Cairo: Riot Police kick and beat activists with batons at Mubarak protest

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Crowd beaten at Mubarak protest

Sunday, July 31, 2005; Posted: 6:33 a.m. EDT (10:33 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/07/30/egypt.protest.ap/index.html



CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Police and government supporters beat pro-reform activists with batons, sometimes kicking them as they lay on the ground, during a protest Saturday against President Hosni Mubarak's announcement that he would run for re-election for a fifth time.

The vote is the first in which Mubarak -- in power for 24 years -- will face an opponent, and his government has said it will serve as a launching pad for greater democracy. The United States also praised the elections, though Mubarak opponents are more skeptical. (Full story)

On Saturday, several hundred men and women were gathering to begin their march toward Cairo's main square when men in plainclothes descended on them, swinging billy clubs and assaulting the demonstrators.

Burly government supporters surrounded activists sprawled on the pavement, kicking them in the head and ribs and tearing at their clothes. Others lifted protesters in the air by the arms and legs, hauling them off to police trucks. One elderly man wandered in a daze, his head bleeding. "Down with the rule of the dog Mubarak," one young man yelled as he was being clubbed.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Quick send pebbles and kindofnasty in

to praise them for their freemon'n'moxy.