AP: Egypt Democracy Rallies (Contribution)

Pro-reform activists hold rallies across Egypt amid huge security presence

Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ Supporters of a growing pro-democracy movement on Wednesday faced off against riot police in cities across Egypt, demanding political reforms and shouting slogans against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Leaders of the "Kifaya," or Enough, movement reported that up to 75 activists had been detained across the country. Protesters in Cairo said they would stage an overnight sit-in if necessary until all were released.
By late afternoon, all the detainees had been released but Adel Mahmoud, a Kifaya leader in Alexandria, who had been detained Tuesday night and questioned by the prosecutor-general, group officials and police said on condition of anonymity.
The group, officially known as the Egyptian Movement for Change, had called for peaceful rallies in 15 cities Wednesday. Riot police turned out in full force and security officers turned protesters away at many of the venues. Witnesses in some cities, including Suez in theeast and Benha in the Nile Delta, reported that police beat protesters with batons to disperse them.
In Cairo, riot police barred the nearly 300 protesters from the downtown Supreme Court where they had planned to demonstrate, and so they instead gathered on the steps of the nearby journalists syndicate.
"Down with Mubarak! Down with Suleiman!" the demonstrators chanted, referring to the president and his chief of intelligence,Omar Suleiman. Many of them carried the movement's distinctive round yellow stickers with the word "Kifaya" written in red.
"Whoever wants to rule Egypt should come here and hear Egypt!" they shouted.
The road leading to the syndicate building was completely blocked to traffic by rows of riot police in full gear and trucks carrying even more police.
But the protesters were undeterred.
"Send us a hundred cars, send us a hundred soldiers, you dirty government who has no shame," they yelled.
Several young people moved among the crowd collecting signatures for membership in a Kifaya youth group.
"We're trying to make a group for younger people in order to address issues of unemployment and such ... under the slogans ofKifaya," Sarah Naguib, a member of the youth movement, said.
In a statement Wednesday, Kifaya said "breaking the shackles offear and resisting autocracy by silent peaceful protests is our way tobuild a real democracy."
The movement has held a series of protests since December _ each garnering several hundred people _ calling for an end to Mubarak's rule and ending emergency laws that give security forces broad powersand other reforms.
About 1,200 people rallied in the southern city of Luxor, including lawyers and Islamists. Hundreds also gathered in the southern cities of Aswan, Minya and Qena, and at venues in northern Egypt including Alexandria, Suez and Benha.
Salem Salam, one of those briefly detained in Minya, said police picked him up with others as they were walking toward the rally site.
"We were picked up in a very humiliating way," he said. "They haven't told us why we were arrested."
Security was tightened early in the day in southern Egypt, with police searching all vehicles to block Kifaya members from joining the demonstrations and courthouses _ the planned venues _ surrounded by riot police, witnesses said.
In the Nile Delta town of Benha, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Cairo, police beat protesters with batons, a member said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said they had reported the violence to the central police station.
In Suez, protesters were beaten and 20 Kifaya members were arrested amid the protests, according to Ahmed el-Kilani, Kifaya leader and protest coordinator. The remaining 100 demonstrators movedto the Nasserite Party headquarters, where they organized a sit-in protesting the arrests.
In the north Sinai town of el-Arish, approximately 1,000 riotpolice were on hand, some of them pushing about 50 protesters into a shop and locking them in, activists said.
Nearby, about 50 members of the ruling National Democratic Partystaged their own demonstration, carrying banners supporting the government and hoisting pictures of Mubarak.

Associated Press writers Pakinam Amer and Maggie Michael contributed to this report.