January 31st, 2011 by Alec

Despite an internet blackout by the Egyptian government, POMED has been regularly in touch with contacts on the ground in Egypt by telephone.  Now that the cell phone networks are mostly back up, we are now able to speak with a variety of human rights activists live in Tahrir Square.  Three of our contacts today gave us permission to share audio of their comments, which are available here:

Esraa Abdelfattah – Egyptian Democratic Academy (EDA)

“They don’t care about any change in the government [...] they want Mubarak to go first.”
“Until Mubarak leaves, we cannot move.”

“All Egyptian people don’t want Mubarak as President!”

Gamal Eid – Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)

“The people were calling and screaming against Omar Suleiman and against Ahmed Shafiq, we refuse.”
“We’ll never forget who can support the dictator.”

Soha Abdelaty – Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)

“People don’t care about the new ministers, they just want to see him [Hosni Mubarak] gone.”
“They want the U.S. to come out and say it, that he needs to go.”
“It’s not about the government, it’s about him. It’s very personal.”

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