ID :
160548
Sat, 02/12/2011 - 14:54
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/160548
The shortlink copeid
People’s power wins, Mubarak resigns
TEHRAN,Feb.12(MNA)-- Cairo’s streets exploded in joy on Friday after Hosni Mubarak finally stepped down and handed power to a junta of senior military commanders.
A grim-faced and ashen Vice President Omar Suleiman announced the handover on state television after an extraordinary national outpouring of rage brought more than a million furious demonstrators onto the streets.
“Taking into consideration the difficult circumstances the country is going through, President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave the post of president of the republic and has tasked the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to manage the state’s affairs,” Suleiman said.
Suleiman’s short statement was received with a roar of approval and by celebratory chanting and flag-waving from a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, as well by pro-democracy campaigners who attended protests across the country on Friday.
The crowd in Tahrir Square chanted “We have brought down the regime,” while many were seen crying, cheering, and embracing one another.
Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei hailed the moment as the “greatest day of my life” .
“The country has been liberated after decades of repression,” he said.
“Tonight, after all of these weeks of frustration, of violence, of intimidation… today the people of Egypt undoubtedly (feel they) have been heard, not only by the president, but by people all around the world,” Al Jazeera’s correspondent at Tahrir Square reported, following the announcement.
“The sense of euphoria is simply indescribable,” said Al Jazeera’s correspondent at Mubarak’s Heliopolis presidential palace, where at least ten thousand pro-democracy activists had gathered.
“I have waited, I have worked all my adult life to see the power of the people come to the fore and show itself. I am speechless,” Dina Magdi, a pro-democracy campaigner in Tahrir Square, told .
“The moment is not only about Mubarak stepping down, it is also about people’s power to bring about the change that no one… thought possible.”
As news spread, cries of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest!) and shouts of victory rang out in the streets of the capital and firecrackers exploded.
In Tahrir Square, several protesters fainted with the emotion of the moment following two weeks of demonstrations.
The plaza has been a focal point of the uprising since it was occupied by protesters in late January, and earlier in the day was thronged by hundreds of thousands of Egyptians, who prayed and chanted abuse at Mubarak.
In Alexandria, Egypt’s second city, Al Jazeera’s correspondent described an “explosion of emotion”. He said that hundreds of thousands were celebrating in the streets.
Pro-democracy activists in the Egyptian capital and elsewhere had earlier marched on presidential palaces, state television buildings, and other government installations on Friday, the 18th consecutive day of protests.
Earlier, the 82-year-old dictator had flown out of Cairo to his holiday retreat at Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea, the ruling party said.
A grim-faced and ashen Vice President Omar Suleiman announced the handover on state television after an extraordinary national outpouring of rage brought more than a million furious demonstrators onto the streets.
“Taking into consideration the difficult circumstances the country is going through, President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave the post of president of the republic and has tasked the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to manage the state’s affairs,” Suleiman said.
Suleiman’s short statement was received with a roar of approval and by celebratory chanting and flag-waving from a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, as well by pro-democracy campaigners who attended protests across the country on Friday.
The crowd in Tahrir Square chanted “We have brought down the regime,” while many were seen crying, cheering, and embracing one another.
Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei hailed the moment as the “greatest day of my life” .
“The country has been liberated after decades of repression,” he said.
“Tonight, after all of these weeks of frustration, of violence, of intimidation… today the people of Egypt undoubtedly (feel they) have been heard, not only by the president, but by people all around the world,” Al Jazeera’s correspondent at Tahrir Square reported, following the announcement.
“The sense of euphoria is simply indescribable,” said Al Jazeera’s correspondent at Mubarak’s Heliopolis presidential palace, where at least ten thousand pro-democracy activists had gathered.
“I have waited, I have worked all my adult life to see the power of the people come to the fore and show itself. I am speechless,” Dina Magdi, a pro-democracy campaigner in Tahrir Square, told .
“The moment is not only about Mubarak stepping down, it is also about people’s power to bring about the change that no one… thought possible.”
As news spread, cries of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest!) and shouts of victory rang out in the streets of the capital and firecrackers exploded.
In Tahrir Square, several protesters fainted with the emotion of the moment following two weeks of demonstrations.
The plaza has been a focal point of the uprising since it was occupied by protesters in late January, and earlier in the day was thronged by hundreds of thousands of Egyptians, who prayed and chanted abuse at Mubarak.
In Alexandria, Egypt’s second city, Al Jazeera’s correspondent described an “explosion of emotion”. He said that hundreds of thousands were celebrating in the streets.
Pro-democracy activists in the Egyptian capital and elsewhere had earlier marched on presidential palaces, state television buildings, and other government installations on Friday, the 18th consecutive day of protests.
Earlier, the 82-year-old dictator had flown out of Cairo to his holiday retreat at Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea, the ruling party said.
