From Taksim & Rio to Tahrir, the smell of teargas

ROAR Collective 

From Taksim and Rio to Tahrir, the smell of teargas

June 29, 2013

From Taksim to Tahrir, from Bulgaria to Brazil, we fight the same struggle against oppressive state structures that benefit only a tiny wealthy elite.

Open letter by the Egyptian activist collective ‘Comrades from Cairo’

To you at whose side we struggle,

June 30 will mark a new stage of rebellion for us, building on what started on January 25 and 28, 2011. This time we rebel against the reign of the Muslim Brotherhood that has brought only more of the same forms of economic exploitation, police violence, torture and killings.

References to the coming of “democracy” have no relevance when there is no possibility of living a decent life with any signs of dignity and decent livelihood. Claims of legitimacy through an electoral process distract from the reality that in Egypt our struggle continues because we face the perpetuation of an oppressive regime that has changed its face but maintains the same logic of repression, austerity and police brutality. 

The authorities maintain the same lack of any accountability towards the public, and positions of power translate into opportunities to increase personal power and wealth.

June 30 renews the Revolution’s scream: “The People Want the Fall of the System”. We seek a future governed neither by the petty authoritarianism and crony capitalism of the Brotherhood nor a military apparatus which maintains a stranglehold over political and economic life nor a return to the old structures of the Mubarak era. 

Though the ranks of protesters that will take to the streets on June 30 are not united around this call, it must be ours — it must be our stance because we will not accept a return to the bloody periods of the past.

Though our networks are still weak we draw hope and inspiration from recent uprisings especially across Turkey and Brazil. Each is born out of different political and economic realities, but we have all been ruled by tight circles whose desire for more has perpetuated a lack of vision of any good for people. 

We are inspired by the horizontal organization of the Free Fare Movement founded in Bahía, Brazil in 2003 and the public assemblies spreading throughout Turkey.

In Egypt, the Brotherhood only adds a religious veneer to the process, while the logic of a localized neo-liberalism crushes the people. 

In Turkey a strategy of aggressive private-sector growth, likewise translates into authoritarian rule, the same logic of police brutality as the primary weapon to oppress opposition and any attempts to envision alternatives. 

In Brazil a government rooted in a revolutionary legitimacy has proven that its past is only a mask it wears while it partners with the same capitalist order in exploiting people and nature alike.

These recent struggles share in the fight of much older constant battles of the Kurds and the indigenous peoples of Latin America. For decades, the Turkish and Brazilian governments have tried but failed to wipe out these movements’ struggle for life. 

Their resistance to state repression was the precursor to the new wave of protests that have spread across Turkey and Brazil. We see an urgency in recognizing the depth in each other’s struggles and seek out forms of rebellion to spread into new spaces, neighborhoods and communities.

Our struggles share a potential to oppose the global regime of nation states. In crisis as in prosperity, the state — in Egypt under the rule of Mubarak, the Military Junta or the Muslim Brotherhood — continues to dispossess and disenfranchise in order to preserve and expand the wealth and privilege of those in power.

None of us are fighting in isolation. 

We face common enemies from Bahrain, Brazil and Bosnia, Chile, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Kurdistan, Tunisia, Sudan, the Western Sahara and Egypt. And the list goes on. Everywhere they call us thugs, vandals, looters and terrorists. 

We are fighting more than economic exploitation, naked police violence or an illegitimate legal system. It is not rights or reformed citizenship that we fight for.

We oppose the nation-state as a centralized tool of repression, that enables a local elite to suck the life out of us and global powers to retain their dominion over our everyday lives. The two work in unison with bullets and broadcasts and everything in between. 

We are not advocating to unify or equate our various battles, but it is the same structure of authority and power that we have to fight, dismantle, and bring down. Together, our struggle is stronger.

We want the downfall of the System.

Comrades from Cairo

Persistent battle against rampant sexual harassment in Egypt

Palestinian News Network

The Persistent Battle on Rampant Sexual Harassment in Egypt

Saturday, 10 November 2012

Alessandra Bajec

 

735 police complaints about harassment were recorded over the four-day Eid al-Adha which ended last 29th October, according to a statement released by the Egyptian government.

Sexual harassment continues to hit Egypt with increasing reports of incidents taking place across the country. Yet, Egyptians today acknowledge this long-standing problem exists, and growing social mobilization has brought together men and women in the fight against harassment.

Sexual harassment remains a widespread plague in Egypt facing girls and women on the streets, in public places, at police stations.

