CAIRO - Midan Al Tahrir (Liberation Square) is a vital hub of central Cairo in which many apartment buildings are located, occupied by different categories of Egyptian society, including businesspeople, doctors, lawyers and governmental bodies in offices, as well as the people who live there. Some of these people reside in flats worth millions of Egyptian pounds, while others live in rooms on the roofs or in the basements. All are united in having suffered fear due to events around the angry revolution taking place in Egypt, particularly the violations that took place on Wednesday February 2 perpetrated by thugs, who have been climbing up such apartment buildings. The residents have been praying to God to end the current crisis peacefully, so as to establish order and enable them to easily get the food and medicine they need. On that black Wednesday, people living in Tahrir Square experienced horrible circumstances in which violent clashes occurred and anti-Mubarak demonstrators were fired upon. Thugs threw firebombs from the buildings overlooking Tahrir Square at protesters. Together with recidivists, these thugs were threateningly knocking at the doors of flats asking residents to leave with their families or provide them with money and food. They bore iron bars and knives causing the inhabitants to get into a state of panic. They were in a dilemma: should they open the doors or hide behind them, while their children were crying, frightened by the fires they saw and the stones being hurled in all directions? The bloody day was turning into a non-stop nightmare. One resident tried to call for help from his brother or the Armed Forces while non-stop knocking on his door continued by the thugs. Others desperately tried to make emergency phone calls to be rescued, while until dawn nobody from the Armed Forces responded. In the passage between two apartment buildings on Tahrir Square are stores of ready-made clothes, shoes and other leather products, whose owners and vendors complain of the harm caused by current events. Moustafa Ahmed, who works at one of these stores remarked: “We used to earn LE30 a day [less than five US dollars but still more than many Egyptians earn] but now I can't buy or sell. So, if the situation continues as it is, I won't be able to find a source of income and earn my living”. Haj Zeinhoum, a bawab (doorman) of one building, lives with his family consisting of seven persons in two rooms on the roof. “I'm sitting down behind the building's main door and hearing the voices of protesters. I have closed the door of the housing block and if anybody knocks at the door I ask who they are, and if they are one of the inhabitants, I let them in,” Zeinhoum recounted. Passant, a banker at one of the investment banks, who lives in Tahrir Square, commented on the violent way the security forces dealt with young people at Tahrir Square that black day. “The demonstrations were organised and quiet until [the authorities] resorted to thugs and recidivists on Wednesday to use stones and fire balls against protesters. Why did not the authorities leave the demonstrators express their opinions in peace?” asked Passant. Aliaa is a university professor who lives in a top floor flat in one of the Tahrir Square apartment buildings. She sobbed that things had gone from bad to worse, saying that she is still confined to her home and can't come in or go out in freedom, and get her essential needs, for fear of the thugs and recidivists.
