Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=3/20/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=EGYPT/PROTESTS (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-314313

BYLINE=KERRY SHERIDAN

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Protesters took to the streets in Cairo Saturday, calling for an end to the U-S-led occupation in Iraq and for improvements in their own struggling economy. Kerry Sheridan has this report from Cairo.

TEXT: Demonstrators gathered under the hot sun in downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square.

/// SOUND ACT - CHANTING - EST. AND FADE UNDER ///

Chanting anti-war and anti-American slogans, some held copies of the Koran in the air. Others waved Iraqi flags. At least one man set fire to an Israeli flag.

An Egyptian-American protester, Ayman Sawa, says the group's message to America is clear.

/// SAWA ACT ///

It's very simple. End occupation. We don't want them to occupy the Middle East.

/// END ACT ///

Egyptian security took tight control over the crowds. Thousands of police, many carrying riot shields and sticks and wearing bulletproof vests, surrounded the protesters and blocked off streets for several kilometers around.

Last year, at a similar protest just before the U-S-led war in Iraq began, police beat some activists and detained hundreds of demonstrators, drawing criticism from human rights groups.

But people here said this year's protest was smaller and more contained.

One protester, Henna Omar, is careful to make a distinction. She says Egyptians like American people, but not the American government. /// OPT /// She says the demonstrators came together to reaffirm their resistance to U-S and Israeli policies in the Middle East.

/// OMAR ACT // OPT ACT ///

We don't like western policy at all. We have our identity, we don't like anyone to force their attitudes.

/// END ACT // END OPT ///

She pointed to many protesters carrying large black-and-white posters of Egypt's late president Gamal Abdel Nasser, who led the country through a military coup that ousted the British leadership in 1952 and who turned Egypt into a socialist state.

Ms. Omar says people are displaying the image of the long-dead president, because Egyptians crave a new social experiment, something that could lift the country out of poverty.

/// OMAR 2nd ACT ///

Middle class now is completely collapsed by the capitalist attitude in Egypt. We are struggling now. People, a few people, are so rich, and all the people are so poor.

/// END ACT ///

The Bush administration has said it plans to hand over sovereignty to the interim Iraqi Governing Council at the end of June. Some protesters said Iraq will be free only when the people are able to hold independent elections and choose their own leaders. (SIGNED)

NEB/KS/ALW/TW