In past years, there have been major incidents of male mobs attacking women over holiday celebrations. In 2006, a group of girls were sexually assaulted during Eid el-Fitr, raising alarm on the epidemic for the first time.

Since the Egyptian revolution, sexual violence became more prominent amid several instances of crowds aggressing women in Tahrir Square.

Since 2011, numerous cases of violence and torture against female protesters by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces and Ministry of Interior have been reported, involving beatings, clothes stripping, and virginity tests.

Tarek Mustafa, Program Officer at Nazra Feminist Studies, highlights the politicization of sexual harassment at a time when police forces are using women’s sexuality as a tool to oppress the masses.

The 2001 revolution has brought with it a wave of realization of rights. Today, Egyptians no longer stay silent in the face of injustice, women are out on the streets and push their battle on the political agenda.

After being a ‘taboo’ for years, harassment has become an open debate. The anti-harassment movement in Egypt developed around 2005, when the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) started a campaign against sexual harassment.

Nihal Saad Zaghloul is one of the founders of Haraket Basma (‘Imprint Movement’). She points to HarassMap as the first concrete effort to act for women’s safety. Launched in 2010, the site is a social initiative enabling women to instantly report sexual assaults in Egypt via SMS messaging. By mapping those reports, the system helps women through advice on how to file a police report, find psychological help and self-defense classes. 

Dina Hussein, lawyer and coordinator of Nefsi (‘I wish’) mentions human chains, marches, online campaigns, and social media platforms among the mediums used to promote the battle on sexual violence. Furthermore, she refers to campaigns to raise awareness inside metro stations, at schools and universities, in poor neighborhoods.

More and more initiatives have been launched by women’s groups, feminist organizations and youth groups.

During Eid holiday last August, Basma organized volunteer patrols at metro stations, in coordination with metro authorities. Volunteers were instructed to stop harassers and report them to the appropriate authorities. The patrolling was very successful in preventing many incidents, and helped the police arrest several harassers.

Nazra’s Program Officer talks about a tweet forum, co-organized by Nazra in December 2011, explaining how the patriarchal protection model fails to solve the problem, and needs to be replaced by a feminist discourse arguing for women empowerment.

Over the past year, several art campaigns have been organized in Cairo to shed light on the topic including ‘Female Graffiti’ last March. Mustafa recalls ‘Enough’, a group exhibition held last June-August, organized by Darb 1718 art space and Harassmap, featuring artists who tried to break social taboos around the issue through visual art.

A strong supporter of women’s rights, Mustafa denounces harassment carried out by men of any socio-economic class, including violence in workplaces and night clubs which is hardly ever talked about.

Hussein recognizes there are more cases reported by women now, however certainly less than the actual incidents. Nevertheless, she thinks official complaints will help to press for an anti-sexual harassment law.

Besides the lack of appropriate legislation, there is no supportive network in place. One main issue is the general public does not do anything when a woman is subjected to harassment, most people refuse to help as eye-witnesses.

Similarly, the police often do not interfere to stop or take legal action against harassers.

Basma’s director stresses the need to work collectively to make harassment socially unacceptable and step in, instead of leaving women alone.

Nefsi’s coordinator points out that harassment, directed at both Egyptian and foreign women, not only has a direct psycho-social impact, it affects the country’s economy, tourism, hitting on the production amid rising unemployment.

Sexual harassment is only a manifestation of decades of bad governing, corruption, political and social oppression. Under Mubarak, there were rare talks on the topic, the widespread mentality was driven to blame the victim and exempt the perpetrator, the woman was relegated to the bottom of society.

As a result, the entire upbringing of Egyptian people has been damaged, and harassment has become socially and culturally enrooted.

While Egypt’s grassroots movement is using every possible means to put an end to sexual harassment, the new government is called to tackle this social, cultural and political issue on more than just one level.

From introducing a law to criminalize harassment to increased enforcement, raising awareness in cooperation with civil society and concerned government agencies, to promoting efficient upbringing in families, educational institutions and in social environment, President Morsi and his government are left with the big task to ensure the problem is seriously addressed once for all. 

All Mubarak officials acquitted in 'Battle of Camel' trial

Ahram Online
Mubarak officials, all defendants accused in revolution's Battle of Camel acquitted 

October 10, 2012 

Cairo Criminal Court exonerates all 25 defendants accused of orchestrating last year's 'Battle of the Camel', Wednesday

Sherif Tarek

All 25 accused defendants in the 2 February, 2011 "Battle of the Camel" attack on Tahrir Square at the outbreak of the Egyptian revolution have been acquitted by Cairo Criminal Court, Wednesday.

