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Morsi's palace sealed off

Army brings in tanks, barbed wire to protect president after bloodshed

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 12/7/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Nasser Nasser / The Associated Press An Egyptian army tank is seen behind barbed wire securing the perimeter of the presidential palace in Cairo Thursday while protesters chant anti-Morsi slogans. (CP)

CAIRO, Egypt -- The Egyptian army sealed off the presidential palace with tanks and barbed wire Thursday, a day after fierce clashes between supporters and opponents of the Islamist leader over a disputed constitution killed at least six people.

Compounding President Mohammed Morsi's woes, another member of his 17-person advisory panel resigned in protest of his handling of the crisis, bringing the total to seven in the past two weeks. Rafik Habib, the only Coptic Christian adviser, was the latest to resign.

Protesters defied a deadline to vacate the area, demanding Morsi rescind his Nov. 22 decrees giving himself near-absolute power and withdraw the disputed draft constitution passed by his Islamist allies that is headed for a Dec. 15 referendum. But the situation was calm throughout the day.

Thousands of Morsi supporters camped overnight outside the palace after driving away opposition activists who had been staging a sit-in there, prompting the wild street battles that spread to upscale residential areas nearby. The Brotherhood, which had erected metal barricades and manned checkpoints with rocks and empty glass bottles overnight, withdrew from the area by afternoon.

"I don't want Morsi to back down," said Khaled Omar, a Brotherhood supporter who had camped out. "We are not defending him. We are defending Islam, which is what people want."

The violence on Wednesday was the worst since Morsi was elected in June.

The crisis began with Morsi's decrees setting himself above judicial oversight. That was followed by the hurried passing of a constitution draft by his Islamist allies, moves that deeply polarized the country and took political tensions to a height not seen since the uprising nearly two years ago that ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi remains determined to press forward with the Dec. 15 referendum to pass the new charter. The opposition, for its part, is refusing dialogue unless Morsi rescinds the decrees and shelves the disputed charter.

The intensity of the overnight violence, with Morsi's Islamist backers and largely secular protesters lobbing firebombs and rocks at each other, raised the spectre that the country would grow even more polarized and violent.

Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition leader, said late Wednesday Morsi's rule was "no different" than Mubarak's.

"In fact, it is perhaps even worse," the Nobel Peace Prize laureate told a news conference after he accused the president's supporters of a "vicious and deliberate" attack on peaceful demonstrators outside the palace.

Morsi's moves over the constitution have re-energized and largely unified the previously fractious opposition.

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 7, 2012 A21

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