Divisions among political groups and warnings by the military mean Tahrir Square is unlikely to see mass protests for some time to come, reports Khaled Dawoud The main traffic island in Tahrir Square turned into a battleground on Friday as thousands of demonstrators calling for a civilian state in Egypt clashed with a nearly equal number of army soldiers and anti-riot police clearly under orders to prevent the square from being reoccupied. The violence occurred after soldiers arrested a protester, but orders were soon issued to army and police forces dressed in anti-riot gear to stop beating protesters after the demonstrators revived the early slogans of the 25 January Revolution-- " selmeya, selmeya " (peaceful, peaceful). The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, had tried hard to convince the groups organising the protest to cancel the event, offering a series of promises to respond positively to their key demands. Sharaf agreed to issue an official statement confirming his commitment to building a civilian state in Egypt, and to draft a document that would include general guiding principles to the committee tasked with drafting a new constitution following the parliamentary elections scheduled for November. A majority of the members of a loose coalition of nearly 50 leftist, liberal, Coptic and Sufi groups agreed to postpone the demonstration, saying they would hold it tomorrow, 19 August, and announcing that they would invite Sharaf to take part. Given last week's violence, though, it seems unlikely that the demonstration will go ahead as planned. The main circle in the middle of Tahrir Square was the site of a three-week sit-in by hundreds of protesters demanding swift trials for Hosni Mubarak and senior regime officials and the purging of members of the now dissolved former ruling National Democratic Party from government ranks. Protesters erected tents, blocked entrances leading to Tahrir, and threatened a "second wave of revolution" if their demands were not met. On 1 August soldiers and anti-riot police raided the circle, removed the tents and forced the protesters to evacuate the square. Though the SCAF, Sharaf and a number of political groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, have argued that demonstrations disrupting daily life must end, the protest on 29 July, when an estimate of more than one million supporters of Islamist groups staged the largest demonstration since Mubarak's removal to demand an Islamic state in Egypt, led to fears that supporters of a civilian state would seek to stage a counter mass demonstration. Leader of the Sufi Azmeya Order, Sheikh Alaa Abul-Azayem, promised to bring 20,000 of his supporters to Tahrir Square on 12 August. In the end only a few hundred Sufis showed up, and they sat separately from other groups. Large numbers of Copts were also expected to take part, but few appeared on the say. But for those who did participate, the refusal of soldiers and policemen to allow them to gather in Tahrir's main circle was nothing short of provocation. "Is there some treasure that you're protecting?" asked one young protester mockingly. And while many slogans had a humorous edge, with protesters dubbing the soldiers defending the traffic island the grass protection unit, there were also calls for SCAF head Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Sami Anan to be removed. The army, said many protesters, wanted to limit the gains of the revolution to the ouster of Mubarak while keeping the bulwarks of his regime in place. A surprise 10-minute visit by Field Marshal Tantawi to Tahrir Square hours before protesters were expected on 12 August was clearly intended to bolster the morale of soldiers guarding the square. "We are being insulted daily," said one army officer who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity. "We don't feel appreciated despite the many sacrifices we made and our support of the revolution." The officer claimed that the "majority of Egyptians want life to go back to normal and don't want to see Tahrir closed again. It is bad for business, and bad for tourism." While the majority of protesters were keen to show positive feelings towards the army, they had nothing but insults for the police. "Interior Ministry officers are thugs," shouted the protesters. At one point police personnel were forced to shelter behind rows of soldiers. "All you can do is beat and torture. You don't respect the Egyptian people," one protester told a Central Security captain. "We had nothing to do with torture," the officer replied. "That was State Security. We are citizens like you." Other protesters blamed the police for the deaths of more than 800 demonstrators during the 25 January Revolution, with officers replying that many had been shot while trying to raid police stations to free criminals. "We were only doing our jobs. And don't forget that over 180 officers and soldiers were killed as well," said another Central Security officer. "And you don't ever dare forget the thousands of people who died in Mubarak's prisons because of your torture," replied a protester. As the discussion heated up an army officer pulled the two policemen away, knowing that the argument could easily grow into a scuffle that could only make things worse in the already tense atmosphere.