A judicial source close to the case told Ahram Online that the prosecution will evaluate the ruling and consider lodging an appeal.

Senior officials in the Hosni Mubarak regime were among those exonerated, including former minister of information and chairman of the Shura Council Safwat El-Sherif, MP of Mubarak's now-defunct National Democratic Party Mohamed Abul-Enein and former parliament speaker Fathi Sorou. The ex-minister of labour power Aisha Abdel-Hadi was also in the dock.  

 

 

Infamous lawyer Mortada Mansour, who allegedly recorded a speech the night before the battle inciting thugs to attack Tahrir Square, was among the 25 accused.

 

All of the accused  "exuberantly celebrated" upon hearing the verdict.

In a TV interview on Tuesday, Yasser Kamal, one of the lawyers of the defendants, described the evidence submitted by the prosecution as a "legal joke," claiming that there is no proof that any of those accused had participated in killing protesters on that day.

 

Kamal also labeled the prosecution eyewitnesses as "thugs or people tried on embezzlement charges."

 

Twenty-one protesters were killed and hundreds injured during the Battle of Camel, when plain-clothed assailants, some on horse and camelback, violently attacked a sit-in on the flashpoint square.

 

Eyewitnesses said at the time that the armed forces stationed at key points around the square did not intervene to prevent the bloodshed. Snipers were also, reportedly, deployed on the tops of surrounding buildings shooting at the demonstrators.

 

In July 2012, former member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Hassan El-Roweni, who was in charge of securing the square during the revolt, testified that it was not clear who the intruders were.

 

He claimed that he had called on Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Tahrir to evacuate armed "bearded" men from the roofs of buildings overlooking Tahrir Square, adding that they had followed his instructions.

 

The defendants' lawyers consequently used this testimony as proof that that the Islamist group was behind the attacks.

 

The Muslim Brotherhood vehemently denied the accusation.

 

The overall number of defendants was initially 25 but was reduced to 24 when former NDP MP Abdel-Nasser El-Gabri passed away last year.

Presidential advisor Seif Abdel-Fattah told Al-Ahram’s Arabic news website that the "the presidency is committed to fulfilling the promise it made in re-trying those who were accused of killing protesters during the revolution." 

 

"President Morsi has drawn up a fact-finding committee to look into the cases of killing protesters, and it acquired new information that will prompt it to demand a re-trial for those who were acquitted,” he added.

Meanwhile,  in an interview with Al-Ahram, Mohamed El-Beltagi, an official in the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, called the verdict "farcical" adding, "all the parties who investigated the incident are to blame."

The exoneration of the defendants is expected to put pressure on President Mohamed Morsi who promised to punish those responsible for the deaths of protesters during last year's 18-day uprising.

 

The verdict comes two days before mass protests set for Tahrir Square on Friday 12 October which have been called by by 21 secular political groups which will be demanding, among other issues, that those responsible for killing protesters during the January uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak be brought to justice. 

 

 

*Bel Trew and Hatem Maher contributed to this report

*Photo courtesy of REUTERS

Workers confront Mubara-era boss in 'Battle of Camel' Trial

Egypt Independent  

Employees confront Mubarak-era boss accused in ‘Battle of the Camel’

July 13, 2012

Jano Charbel

More than a thousand Ceramica Cleopatra workers protested outside the presidential palace last week, demanding unpaid wages, overdue bonuses and profit-sharing payments. Worker representatives met with presidential staff and newly elected President Mohamed Morsy to demand support in their battle with ceramics industry tycoon Mohamed Abul Enein.

Union delegates said Monday night that the president and his staff were “seeking a resolution to this impasse within the next 48 hours, God willing.”

Abul Enein served as an MP in Hosni Mubarak’s now-defunct National Democratic Party and as chairman of the People’s Assembly Industry and Energy Committee. Now he is confronted with protests and industrial action at his two companies, located in 10th of Ramadan City and Ain Sokhna.

Since the 25 January revolution, Abul Enein has been summoned for questioning in corruption cases but has not been found guilty. He still faces charges of instigating the armed attacks on Tahrir Square on 2 and 3 February during the revolution, an event often called the “Battle of the Camel.”

And as he has come under increasing legal pressure, Abul Enein has increasingly neglected his companies' workers.

A stranded whale

Ceramica Cleopatra Group, Egypt’s largest producer of tiles and sanitary ware, is also a regional and international exporter. In 1983, the first of Abul Enein’s factories began production in 10th of Ramadan City, outside Cairo. Over the years, the company grew and diversified to include several additional factories and employ some 4,500 workers.

