CAIRO – Voices were raised, people chanted nationalist songs and others vowed never to budge until the martyrs have been avenged. Sheltering from the scorching heat in the sun-drenched Stalinist Al Tahrir Square in central Cairo, Abdullah Mohamed, a 47-year-old schoolteacher, was not sounding a different note. Abdullah travelled all the way from Kafr el-Sheikh in the Nile Delta to the Square, the focus for anti-regime anger in January and February. For the past week, he has been camping out there, vowing only to leave when a relative of his who was shot in the back during the 18-day revolt against Hosni Mubarak is properly compensated. “What would you do if the Government killed your brother or your son?” Mohamed asked in an interview with The Egyptian Gazette. “Would you leave the killers unpunished?” Almost five months after millions of Egyptians managed to end the political career of Mubarak, who ruled their country with an iron fist for three decades, unpunished killing and persistent corruption continue to fan the fire of Egypt's revolutionaries and push them to more shows of anger. Egypt's famous Al Tahrir Square is filled with protesters yet again, in a scene reminiscent of the massive popular uprising that swept Mubarak from power. This time, however, the demonstrators demand justice for the victims of the revolution. Around 840 people were killed by Mubarak's policemen across the nation, when they took to the streets to demand the ousting of an octogenarian president who robbed them of their present and threatened to rob them of their future too by planning dynastic rule for the country. Thousands of other people were injured, some of them very seriously, including Abdullah's teenage relative. The 17-year-old was out on the streets in Kafr el-Sheikh chanting anti-Mubarak slogans when pro-regime snipers shot him in the back. He was rushed to hospital, where doctors plucked the bullets out of his back and sent him home. A few days later, the boy was totally paralysed. His family pleaded for help, but none was forthcoming. “He is dying, but we can do nothing to help him,” Abdullah said. “Imagine a relative of yours lying on his bed as the life ebbs out of him and you cannot help him.” The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has announced the establishment of a new fund with capital of LE100 million to compensate the families of those killed or injured during the revolution. Mohamed, however, says his relative has been given nothing, although his future looks extremely bleak. Behind Abdullah, scores of demonstrators stood in the middle of the Square, demanded that the policemen who killed demonstrators be swiftly tried. Some of them held the Egyptian flag high and addressed the gathering, stressing the importance of keeping the fire of the Egyptian revolution burning. “This is a message to the members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. If you really are worried about the future of this country, you must bring the killers to account,” said one of the speakers, addressing the crowd of demonstrators and spectators in the Square. On one side of the Square, a banner read: 'Vengeance is indispensable'. So far, only one policeman has been tried in absentia for killing demonstrators. Other policemen with the blood of Egyptians on their hands are still at large. But this is not the only reason behind the return of the demonstrators to the Square yet again. The fact that most of these people haven't seen any difference in the way their country is being managed is another reason for anger. Some demonstrators say they feel as if Mubarak still rules Egypt. “Egypt's policemen are still as bad as they were under Mubarak, corruption is still rife and our country does not seem to have got rid of its legacy of despotism,” said Safwat Abdulmoneim, a 50-year-old civil servant. “Look anywhere you like and you'll see no difference at all.”
