Riots during kerry visit to egypt
They held placards with slogans like "kerry, you’re not welcome here" and "kerry out, out, this revolution stays free".
In the provincial cities of port said and mansura, dozens of people were injured in street battles between security forces and demonstrators. In mansura, a civilian died on saturday night after being run over by a police van during a street fight in front of the governor’s building. After his funeral, riots broke out again in the evening. In port said demonstrators set fire to a police building.
The left-wing opposition politician hamdien sabahi wrote in the short message service twitter: "what is happening in mansura is a test for the became every agyptian."The former presidential candidate, like nobel peace prize winner mohammed elbaradei, refused to meet with kerry. On the other hand, the former secretary general of the arab league, amre mussa, who like the other two opposition members belongs to the national salvation front, met with the U.S. Secretary of state.
According to the agyptian media, they also talked about agypt’s economic problems.
The sacular opposition accuses the U.S. Government of supporting the ruling muslim brotherhood, even though the latter disregarded the rules of democracy. The opposition has called for a boycott of the parliamentary elections, which will be held on 22 december. April should begin. That is why this time almost only islamist parties will be competing for seats in parliament. Kerry told the press in cairo that the goal of U.S. Policy is to support democracy in egypt, not to interfere in its internal affairs.
For kerry’s protection, hundreds of plainclothes police were deployed on the road to cairo airport. U.S. Embassy remains closed this sunday for security reasons after some opposition groups announced protests against kerry’s visit. Before his departure on sunday, the u.S. Secretary will also meet president mohammed mursi, who is a member of the muslim brotherhood. Kerry to visit several more arab gulf states after egypt.