Egypt army seeks to free Tahrir Square for traffic

Army soldiers try to clear a road to remove a burned police vehicle from Tahrir Square in Cairo February 5, 2011.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army closed in on a central Cairo square on Saturday night as it prepared to clear the area of thousands of protesters, witnesses said.

An Egyptian army commander addressed demonstrators camped out at Tahrir Square earlier in the day to try to persuade them to stop a protest that has stalled economic life in the capital.

"You all have the right to express yourselves but please save what is left of Egypt. Look around you," Hassan al-Roweny, central military zone commander, said on a loud-speaker to huge cheers, standing on a podium used by protesters as a soap box.

The crowd responded with shouts that President Hosni Mubarak should resign, at which Roweny stepped down saying: "I will not speak amid such chants."

Earlier, troops moved some of the demonstrators to make way for traffic to flow again on Sunday, when banks are due to reopen at the start of the working week.

Many of those thronging the square have camped out for days with banners and flags denouncing Mubarak's 30-year rule.

"We need to clear the road in the square, we need traffic to flow again through Tahrir. The people can stay in Tahrir, but not on the road," Roweny said on a tour of the square.

One protester, Moustafa Mohamed, said the army was now preparing to push protesters out of the square.

"It is very clear that they are trying to suffocate us. This shows ill intent. But we are not moving until our legitimate demands are met," he said.

Roweny also visited a makeshift hospital where people wounded in clashes with Mubarak supporters were being treated.

He said a clinic station set up in the open at the north entrance of the square should move inside the Egyptian Museum.

Mubarak partisans on Wednesday staged an attack with knives and whips, some of them on horses and camels, leaving 11 dead and more than 1,000 wounded.

The army set up reinforcements to protect the area and the protesters have their own checkpoints at all entry points.

But the army tightened access into the zone on Saturday, limiting people's ability to join in. A cordon of soldiers created a space in the middle of the traffic hub, separating the protesters near the Egyptian museum from the rest.

"We want people to go back to work and to get paid, and life to get back to normal," Roweny told reporters during the tour.

MIXED REACTION

There was a mixed reaction from protesters, who have had cordial relations with the military during the 12 days of unprecedented demonstrations in a country long ruled with an iron fist and harsh security policies.

"The regime is playing the economic card. They're saying people are losing money, not getting their pay, etc. Yes, there are losses but that's the price we have to pay for three decades of passivity," said Omar Rayes, a 15-year-old student.

"Hosni Mubarak and the government trivialize the needs of the nation," said Mostafa Atteya, 29-year-old financial manager.

Agitated protesters followed Roweny across the square, shouting anti-Mubarak chants. Others appealed to the army to protect them from thugs and not forsake the protesters' cause.

"Even if only a quarter of a million people are expressing a demand, their needs must be respected. The political stupidity the regime practices heightens people's animosity."

At one point during the day the activists began banging on barricades they had set up near the museum to alert others to reinforce them, fearing an army effort to push them back.

"The army is doing the job of the NDP," said Sayyid Hamdy, referring to Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party. "It wants to separate the protesters, it wants to make Tahrir look like it's back to normal so that the world thinks the protesters have been satisfied and left the square."

(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed and Dina Zayed; writing by Andrew Hammond; editing by Maria Golovnina)