ON WEDNESDAY security forces arrested dozens of Kifaya (Enough) movement activists and journalists as they rallied against a fifth mandate for President Hosni Mubarak. According to Kifaya coordinator George Ishaq, security forces intervened in pro-reform demonstrations held under the banner "No constitution without freedom" in 14 cities across the country, using force to disperse demonstrators. In Cairo hundreds of anti-riot police sealed off the roads leading to the Supreme Court compound, preventing demonstrators from approaching the site of a projected rally; others were held up at a downtown underground station. Later some 400 activists managed to penetrate the security block, gathering before the Press Syndicate to chant anti-Mubarak slogans. Dozens of Central Security vehicles cordoned off the Supreme Court area in Alexandria, too, where the rally was meant to take place. According to the Al-Ahram Weekly reporter on the scene, police prevented journalists from using their mobile phones as well as entering the protest area. Two Alexandria activists, Adel Mahmoud and Mohamed Abbaswere were reportedly detained in the prosecutor's office, where colleagues gathered shouting, "The arrests don't count -- it's honour enough to have tried." Across the street from the Supreme Court, stood the owner of a business centre who expressed his joy at the sight of such demonstration, noting that " If I find 10 people marching in the street, chanting anti-government slogans I will follow them. People are so frustrated and such protests provide the chance for citizens to vent their anger." Port Said fared no better. Outside the administrative headquarters of the governorate, where the protests were to take place, Weekly reporters saw scores of people running away from a wave of mass arrests intended to disperse the crowd; four Kifaya activists and three journalists, including the Weekly 's reporter and photographer, were detained in a police vehicle for a few hours and then released. At the southern edge of the Canal, in Suez, police "attacked demonstrators and confiscated their banners", according to Kifaya, while in the North Sinai town of Al-Arish, dozens of demonstrators continued to chant anti-Mubarak, pro-reform slogans after they were cornered; dozens were detained, only to be released shortly afterwards. Likewise in Minya and Aswan, Upper Egypt, where police detained and then released two and 10 demonstrators, respectively. In the Delta city of Mansoura another 10 protesters received the same treatment. On Tuesday, according to Kifaya reports, police had arrested two activists handing out yellow stickers with the word kifaya on them -- to be attached to the mouth or the chest during protests -- as they urged passers-by in the industrial suburb of Helwan, outside Cairo, to show up for the demonstration the next day. They were subsequently identified as accountant Ashraf Suleiman and university student Hisham Nabil; but the Ministry of Interior is yet to make an official acknowledgement of the arrest. Kifaya -- a diverse gathering of activists of various political persuasions, including leftists, Islamists, Nasserists and liberals -- have been calling on Mubarak to step down and further political reform since December. More recently Ishaq was quoted as saying, "The government is stronger than us. If they prevent us what can we do? If they arrest us, we can only accept that. Each one must bear the responsibility for his actions." Police intervention he described as "evidence of the government's fear in the face of the awakening of the Egyptian people, who are finally demanding a real democracy." Last month President Mubarak asked lawmakers to amend the constitution to allow for the first multi-candidate presidential elections in Egyptian history, but many dissidents still claim that the amendment is being tailored by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) in such a way as to void it of any real content, making it all but impossible for viable candidates to compete with the ruling party's nominee. All day traffic slowed down to a crawl as helmeted, shield-carrying and club-wielding policemen stood sentinel at strategic locations like key government buildings and the US and British embassies. Layers of anti-riot police deployed in tight formations erected metal barriers around the parliament building and at streets leading into the city centre. Under emergency law, in force since President Anwar Al-Sadat's assassination in 1981, gives the security forces full discretionary power to ban demonstrations. Reported by Mustafa El-Menshawi, Salonaz Sami, Sara Abou Bakr and Tamer Youssef