Then, in 1999, the industrialist opened his second company in the port city of Ain Sokhna on the Red Sea. This company quickly became Abul Enein’s flagship enterprise, producing three times the capacity of his first company. It employs a workforce of about 5,700.

Apart from ceramics, Abul Enein is also involved in agriculture, tourism, real estate and media. Neither he nor his administrators were available for comment on this article.

Workers at Abul Enein’s ceramic companies say the industrialist is using his economic clout — by withholding wages and threatening his workforce with sackings and the closure of his companies — to bid for an acquittal in the Battle of the Camel trial.

“This whale of a businessman is using us, and his companies, to get himself out of the trial. He’s trying to send the authorities the message, ‘If you rule against me, I’ll take my companies down with me,’” said Mohamed Anwar, secretary general of the local trade union committee at Ain Sokhna Company.

But Anwar said Abul Enein would never liquidate the two ceramics companies and was just using them to “throw his economic weight around.” Apparently in response to his threats, a court has imposed a travel ban on Abul Enein.

“Abul Enein is trying to twist our arms, so we will twist his,” Anwar said. “We workers, at both the Ramadan and Sokhna companies, are resisting his injustices.”

Ragab Hussein, a worker at the 10th of Ramadan City factory, said the timing was no coincidence. 

 He said Abul Enein has refused to pay his 10,000 workers their June monthly wages, which was due 1 July, because of his next court hearing.

Holding up signs, flags and banners, Hussein’s co-workers chanted “Abul Enein is a thief” and “If you manage to escape the Battle of the Camel trial, you will not escape the workers.”

“Beyond this trial, nobody knows Abul Enein’s real intentions,” Hussein said. “He might be trying to confront President Morsy, or perhaps he’s attempting to strike a deal with the new regime to retain his economic and political influence.”

Shouting in anger, two workers said Abul Enein spent LE7 million supporting Ahmed Shafiq’s presidential bid, yet was unwilling to pay his own workers’ wages.

Ghareeb Salah, a worker from Ain Sokhna Company, promised that workers would escalate their protests if their demands were not met. He said workers had blocked Al-Orouba Street that day for about half an hour.

“We don’t like to resort to such actions, but we must have the authorities hear our angry voices,” Salah said.

Since the revolution, thousands of Abul Enein’s factory workers have repeatedly protested. They launched their first strike at Ain Sokhna Company in early March of this year, where they demanded that the company fulfill a promise to institute profit-sharing arrangements.

On 16 March, Abul Enein entered into an arbitration agreement with his workers and the Manpower Ministry. He agreed to pay his labor force its overdue profit-sharing payments. However, he has only given his workers one installment of these payments and has not fulfilled other labor demands that he had pledged to meet at the ministry.

“We’re still producing at the factories, but we’re stockpiling the production and now allowing it to be sold,” Anwar said. “Until we receive our rights, we’re not allowing his trucks in at either company. We’re halting sales, distribution and export.”

Abul Enein imposed a lockout on Ain Sokhna Company for 11 days in May. He did the same at the 10th of Ramadan City Company during the first week of June. The purpose of these lockouts is not known. In response, workers demonstrated and blocked highways.

Thousands of workers at Ceramica Cleopatra are pinning their hopes on their newly established labor unions, while others hope the new president and his socioeconomic policies will help them.

Anwar recalled that he and a delegation of workers from Ain Sokhna Company met with President Morsy in mid-May while he was campaigning for president in Suez.

“Morsy listened to our demands and took note of our grievances,” said Anwar, who voted for the new president. “If Morsy neglects us or fails to uphold our rights, then we will take our protests to Arbaeen Square [in Suez] and Tahrir Square to topple him, just like his predecessor.”

Unions’ role

Yasser Hassan, an administrative worker at Ain Sokhna Company, said he believes labor unions might play a more important role in defending workers’ rights than the new president can.

“Our primary gains at the company have been the establishment of a union and increased wages,” Hassan said.

He said the union had fought for workers’ rights and managed to increase their wages from an average of LE450 per month in 2006 to the current average of LE1,300.

Emboldened by the revolution, the Ain Sokhna workers established their union in April last year, while the 10th of Ramadan City workers followed suit two months later.

Anwar said that the local union they had established was an affiliate of the state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation, but that they could switch to an independent federation if necessary.

The situation at 10th of Ramadan City Company appears bleaker. Mokhtar Abdel Salam, president of the local union committee, said the company administration fired six out of seven unionists, including himself, as well as two other workers.

“The eight of us have been accused of instigating unrest,” said Abdel Salem. “When we demand our rights, he refers to us as being instigators, animals and thugs. Nevertheless, we will continue to seek our rights.”

