Mursi backers march as envoys seek solution

CAIRO: Several thousand supporters of deposed Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi marched through downtown Cairo on Monday calling for his reinstatement and denouncing the army general who led his overthrow.
The protest took place as international envoys stepped up talks with leaders of both sides of the crisis in a bid to find a political solution and avert further bloodshed.
Marchers chanted “Mursi, Mursi” and “We are not terrorists,” and waved picture of the ousted leader.
Some sprayed graffiti on walls and statues calling army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who led the overthrow of Mursi on July 3, a murderer and a traitor.
The protesters, nearly all men, marched 10 abreast and stretched back several blocks. Security forces made no immediate attempt to disperse a crowd estimated by reporters at several thousand strong.
The protest showed tension is still running dangerously high in Egypt more than a month after Mursi’s removal despite the international mediation effort by the United States, the European Union, Qatar and the UAE.
The international mediation effort has so far helped to contain further conflict between Mursi’s backers and the security forces but has yet to broker a solution.
Thousands of Mursi supporters remain camped out in two Cairo sit-ins, which the government has declared a threat to national security and pledged to disperse. The army-backed interim government said on Sunday it would give mediation a chance but warned that time was limited.
Monday’s marchers halted outside the office of the public prosecutor, whom they denounced as politically-biased. In anti-Mursi demonstrations at the same place before his overthrow, protesters had demanded the removal of his appointee to the office, accusing him of ordering arrests of his opponents.
One protester, Mohamed Mustafa, 28, a Cairo University student, told Reuters: “Our president is Muhammad Mursi. He will be back. He will complete his presidency. Day after day we stay in Cairo. This is fight is not over. Mursi will return.”
Mahmoud Isuafi, a businessman from the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, held a Qur'an in one hand and a picture of Mursi in the other.
“The military came and stole our country, they stole everything,” he said. “I want democracy. Where is my vote? I can no longer elect my leader so I protest instead.”
In the early hours of Monday, the international envoys visited senior Muslim Brotherhood official Khairat El-Shater at Tora prison, south of Cairo, state news agency MENA reported.
The delegation included US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and European Union envoy Bernardino Leon and were accompanied by members of the armed forces, according to Al Masry Al Youm newspaper.
Shater is deputy leader of the group that propelled Mursi to office last year. Seen as the Brotherhood’s political strategist, he was arrested after Mursi’s downfall on charges of inciting violence.