Egyptians celebrate resignation of Mubarak

From MSN:

CAIRO — Hosni Mubarak has resigned as president of Egypt, the country’s vice president said in a brief statement Friday.
Omar Suleiman, speaking on state television, said Mubarak had decided to hand power to the military.

“In these grave circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position as president of the republic,” a grim-looking Suleiman said. “He has mandated the Armed Forces Supreme Council to run the state. God is our protector and succor.”

The news swept the country and Tahrir Square, home of the protest movement, erupted in celebration.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters had gathered for a huge rally on what they called “Farewell Friday,” and after 18 days they finally achieved their main goal.

“The people have brought down the regime,” chanted the crowds in Tahrir Square.

Leading Egyptian democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, said Friday was “the greatest day of my life.”
“The country has been liberated after decades of repression,” he told The Associated Press. He said he expected a “beautiful” transition of power.

Google executive Wael Ghonim, a leading protester, said in a tweet, that “the real hero is the young Egyptians in Tahrir square and the rest of Egypt.”

Suleiman’s statement came after Mubarak left Cairo for the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, shortly after protesters marched on his main presidential palace and held vast rallies across Egypt.

Mubarak passed most of his powers to Vice President Omar Suleiman Thursday night, but rebuffed the demands of demonstrators that he step down immediately.

Mubarak’s departure came after an offer by the army to ensure 30-year-old emergency laws were lifted and that free and fair elections were held failed to placate the crowd.
The military’s comments were seen as a major push to end the worst crisis in Egypt’s modern history and contained a clear signal that it wanted demonstrators off the streets.
It was clearly ignored.

Hundreds of thousands of people crammed into the area around Tahrir Square.

Live television pictures from Alexandria also showed massed ranks of people filling a main boulevard in the city and Al-Jazeera reported there were other demonstrations in Suez, Mahala, Tanta and Ismailia.

‘Finally we are free’
When the news Mubarak had resigned came through, the people were overcome with joy.

Outside Mubarak’s Oruba Palace in northern Cairo, women on balconies ululated with the joyous tongue-trilling used to mark weddings and births.

“Finally we are free,” said Safwan Abo Stat, a 60-year-old in the crowd of protesters at the palace. “From now on anyone who is going to rule will know that these people are great.”

Another, Mohammed el-Masry, weeping with joy, said he had spent the past two weeks in Tahrir before marching to the palace Friday.

He was now headed back to the square to join his ecstatic colleagues. “We made it,” he gasped.

The crowd took up the chant of “I am Egyptian … proud to be Egyptian.”

“Thank God, I have been unemployed because of him, life was horrible, now I will start my life, eventually one can breathe,” said Ahmed, 35, from Fayoum, who was also outside the palace.

Mohamed Abdel Baki, 27, added, “Thank God unfairness is gone, life will be good.”

“Thank God, thank God, unfairness is gone and everything will turn better and if not, we will go out and ask for more changes. Enough. We ended all unfairness,” Red Alrouby, 37, a bakery store owner said.

A lawyer, Sherif el Husseiny, 33, said he couldn’t believe he was “going to see another president in my lifetime.”

“I was born during Sadat’s time but was only four when he died. I’m overwhelmed with the news of Mubarak stepping down. Nothing can ever stop the Egyptian people anymore. It’s a new era for Egypt,” he said.

Obama watches on TV
President Barack Obama learned of Mubarak’s decision to resign during an Oval Office meeting.

And then, like people all over the world, Obama watched television coverage of history unfolding.

Obama was planning to make a statement at 1:30 p.m. EST about the developments.

The White House said Obama watched news coverage of events in Cairo for several minutes on a television set just outside the Oval Office.

Elsewhere, in the north Sinai town of el-Arish, there was a alarming development Friday with Reuters reporting that about 1,000 people attacked a police station in an attempt to free prisoners.

Witnesses said they threw Molotov cocktails and exchanged gunfire with police who retreated to the roof. Al-Jazeera television reported the attackers were protesters who broke away from the main demonstration in el-Arish.

Another member of the ruling National Democratic Party, the general secretary Hossam Badrawi, also resigned Friday.

“It’s a resignation from the position and from the party,” Badrawi told private al-Hayat TV. “The formation of new parties in a new manner that reflects new thinking is better for society now at this stage.”

Before news of Mubarak’s departure, the protesters’ pledge to march from the central Tahrir (Liberation) Square to the presidential palace had raised fears of a confrontation between elite troops and demonstrators.
Top Egypt stories Updated 1 minutes ago 2/11/2011 4:53:33 PM +00:00 Mubarak resigns as president of Egypt

“We’ll have masses of Egyptians after Friday prayer to take it over,” said Ahmed Farouk, 27. “The army has been neutral and did not harm any of us,” he added.

Another crowd could be seen on live television pictures outside the state TV building in central Cairo.

Matthew Cassel, a journalist from Chicago who lives in Beirut, said in a Twitter message that some people in the crowd tried to push down fences around the building but other protesters stopped them.

“Army general on other side crying and shaking hands with protesters,” he wrote in a later message. “All soldiers on other side of fencing at tv bldg look sympathetic to protesters. Very emotional scene.”
An Egyptian major who joined the protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square earlier said Friday that 15 other middle-ranking officers, including a colonel, had joined him.

“The armed forces’ solidarity movement with the people has begun,” Major Ahmed Ali Shouman told Reuters by telephone just after dawn prayers,saying he had handed in his weapon.

“Some 15 officers … have joined the people’s revolution,” he said, listing their ranks ranging from captain to lieutenant colonel. “Our goals and the people’s are one.”

Shouman said the other officers would address the crowd after Friday midday prayers.

Another army major walked up to Shouman while he was talking with a Reuters reporter in Tahrir on Thursday and introduced himself, saying: “I have also joined the cause.”

Protesters are reeling with disillusion and anger after Mubarak dashed their hopes he was about to resign.

“What drove these officers and I to join the people’s revolution is the pledge of allegiance we all took upon joining the armed forces — to protect the nation,” Shouman said when asked whether officers were risking court-martial.

Protesters carried Shouman on their shoulders, chanting “The people and army are united,” after he spoke to them on stage.

Although Egyptians generally respect the mostly conscript armed forces, some protesters were angered when troops stood by last week as Mubarak loyalists clashed with demonstrators.

“How could the army simply stand watch like a useless bystander when Mubarak thugs came in on us last Wednesday and killed 300 martyrs in the square? The army let the people down,” Salah Basouny, 37, said while arguing with a major-general at the state television building near Tahrir.

Shouman, who had to show his army credentials to a few suspicious protesters, said he had urged other officers to join the planned anti-Mubarak demonstrations across Egypt.