Egypt Rampage Under the Pyramids

By JANICE C. SIMPSON.

Tourists at the luxurious Holiday Pyramids Hotel, which lies in the shadows of the Great Pyramids at Giza, were relaxing after a day of sightseeing. Without warning, a throng of armed men dressed in black uniforms burst through the front door. As staff and guests scrambled for cover, the intruders ran through the lobby, smashing windows and shooting at hotel security guards who tried to turn them away. Before the men left, they started a fire that burned for 36 hours, doing millions of dollars of damage.

Under most circumstances, hotel officials would have called on the Central Security Force, the 250,000-man group created by former President Anwar Sadat to control such disturbances. This time, however, that option was foreclosed: the marauders were themselves members of the police force. About 8,000 police conscripts, angered by rumors that the government planned to lengthen their low-paying tour of duty, abandoned their barracks and took to the streets. For the next two days, mobs of civilian troublemakers and looters, including Muslim fundamentalists and leftist students, joined the rioting policemen. It was the most serious domestic unrest to confront Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak since he took office after Sadat's assassination in 1981. The official toll: at least 36 people killed and 321 injured.

The violent outburst was a sobering reminder of the potentially volatile problems that Mubarak faces. Over the past 4 1/2 years, he has enjoyed moderate success with his foreign policy initiatives, most notably raising Egypt's status in the Arab world, which had shunned the country after Sadat signed the 1979 peace treaty with Israel. But he has been less successful at home. Egypt's already shaky economy continues to suffer setbacks. Even before hotels were attacked last week, the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro last October and other terrorist incidents in the region had caused a severe drop in tourism, which brought an estimated $700 million into Egypt in the last fiscal year.

Worse, analysts predict that falling petroleum prices may cost Egypt an additional $700 million in export revenues this year. Plummeting revenues have forced the government to cut back on the $7 billion that it spends in subsidies for basic goods such as bread and gasoline, and this has fed popular discontent.

Last week's police riot quickly spread to five other hotels near the pyramids and many nightclubs and casinos on the broad avenue leading to the ancient monuments. At least two police stations were burned down. Renegade policemen also set free more than 300 of the 5,000 inmates at the Tura Prison south of Cairo. Among those liberated were scores of Islamic fundamentalists and other political prisoners who have opposed the Mubarak government. Other rebellious police, joined by gangs of civilian rioters, marched through the streets of suburban Maadi, where many diplomats and other foreign nationals live, burning cars and looting shops. Unrest also flared in the cities of Asyut and Sohag, some 200 miles south of Cairo.

The next day Mubarak closed the Cairo airport to commercial traffic, declared an indefinite curfew in the metropolitan area and dispatched the army and special-forces commandos to subdue the uprising. Blaming "deviationist elements" for the rebellion, the President promised, "These occurrences, however troublesome, will not undermine our internal security." Sporadic gun battles between the government units and the rebels erupted throughout that day and into the following night. One group of about 100 rebels managed to hold off government troops for nearly three days. In the end, it was the superior firepower of the army, provided by armored personnel carriers, helicopters and U.S.-made M-60 tanks, that triumphed. About 2,000 rebels and 700 civilians were arrested.

Remarkably, no foreigners were seriously hurt. Hoteliers managed to evacuate their residents and find refuge for them in villas or hotels in safer areas. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, in Cairo on a state visit, was helicoptered to the Cairo airport. Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou was escorted to his aircraft by army troops after having tea with Mubarak. About 700 other visitors, shaken by the turmoil, cut short their vacations and made their own way to the airport, where they left the country on specially chartered EgyptAir jetliners.

Most foreign diplomats and a majority of Egyptians congratulated Mubarak for moving quickly and decisively to restore calm. Still, he may have earned only a brief respite. The Egyptian President's efforts to strengthen the economy could provoke new unrest and clashes with fundamentalists who blame Western influences for the country's condition.

Mubarak is likely to be wary of clamping down too hard on extremists, a course that proved to be Sadat's fatal mistake. "What matters is to overcome (the unrest) without turning the country into a dictatorship or a police state," said Osama el Baz, the President's chief political adviser. Another alternative: the Egyptian leader can try to mollify domestic opponents by slowing down efforts to improve relations with Israel. There is already concern in Jerusalem that Mubarak may go that route. "In conditions like these, Mubarak will be forced to show political stubbornness in his contacts with us," warned the conservative Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot. "Dialogue with us is likely to be fat on the bonfire of his internal opposition."

With reporting by Scott MacLeod/Cairo