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Egyptians reclaim the streets on Police Day demanding to be rid of dictator Hosni Mubarak

by Takver - Australia Indymedia
In a day of protests in Egypt hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets facing down riot police, water cannon, baton charges and tear gas. The people are chanting for freedom, fan end to the corrupt administration of Hosni Mubarak in power for 30 years, with the demand that he to join the Tunisian dictator Ben Ali in Saudi Arabia.
640_20110125_egypt_protest_in_front_national__un_democratic_party.jpg

Photoset on Flickr | Ustream videos of protest by righter | Live updates: ahram online, Guardian

The protests are ocurring at multiple sites in around Egypt inclusing in Cairo and Alexandria, Mansoura, Aswan, Quina, Arish, and Mahala. (http://25jan.crowdmap.com/ Map of where the protests are. ) Some estimate number of protesters in Cairo as about 100,000 spread across various sites.

January 25 is a public holiday - ironically called Police Day.

By mid-afternoon the Egyption Government had blocked twitter, websites of independent newspapers and live streaming application #bambuser. While Egyptions were reclaiming their streets all satellite channels were broadcasting cooking & makeup programs. There are reports that phone lines used by lawyers and activists providing support are also being suspended, and many phone lines have had data services disabled.

@Khaledtron Khaled Akbik reported "Thousands of protesters move from Abdeen Square heading to parliament, chanting "We want a free government."

@ianinegypt said "Protesters say #tunisia is their inspiration and that they hope to make them proud"

@AzizBendriss tweeted "In Cairo the crowd is going: "Ben Ali is calling you, Jeddah hotel is waiting for you..." I guess Hosni Mubarek is next"

At a protest outside the Egyptian embassy in London ther was chant "ya mubaarak ya mubaarak, al-saudiyya fi intizaarak." Protests in Paris (photos)

The Tunisian uprising is an inspiration to people through the arab world sick of the corrupt dictatorships. Like in Tunisia, continued police brutality and repression are motivating people to respond on the street. One of these events was the brutal attack on 28 year old Khaled Said who was tortured to death by 2 Egyptian Policemen in the street. His death has woken up Egyptians to work against the systematic torture in Egypt and the 30 years running emergency law. A facebook site has been set up for international supporters to help in the stand against Police brutality in Egypt. http://www.facebook.com/elshaheeed.co.uk.

Amnesty International USA said on a blog entry: "There have been many demonstrations for political rights in Egypt, but many activists are saying they have never seen the level of excitement that they are seeing around the Jan. 25 demonstrations set for sites throughout Egypt (with some solidarity marches planned in the U.S. and elsewhere - NYC protest). Now the question is how the Egyptian security authorities will respond."

The internet activist group opposed to internet censorship, Anonymous, released a press release early on January 25 asking for western journalists to cover the protests: "What we ask is simple. There are people protesting in Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Albania, Libya, and many other countries at this very moment. Tell us who they are and what it is they want for their country and their people, for now and in the future. So many voices are raised in protest right now and all the world can hear is the noise. Tell us what the people are saying."

One Egyptian government site is now offline - http://www.moiegypt.gov.eg/ , with anouncements on twitter that other Egyption Government sites are about to be targetted in support of today's protests.

If you want up to date news here are some users and tags to follow on twitter for #Egypt protests > #Jan25 et @RamyRaoof @waelabbas @Gsquare86 @Ghafari @ashrafkhalil @3arabawy @LaurenBohn @arabist @Sarahngb @NadiaE

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