The young Google Inc. executive detained by Egyptian authorities for 12 days said Monday that he was behind the Facebook page that helped spark what he called “the revolution of the youth of the Internet.” A U.S.-based human-rights group said nearly 300 people have died in two weeks of clashes.
Wael Ghonim, a marketing manager for the Internet company, wept throughout a television interview hours after he was freed. He described how he spent his entire time in detention blindfolded while his worried parents didn’t know where he was. He insisted he had not been tortured and said his interrogators treated him with respect.
“This is the revolution of the youth of the Internet and now the revolution of all Egyptians,” he said, adding that he was taken aback when the security forces holding him branded him a traitor.
“Anyone with good intentions is the traitor because being evil is the norm,” he said. “If I was a traitor, I would have stayed in my villa in the Emirates and made good money and said like others, ‘Let this country go to hell.’
“But we are not traitors,” added Ghonim, an Egyptian who oversees Google’s marketing in the Middle East and Africa from Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates.
The protesters have already brought the most sweeping changes since President Hosni Mubarak took power 30 years ago, but they are keeping up the pressure in hopes of achieving their ultimate goal of ousting Mubarak.
Ghonim has become a hero of the demonstrators since he went missing Jan. 27, two days after the protests began. He confirmed reports that he was the administrator of the Facebook page “We are all Khaled Said” that was one of the main tools for organizing the demonstration that started the movement Jan. 25.
Khaled Said was a 28-year-old businessman who died in June at the hands of undercover police, setting off months of protests against the hated police. The police have also been blamed for inflaming violence by trying to suppress the anti-government demonstrations by force.
“I want to tell every mother and father: I am sorry. I swear it is not our fault. It is the fault of everyone who held on tight to authority and didn’t want to let go,” he said before cutting short the interview.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said Monday that two weeks of clashes have claimed at least 297 lives, by far the highest and most detailed toll released so far. It was based on visits to seven hospitals in three cities, and the group said it was likely to rise.
While there was no breakdown of how many of the dead were police or protesters, “clearly, a significant number of these deaths are a result of the use of excessive and unlawful use of force by the police,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.
Heba Morayef, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, said a majority of victims were killed by live fire but that some of the deaths were caused by tear-gas canisters and rubber bullets fired at close range.
The government offered more concessions to protesters Monday, offering a pay raise for government employees, announcing a date for opening the stock market and projecting an air of normalcy in a city reeling just days ago.
The confidence, echoed by state-controlled media that have begun acknowledging the protests after days of the crudest propaganda, suggested both sides believed the uprising’s vitality might depend on their ability to sway a population still deeply divided over events that represent the most fundamental realignment of politics here in nearly three decades.
“Now it feels like Hosni Mubarak is playing a game of who has the longest breath,” said Amur el-Etrebi, who joined tens of thousands in Tahrir Square on Monday.
In a sign of the tension, U.S. officials described as “unacceptable” statements by Vice President Omar Suleiman that the country was not ready for democracy.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
