Top dissident Mohamed ElBaradei told a sea of angry protesters in Cairo yesterday that they were beginning a new era after six days of a deadly revolt against embattled President Hosni Mubarak.
Meanwhile Egypt has ordered riot police back onto the streets nationwide two days after they virtually disappeared as the army was deployed to deal with a deadly anti-regime revolt, state television said.
Outgoing interior minister Habib al-Adly yesterday ordered the measure with at least 125 people killed in six days of violent protests against President Hosni Mubarak’s embattled regime.
Nobel peace laureate ElBaradei, mandated by Egyptian opposition groups including the banned Muslim Brotherhood to negotiate with Mubarak’s regime, hailed “a new Egypt in which every Egyptian lives in freedom and dignity.”
“We are on the right path, our strength is in our numbers,” Mr ElBaradei said in his first address to the protest epicentre on Cairo’s Tahrir Square. “I ask you to be patient, change is coming.”
“We will sacrifice our soul and our blood for the nation,” the angry crowd shouted. “The people want to topple the President.”
Brotherhood leaders Essam el-Erian and Saad el-Katatni, who walked out of prison earlier yesterdeay after their guards fled, also addressed the crowd.
“They tried every way to stop the revolution of the people but we will be steadfast regardless of how many martyrs fall,” Mr Erian said.
Six days of nationwide protest against Mr Mubarak’s three-decade rule have shaken Egypt and left at least 125 people dead as the veteran leader clings to power.
Mr Mubarak has struggled to placate a nation angry at his three decades of autocratic rule with token gestures such as sacking the government.
Parliament speaker Fathi Surur yesterday made another concession, saying the results of last year’s fraud-tainted parliamentary elections would be revised.
Mr Mubarak yesterday met with army brass seen as holding the key to his future as warplanes roared low over the downtown Cairo protest in an apparent show of force.
Several foreign governments said they would evacuate their nationals, while the United States authorised the departure of embassy families.