Protesters press for a voice in democracy

Associated Press

CAIRO

On Egypt’s first day in nearly 30 years without Hosni Mubarak as president, protesters, still partying over their victory in pushing Mubarak out, now pressed for a voice in guiding their country’s move to democracy.

The protesters’ first act was deeply symbolic of their ambition to build a new Egypt and their determination to do it themselves: Thousands began cleaning up Cairo’s central Tahrir Square, the epicenter of their movement. The sprawling plaza was battered and trashed by 18 days of street battles and rallies by hundreds of thousands.

Even as thousands flowed in to celebrate, broom brigades fanned out, with smiling young men and women — some in stylish clothes and earrings — sweeping up rubble and garbage. Others repaired sidewalks torn apart for concrete chunks to use as ammunition in fighting with pro-regime gangs. Young, veiled girls painted the metal railings of fences along the sidewalk. “Sorry for the inconvenience, but we’re building Egypt,” read placards many wore.

“We are cleaning the square now because it is ours,” said Omar Mohammed, a 20-year-old student. “After living here for three weeks, it has become our home. ... We’re going to leave it better than before.”

A coalition of youth groups that organized the protests issued their first cohesive list of demands for handling the transition to democracy. Their focus was on ensuring they — not just the military or members of Mubarak’s regime — have a seat at the table in deliberations shaping the future.

Among their demands: lifting of emergency law; creation of a presidential council, made up of a military representative and two “trusted personalities”; the dissolving of the ruling party-dominated parliament; and the forming of a broad-based unity government and a committee to either amend or rewrite completely the constitution.

“The revolution is not over. This is just a beginning. We are working on how to move into a second republic,” said Shady el-Ghazali Harb, the representative on the coalition from one of the youth organizing groups, the Democratic Front.

Many in the square were pouring love on the military: Families put babies on the laps of soldiers on tanks for photos; crowds cheered when a line of soldiers jogged by. But there was also realism that the military’s ultimate intention is unclear.

“We don’t know what they’ll do; they might keep hanging on to power,” said Muhammed Ali, a 22-year-old archaeology student who argued for the protests to continue.