed to the "Youth of the January 25th Revolution" expressing their regrets for what happened last night and reaffirming their commitment to the protesters' cause. The statement, in my rough English translation:
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces assures the Youth of the January 25th Revolution of its wish for the realization of the noble goals of the revolution, and that what happened yesterday during the protests of the Friday of Fulfillment resulted from unintended clashes between the military police and the sons of the revolution, and that it will not and did not issue orders of aggression against the sons of this great people, and that it will take all the precautions in its ability to see to it that this is not repeated in the future.
To pose a question that has been often on people's minds during these past few weeks: what's the military playing at?
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