Workers at Abul Enein’s factories are also demanding improved health insurance and healthcare services, and workplace-hazard compensation. Standing under the hot sun outside the presidential palace, Omar Bahtimy — a production-line worker at the 10th of Ramadan City factory — said more than 950 workers at the two companies suffer from work-related ailments.

Two workers reportedly died in industrial accidents over the past decade, while about 10 are said to have lost fingers. Furthermore, Bahtimy and many other workers said the element zirconium — used in the production of ceramics — often contains radioactive impurities that could lead to cancer.

“Workers, especially those in production, suffer from numerous health problems, including respiratory illnesses from the dusts we inhale, along with spinal ailments from carrying heavy loads and operating heavy machinery,” Bahtimy said.

Egypt commemorates revolutionary martyr Khaled Said

ABNA.com
Hundreds of Egyptians remember death of revolutionary man 'Khaled Said'

June 7, 2012

Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets across Egypt to mark the second anniversary of Egyptian police’s killing of Khaled Said, the development which eventually sparked last year’s revolution.

On Wednesday, demonstrations were staged in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square, Said’s hometown of Alexandria, as well as the northeastern and eastern cities of Ismailia and Asyut, AFP reported.

On June 6, 2010, the 28-year-old was beaten by plainclothes police officers after he questioned them when they demanded to see people's ID cards at an internet café in Alexandria’s Sidi Gaber neighborhood. They subsequently smashed his head against a marble shelf before driving off with Said in their car and returning to dump his dead body into the street outside of the café.

His death made him the symbol of police repression and provoked last year’s nationwide popular protests that eventually deposed the country’s former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

On Saturday, Mubarak and his former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli were sentenced to life in prison and six police chiefs were acquitted of the murder of protesters during the revolution.

However, Mubarak and the seven other defendants were charged with ordering the killing of nearly 900 protesters.

The verdict sparked fierce clashes between the families of the victims and security officials inside the court, while angry spectators called the court illegitimate and demanded that Mubarak be executed.

The Mubarak Trial that Wasn’t

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

The Mubarak Trial that Wasn’t

June 5, 2012 

The June 2 verdict in the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak only confirmed what many Egyptian activists feared all along: The trial, while proving that the former leader was not above the law, was never going to be about truth and accountability.

There wasn’t much rejoicing in Cairo, even though the former president was sentenced to life in prison.  The trial itself was a desultory affair, with the judge claiming that prosecutors failed to present significant evidence tying the former president to attacks by security forces and Egyptian police that led to around 840 deaths and thousands of injuries during the 2011 uprisings.

Rather than serve the nation’s deep need for truth, the trial denied full justice to the thousands of Egyptian victims and family members.  The day after the verdict was announced, all of Cairo was talking about expectations that it would be overturned on appeal.

Amnesty welcomed the trial of Mubarak and others for their role in the killing of protesters which began in January 2011. However, the trial and verdict have left the families of those killed, as well as those injured in the protests, in the dark about the full truth of what happened to their loved ones and it failed to deliver full justice.

This feeling was echoed by Egyptian activists, who felt that the lack of transparency in the trial was all along an effort to avoid accountability for the long list of human rights abuses.  Some said the verdict emphasized how little has changed since the Jan. 25 uprising.  The lesson for Magdi Abdelhadi, an Egyptian journalist, was that the “Mubarak regime can not try the Mubarak regime.”

It could have been different.  The trial should have been more open to the victims and their family members.  Instead many family members were not allowed into the courtroom and on some occasions they were subjected to police beatings and intimidation.  A trial that should have strengthened the rule of law instead was something that left observers feeling like the law had been manipulated.

Activists hoped for a trial that would present a chain of command and specific orders that led to the killings.  Real accountability would have named the political and security officials, many of whom remain in office, who participated.  It would have been a trial that smashed the decades of impunity that enabled Egyptian leaders to muzzle civil society and oppress human rights without consequences.

Now, with impunity intact and with many activists demoralized over the choices presented in the upcoming presidential election, it’s easy to presume that the spirit of 2011 is over in Egypt.  But that would be wrong.

It’s important to remember what has been changed: A president has been shown that he is not above the rule of law, and free and relatively fair elections have given the Egyptian people a chance at real political participation that had long been denied them.  There’s no going back from that.

Furthermore, the protests that followed the verdict suggest that the current regime may have misread the mood of the populace.  The expectation is that activists would cheer Mubarak being hauled off to jail and then returned home complacently.  That’s not going to happen. Activists’ work has just begun.

