Cairo's Tahrir Square Set for Reforms Rally
Protesters began arriving at Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on Friday for a planned mass rally calling for reforms as the ruling military warned it would respond harshly to any violence by activists.
Organizers called the rally, which is expected to branch out into a march to the nearby cabinet offices, to press Egypt's military rulers to keep their promises of reform after a revolt ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February.
A live state television broadcast showed several hundred protesters converging on Tahrir Square ahead of the rally, which is expected to grow after the end of weekly Friday Muslim prayers at around 11:00 GMT.
The military, in a statement posted on its Facebook page, said it respected the activists' right to protest peacefully, but warned it would respond to violence by the protesters with "the utmost severity and decisiveness."
The interior ministry said it had withdrawn riot police stationed in Tahrir Square to allow the activists to protest unhindered, the official MENA news agency reported.
The protest was called by mostly secular and leftist activists, and is being boycotted by the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement and other Islamist groups.
Secular activists are concerned that the military's current timetable for parliamentary elections in autumn will play into the hands of the Brotherhood by denying new political movements the time to organize into parties.
The activists are also demanding an end to the military trials of civilians.
Source: Agence France Presse
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