By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Monday, January 31, 2011
Charles Onians

CAIRO: Armed with iron bars, broom handles and pistols, men and boys huddled in twitchy groups in front of their shops and homes as looters rampaged through the riot-torn Egyptian capital Saturday.

Beware of strangers skittering through the city’s darkened night, where the army has been called out in a bid to quell massive a anti-regime revolt but has admitted it is unable to keep control beyond a few key sites.

Looting that initially targeted offices associated with the government has spread to shops and reportedly homes, with the army calling on “the Egyptian people to protect the nation, Egypt, and themselves.”

After five days of nationwide rioting in which at least 92 people have been killed, groups of men and boys gathered on Cairo’s streets and squares Saturday, rushing to grab and question any outsider passing through their area. One rumor is that scouts are sent through the streets on bicycles and motorbikes to spot potential looting targets.
Like many Cairo men not taking part in the demonstrations, Mohammad Turki, 23, is roaming around with a stick, a member of the so-called popular committees being set up to deal with rampant insecurity.
“We are organizing to go outside shops and stay in front of properties,” Turki said.

In normal times, Cairo is by any standards a very safe city. No neighborhood is off limits to anyone at any time of night, in part thanks to police deployed on every street corner.

But now the police presence has evaporated and people oppressed by more than 30 years of draconian emergency laws are having their first whiff of albeit chaotic freedom, and many are losing all inhibitions.

“We are terrified. We are staying with the children in an inner room of the house. All the men have gone downstairs to try to protect our buildings,” said Yasmine, a mother of two living in the upmarket Mohandeseen district.

Looters have stripped shops in Mohandeseen of everything, as well as a supermarket owned by the French retail giant Carrefour located in the wealthy suburb of Maadi, largely populated by expatriates.

“What are we supposed to do? There are no police; the army is not doing anything. This is ridiculous. What are they waiting for? [the army],” said tearful housewife Sherifa.

An AFP correspondent who went to investigate reports of looting in Mohandeseen found a crowd of 20 happy men laden with office equipment who swiftly rounded on him, upping their glee by forcefully emptying his pockets.
Residents of the impoverished Al-Sabtia neighborhood, brandishing knives and homemade weapons, poured onto the streets to chase away looters who had ransacked a large mall and threatened to storm a nearby luxury tower.
The residents took stolen goods back from the looters and stored them in a local mosque, preparing to hand them over to the authorities once order is restored, witnesses said.

In Dokki, a residential district across the Nile from the main demonstrations, groups of young men wielding machetes, clubs and screwdrivers set up checkpoints and questioned people driving into the neighborhood.
They drag metal barriers across the street to clear the way once they are satisfied with the outsider’s explanation for being there.

Many people are loath to criticize the protesters and believe that the police have deliberately released prisoners in order to spread chaos and emphasize the need for the security forces.

Osama Salim, who owns a car dealership in Mohandeseen, is pacing up and down with a club in his hand.
“I blame the government for the violence. They let out all the thugs to do this.”
“The regime did this. And we will stop them tonight; we will make their thugs leave.”
With gunfire rattling in the distance, one neighborhood committee member in Dokki tells his pistol-bearing comrades: “Don’t forget, nobody fire their weapon today.”