The verdict must be seized as an opportunity to start urgently needed institutional and legal reforms with a view to ending Egypt’s entrenched culture of impunity for human rights violations.

Until such reforms are introduced, security officers and others will continue to see they are still able to escape punishment for the violations and abuses they commit.

Mubarak verdict reinvigorates Egypt revolutionaries

Los Angeles Times

Hosni Mubarak verdict reinvigorates Egypt revolutionaries 

June 3, 2012 

Amro Hassan & Jeffrey Fleishman

Egyptian protesters flock to Tahrir Square with a renewed sense of urgency. Though happy that Mubarak got life in prison, they are outraged that top police officials were acquitted.

CAIRO — Egyptians marched toward their hallowed ground of triumph and despair. Banners flapped, anger swelled, and Tahrir Square, which for months had been relatively quiet, erupted Saturday in unifying protest. 

The life sentence handed to deposed President Hosni Mubarak for his complicity in the killing of more than 800 protesters during last year's uprising awakened a sense of urgency to rescue a revolution that has felt adrift. While most Egyptians were happy about Mubarak's fate, they were outraged that six of his top police officials were acquitted of murder charges.

The protesters saw the dismissals as another sign that the nation's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF, whose generals are close to Mubarak, was maneuvering to protect the remnants of his toppled state. Tahrir Square filled with chants, posters of victims killed during the uprising and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsi, sought to capitalize on the anger.

"All of us, my brothers, must realize in this period that the continuation of the revolution and the revolutionaries' staying put in their positions in the square are the only guarantees to achieve our goals," Morsi said at a news conference before joining the crowd in Tahrir.

Morsi is running against Ahmed Shafik, a Mubarak loyalist, in a June 16-17 runoff election that will decide whether Egypt returns to the law-and-order secularism of the old guard or turns toward an emerging political Islam that already controls the parliament. Neither man embodies the spirit of the uprising that had gripped Tahrir Square and led to Mubarak's ouster.

In fact, little these days has inspired the Egyptian soul.

That dilemma — a bitter disappointment for secular activists who have largely been swept from the country's political scenario — was palpable in the square after the verdict. But the rulings from Mubarak's trial also suggested that many fear that the military will remain a hidden force after transferring power to a civilian government by July.

"This was a previously written scenario by SCAF. Everything we have seen over the last year and half is part of this scenario, including today's verdict," said Mohamed Yasser, a public employee. "It is a very contradictory verdict. How come the big heads get indicted while the lower officials, who fulfilled the orders on the ground, get acquitted?"

That was what people were talking about in the square. But they also discussed — sometimes with bemused smiles — enduring more than a year of uncertainty, as if the revolution, instead of delivering its promises and lofty ideals, had shoved them into a strange, inescapable dimension.

Yet being together again as the moon rose and the crowd thickened, there was a sense of rekindling old fires.

Some called for a retrial of Mubarak and his sons, Alaa and Gamal, acquitted in the same court case of financial corruption charges. Other protesters demanded that SCAF step down immediately. Similar chants rose from demonstrations in Alexandria and other cities.

"This is the last chance for all Egyptians to come together once again and save their revolution. What we do now will determine how SCAF deals with the whole nation for years to come," said Samir Ghanoum, a grocer. "If we get together, all our demands will be met."

Political parties plotted and youth groups — for a while anyway — were invigorated. The army and the police stayed away; it was not their party.

It was unlikely that the many camps and differing ideologies that bloomed from last year's uprising would find the galvanizing momentum to change the course of things. But it was good again to imagine.

"This verdict can be a blessing in disguise because it is the last straw that will bring everybody back to the square," said Tarek Seddick, a law student. "It will bring us back together as one hand. The revolution took a wrong U-turn once politicians and activists started looking at their own personal interests and opinions.

"But what I see today is that we're all together regardless of anyone's ideology, and this sort of unity is the only efficient pressure on SCAF."

By late Saturday night, a few more tents had risen in the square.

 

*Photo courtesy of Fredrik Persson, Associated Press / June 2, 2012

Protesters throw shoes at presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq

REUTERS
Shoes, abuse hurled at ex-premier

May 24, 2012

Protesters threw stones and shoes at Egyptian presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq after he cast his ballot yesterday, taking aim at the former prime minister for serving under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak.
 
As the ex-air force commander and aviation minister voted at a Cairo polling station, protesters gathered outside chanting “Down with military rule” and “Down with the regime.”
 
Relatives of people killed in last year’s uprising that toppled Mubarak clutching pictures of the victims.
“The coward is here. The criminal is here,” they cried as Shafiq’s car pulled into the area.
 
