CAIRO (Reuters) ? An overnight truce between Egyptian riot police and protesters succeeded on Thursday in calming violence that has killed 39 people in five days, but demonstrators occupying Cairo's Tahrir Square vowed to stay until the army gives up power.
Egypt's ruling military council, which has vowed to start parliamentary elections as scheduled on Monday, said it was doing all it could to "prevent the repetition of these events."
In a statement, it apologized, offered condolences and compensation to families of the dead, and promised a swift investigation into who was behind the unrest.
Demonstrators in Tahrir said the truce had taken hold from midnight. At dawn the area was quiet for the first time in days.
"Since about midnight or 1 a.m. there were no more clashes. We are standing here to ensure no one goes inside the cordon," said Mohamed Mustafa, 50, among a group barring a street leading to the Interior Ministry, flashpoint for much of the violence.
They were guarding a barricade made of a broken metal fence, a telephone booth laid on its side and part of a lamp post.
At the other end of the street, littered with shattered glass, lumps of concrete and heaps of rubbish, at least two army armored personnel carriers blocked the route. Mustafa's group said police were on the front line, and behind them the army.
Lines of Tahrir protesters manned similar barriers to block access to Mohamed Mahmoud Street, scene of repeated fighting.
"We have created a space separating from the police. We are standing here to make sure no one violates it," said Mahmoud Adly, 42, part of a human cordon four ranks deep.
CHALLENGE TO ARMY RULE
The sustained protests in Cairo and some other cities pose the gravest challenge to Egypt's army rulers since the council led by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi took over from Hosni Mubarak, overthrown on February 11 by a popular uprising.
The demonstrations appear to have polarized Egyptians, many of whom worry that unrest will prolong economic stagnation that has deepened the poverty of millions. A few streets from Tahrir, Egyptians went to and from work as normal.
A banner in Tahrir read: "The marshal and the police want to ignite the country. The people want to topple the marshal."
The thousands who thronged the square were undeterred in their determination to rid Egypt of army rule. "He goes, we won't," declared another banner referring to Tantawi.
Al Jazeera television said Interior Minister Mansour el-Essawy had proposed to the military council that it postpone the election. It was not immediately possible to verify the report.
"So far elections are on schedule, but this could change if the truce falls apart," a security source told Reuters. "Saturday will be the final day to turn back on the elections."
The United States and European nations, alarmed at the violence of the past few days, have urged Egypt to proceed with what has been billed as its first free vote in decades.
The army and the Muslim Brotherhood, which expects to do well in the polls, say it must go ahead, but many protesters do not trust the military to oversee a clean vote and scorn the Brotherhood for its focus on gaining seats in parliament.
The military council originally promised to return to barracks within six months, but then set a timetable for elections and drawing up a new constitution that would have left it in power until late next year or early 2013.
Tantawi pledged this week to hold a presidential vote in June that could pave the way for a transfer to civilian rule, but the demonstrators, angered by army attempts to shield itself legally from future civilian control, are unconvinced.
"The military council must leave and hand power to civilians. They don't want to leave so that their corruption isn't exposed," said 23-year-old student Ahmed Essam.
He said he joined the protests when he saw riot police raining blows on peaceful demonstrators on Saturday. "Everything is like in Mubarak's time," he said.
URBAN BATTLE ZONE
For now, the front lines near the Interior Ministry, a symbol of Mubarak's hated security police, have fallen quiet.
"We want to stop these clashes, people are dying," said 30-year-old protester Osama Abu Seree.
Before the truce took hold, riot police fired barrages of tear gas at hardcore protesters, amid bursts of gunfire. Scores of young men, coughing and gasping for air, stumbled into dark side streets off Tahrir Square to escape the acrid smoke.
At a makeshift clinic near Tahrir, doctor Tareq Salem said four people had died there on Wednesday, two from bullet wounds and two from asphyxiation. He said three volunteer doctors had been killed since the violence began.
"They were fresh graduates," he said, splashing his face with saline fluid to counter the effects of the latest barrage of gas. One died of suffocation, the other two of bullet wounds sustained while assessing injuries outside, he said.
Essawy, the Interior Minister, told state television earlier that security forces had only fired tear gas, but said unidentified people had been shooting from rooftops near Tahrir.
Protesters like Abdel Salam Roshdy said it was time to end military rule viewed as no better than the Mubarak era.
"I want to have a better life and feel safe. Since the military council took power, it has been worse," he said.
(Additional reporting by Ali Abdel Atti and Yousri Mohamed; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Peter Graff)
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