CAIRO - The rioting that started in the Cairo district of Agouza and then moved across the Nile to downtown Tuesday night cannot be perceived but being part of a scheme to keep Egypt's streets in a permanent state of chaos. Accordingly, efforts seeking to bring the country back on its feet are thwarted. The reported sequence of events speaks of angry families of martyrs of the revolution that smashed windows when they were prevented from attending a function held by an NGO in honour of ten martyrs in a theatre house. They then moved to the Nile Corniche in the vicinity of the Radio and TV Building where other protest groups, which have been stationed there for days, joined in. Scores of protesters proceeded to Al Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the revolution, where clashes then started with members of the police force, causing casualties mainly in the police ranks. It does not seem logical that families of martyrs would sabotage a theatre and enter into fights because they were not invited to a commemorative function. What does stand up to reason, however, is that a number of troublemakers took advantage of the resentment of some of those families at the slow pace of the trials of police officers that ordered the killing of their children in the January protests. The disgraceful scene that rendered itself in Al Tahrir Square until the early hours of the morning was not justified but rather reflected a cunning desire to keep security on the edge. At a time when the rift between the police and the people had started to narrow, the clashes were apparently meant to keep the wounds open. Despite calls being made to lay aside protests in order to give production a boost, certain elements, uppermost the remnants of the old regime, seem intent upon stifling any constructive moves. Those arrested in these riots, whether they are members of martyrs' families or hired thugs, should be put on trial because public protests have their legal channels that do not include throwing stones and vandalising private and public property.