“You killed the martyrs. Their blood is on your hands. We either get their rights or die like them,” the protesters chanted. “We don’t want you here,” they shouted, calling Shafiq a “feloul”, or remnant, of the Mubarak era.
 
Protesters took off their shoes and some threw them at Shafiq, 70, as he made his way into the polling station, his armed bodyguards protecting him from the crowd.
 
The supervising judge briefly suspended voting, but Shafiq eventually cast his ballot.
 
His candidacy has polarized Egyptians, with some seeing him as a return to the past and others as a force for stability.
 
Shafiq’s supporters and opponents threw stones and glasses at each other as he drove away from the polling station. Several parked cars had their windshields broken.
 
Earlier in the day, Shafiq had defended himself against critics of his role in Mubarak’s day. “I worked for the big family of Egypt not for someone or for a regime,” he said.


*Photo courtesy of REUTERS

Egypt: 14 Policemen acquitted of killing civilians during uprising

Associated Press

Egypt: 14 Officers Acquitted

May 18, 2012

A court on Thursday acquitted 14 police officers charged with killing protesters during Egypt’s uprising last year.

The verdict is the latest in what activists see as a pattern of acquittals for officers accused in the deaths of nearly 850 people during the 18-day uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

The court found the officers not guilty of shooting protesters in front of police stations on Jan. 28, 2011.

The ruling ended the 10th court case dealing with the deaths of protesters. In nine instances, the security officers have been acquitted, while in one case the court issued a suspended sentence.

A Tale Of Two Egyptian Armies

Eurasia Review
A Tale Of Two Egyptian Armies - OpEd

March 28, 2012

Lee Smith

Last week, the Obama administration started releasing the $1.3 billion in U.S. military assistance to Egypt that’s been on hold since October. Over the objections of human rights advocates and democracy activists, Hillary Clinton signed a waiver allowing Washington to circumvent recent legislation tying military assistance to the State Department’s certification that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), Egypt’s interim ruling body, is protecting the basic rights and freedoms of Egyptian citizens.

In spite of SCAF’s documented human rights abuses, the aid will begin flowing again because the Obama administration has come to recognize a little more than a year after the fall of longtime ally Hosni Mubarak that U.S. policymakers have no other instruments with which to influence a political system that may be spiraling out of control.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are unhappy, especially since charges against American democratic rights activists—including Sam LaHood, the son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood—for interfering in Egypt’s political system have yet to be entirely resolved.

It was clearly a case of political extortion, and there is no secret what Cairo wanted in exchange for letting the U.S. activists leave Egypt on bail—the military aid that the Obama administration was withholding in an effort to exercise leverage on the Egyptian regime.

In short, no matter how the administration plays it, Egypt right now is in a much stronger bargaining position than the U.S., and there is no sign the balance of power is going to shift anytime soon.

To be sure, many in Washington would like to cut off the Egyptian military or at least limit its share of U.S aid. Right now, only a fraction of the total assistance package, a little over $1.5 billion this year, is in economic aid, so why not tip the scales and give the whole package to the Egyptian people? With tourist receipts and foreign direct investment down, and foreign reserves dwindling, it would be an especially good time to pump cash directly into an economy in freefall.

The problem of course is that it would be almost impossible to bypass SCAF to get that money to ordinary Egyptians. And even if it were feasible, in the wake of the democracy activist trial, Washington is more sensitive than ever to claims of “interference.”

But the real issue is that Egypt’s rulers don’t see the country’s dire economic situation the same way Washington does. For the White House, Egypt is too big to fail. From SCAF’s perspective, Egypt has weathered famine and worse many times over the last several millennia and it will get through it this time, too. The fact that the Americans are scared of what might happen should Egypt crash means that SCAF’s in the driver’s seat—at least as long as it keeps threatening to steer the country off a cliff.

From this perspective, almost everything that seems bad for Egypt, or anything that terrifies the U.S., is good for the SCAF. For instance, a referendum recently passed in the new Islamist-dominated parliament to expel the Israeli ambassador, halt gas exports to Israel and identify the Jewish state as Egypt’s “number one enemy” only makes the Egyptian military look good by comparison.

Since foreign policy-making as a whole, and the care-taking of the peace treaty with Israel in particular, is the exclusive privilege of the army, it is up to them to make the final call on any of those initiatives coming out of parliament. The point is: Yes, things could get even worse in Egypt, much worse, so the White House wants to keep the Egyptian army happy.

