ElBaradei back home as Egyptians brace for Friday protests

CNN News, By the CNN Wire Staff, January 27, 2011

ElBaradei: Egypt is not stable

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Mohamed ElBaradei says he will join demonstrators Friday
• The Muslim Brotherhood calls on its followers to march Friday
• Egypt briefly closes its stock market as the index drops sharply
• Egypt has been wracked by unprecedented protests this week

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Mohamed ElBaradei, the Egyptian Nobel laureate and opposition leader, is now back in Cairo and plans to join what are expected to be a massive displays of anti-government ferment across the world's most populous Arab nation on Friday.

"The barrier of fear is broken," ElBaradei told reporters after he arrived in Egypt from Europe on Thursday. "And it will not come back."

The county has been bracing for a huge outpouring of protests after Friday prayers.

The Muslim Brotherhood has called for its followers to demonstrate after the weekly Muslim prayers -- the first time in the current round of unrest that the largest opposition bloc has told supporters to take to the streets.

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• Mohamed ElBaradei
• Egypt

Now ElBaradei has said he will take part in the protests and passed along "advice to the regime: It's now the time to listen to the people. Make an innocent collective change."

"We have been calling for the change for a year now. The regime has not listened to us. Therefore, the youth went on the street," he said.

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo issued a message Thursday telling Americans that "areas where people congregate after Friday prayers should be avoided."

"While many of the demonstrations have focused on the downtown Cairo/Tahrir Square area, violent confrontations have occurred at other locations both in the Cairo metropolitan area and in Alexandria, Suez, and other cities," it said.

With all eyes in the country focused on the protests, some events have been suspended. The Egyptian football federation has decided to postpone games scheduled for Friday and Saturday until further notice, according to Egypt's official news agency.

There was still a smattering of street protesters on Thursday after massive public protests on Tuesday and Wednesday calling for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak convulsed the nation and prompted a tough security crackdown.

Cairo was quiet Thursday compared to previous days, but there appear to have been smaller skirmishes, and more are anticipated as night comes.

In Suez, the port city east of Cairo on the Gulf of Suez, people congregated to demand the release of those detained, and clashes broke out between demonstrators and security forces.

Hani Abdel Latif, an Interior Ministry official, said 50 people demonstrated peacefully in Ismaeliya. But there were news reports of clashes there.

In Egypt's Sinai region, there were clashes between security forces and protesters television footage of the scene showed.

Egypt briefly closed its stock market Thursday after it fell sharply. It reopened about an hour later.

At the same time, Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party made reference to the discontent on the streets. Secretary-General Safwat al-Sherif told reporters that the party wants to talk with the youths who have been at the forefront of the protests.

The protest movement in Egypt has been fueled by blogs and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. ElBaradei, who is also the former head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, has been posting messages of support for the demonstrators on Twitter.

"We shall continue to exercise our right of peaceful demonstration and restore our freedom & dignity. Regime violence will backfire badly," he said in one of his latest tweets.

As he was waiting to leave Vienna, Austria, ElBaradei told reporters that he was going to Egypt to "make sure that things will be managed in a peaceful way."

"I have to give them as much support, political support, spiritual, moral support, whatever I can do, you know," he said. "I will be with them. They are my people, and I have to be there, and I'd like to see Egypt, a new Egypt."

In an interview Tuesday on CNN's "Connect the World," ElBaradei disputed a recent comment by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the Egyptian government is stable.

"Stability is when you have a government that is elected on a free and fair basis. And we have seen, you know, how the election has been rigged in Egypt. We have seen how people have been tortured," he said.

ElBaradei was asked whether he would run for the presidency of Egypt.

"The priority for me," he said, "is to shift Egypt into a democracy, is to catch up with the 21st century, to get Egypt to be a modern and ... moderate society and respecting human rights, respecting the basic freedoms of the people.

"Whether I run or not, that is totally irrelevant. And I made it very clear, I will not run under the present conditions, when the deck is stacked completely."

The outpouring of protests has led to unprecedented violence this week.

Police turned water cannons and tear gas on protesters Wednesday to try to break up anti-government demonstrations as the Interior Ministry warned it "will not allow any provocative movement or a protest or rallies or demonstrations."

In the heart of Cairo, people were being beaten with sticks and fists and demonstrators were being dragged away amid tear gas. Witnesses saw security forces harassing journalists and photographers. Demonstrations continued into the nighttime hours.

In Suez, state-run Nile News TV reported violent clashes Wednesday night between security forces and protesters.

At least 27 people were wounded, Nile News said, most of them police officers. Quoting provincial officials, the station said most of the clashes took place in the Alarbeen neighborhood and that looters attacked some shops.

The Muslim Brotherhood said 35 people were injured in Suez and that security forces in the city had implemented a curfew there Wednesday night.

Families and friends of people slain in Suez said angry demonstrations occurred because police didn't hand over the bodies of those killed.

There were at least three demonstrators who died in Suez earlier in the week, and a police officer was killed in Cairo.

Egypt's official MENA news agency reported that at least 90 people were detained Wednesday while trying to demonstrate in downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square, and there were reports of many more detentions across the country.

Some 95% of protesters detained over the past few days will be released on Thursday, the Interior Ministry said. It did not say why the remaining 5% would remain in custody.

Most of the demonstrators were not arrested or charged, the ministry said.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has posted a travel warning on its Hebrew website, warning Israelis in Egypt "to pay attention to the rioting in the streets, to adhere to official warnings and to stay away from rioting centers."

CNN's Mary Rogers, Ben Wedeman and Housam Ahmed contributed to this report.

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