The fact that, as the Washington Post today reports, the Muslim Brotherhood may now feel more confident in challenging the army further concentrates the administration’s attention. Washington needs to maintain the stability of the army.

After all, this is why American policymakers were finally able to convince themselves last February that they didn’t need Mubarak. The Pentagon knows the Egyptian army almost as well as its own; the U.S. military has trained Egyptian officers for thirty years and the relationship couldn’t be closer.

The reality is that there is not one Egyptian military—there are two. American policymakers are allied with the first, whom they have to support in order to prevent the second army from rising up.

The first is simply the large institution now headed by Field Marshal Muhammad Hussein Tantawi, who as head of SCAF became Egypt’s de facto ruler after Mubarak’s departure. This is the same junta that has governed Egypt since the 1952 revolution that deposed the monarchy and put in power a series of military officers, Mohamed Naguib, Gamal abd el-Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and then Mubarak.

It’s the most powerful institution in all of Egypt, and therefore the most corrupt, but it also recognizes that there are certain limits it can’t transgress. Tantawi and the others are raising the price on Washington, but they’re not looking to throw away the U.S.-Egypt relationship.

It is that other, second Egyptian army that might choose to rewrite the rules. This is not the military or the vast business interests overseen by the 76-year-old Tantawi. It’s the army that, if the circumstances are right, might someday overthrow those senior officers the Americans trust. Right now, it exists only in the imagination of junior officers; a shadow army with its own agenda, shaped by smoldering resentments and soaring ambitions.

This institution engendered the 1952 Free Officers’ Coup and Nasser, the Arab nationalist demagogue who set the template for half a century’s worth of radical Middle East politics. It’s an army of ideological commitment, regardless of the motivating ideas. Almost thirty years after deposing the king, this same army gave rise to the junior officers like Khaled Islambouli who made up the cell that assassinated Sadat.

The Islambouli plot only half-succeeded. Sadat was dead but the Free Officers’ regime lived on. With Mubarak at the helm, it entered its most stable—or, depending on one’s point of view, static—phase. That’s the military regime the White House seeks to preserve, essentially Mubarakism without Mubarak.

The nightmare scenario is not merely a political system dominated by Islamists, or a country of more than 80 million on the verge of bankruptcy and threatening to break the peace treaty with Israel. Rather, it’s all of that, and governed by an ideologically ambitious military that wants to revive Egypt’s role as leader of the Arab world.

The White House does not want to see that army take shape—but it’s becoming increasingly unlikely that $1.3 billion is going to keep it in the shadows forever.

Muslim Brotherhood promotes its businessmen club

Ahram Online
Brotherhood business heads enter spotlight

Sunday 25 Mar 2012

Created by Muslim Brotherhood business owners, the 150-member strong Egyptian Businessmen Development Association was launched Saturday evening with 1,000 guests in attendance

Salma Hussein


Outside the ballroom of the five-star hotel, bearded men in well-cut suits rush to line up for sunset prayers beside a banner announcing the day's event.

Piety and commerce side-by-side, this was the scene at the Saturday launch of the Muslim Brotherhood-majority business lobby, the Egyptian Businessmen Development Association (EBDA, which also means 'start' in Arabic).

The one-day event for around 1,000 guests ended with a gala dinner and three main guest speakers -- a business tycoon apiece from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey.

It had eight sponsors, among them two American multinationals: Price Cooper Waterhouse and Hill International.

"Hill International is mulling becoming a member of the EBDA. We are also member in the American Chamber in Egypt," said Ahmed Thabet, director of sales in the construction risk management company, currently working on the Grand Egyptian Museum, due to open in 2014.

Other sponsors are firms that flourished during the reign of the ousted president Hosni Mubarak but have remained unsullied after post-uprising graft investigations: cable-maker El-Sewedy; the Alkan Group founded by the late Mohamed Nosseir; Juhayna, food producer and caterer to US bases in the Gulf; and Egyptians Steel.

"In the business world, they don't give much weight to political affiliations," explained Ahmed Zein of Memark, the consultancy firm which developed EBDA's logo and works on its branding.

"That said, we had to exclude sponsoring offers from other companies closer to the old regime. You would not find companies like Ceramica Cleopatra or Ezz Steel," he admitted, naming companies linked to allegedly corrupt figures.

"This would harm the image of this business association given the reputation it wants to build."

Zein also worked on marketing 'The Makers of Life' charity project started by the famed Islamist preacher, Amr Khaled.

The final two sponsors are directly related to the Brotherhood, the country's main Islamist force whose political wing now has a leading role in parliament, and owned by members Hassan Malek and Samir El-Naggar. The former owns the Malek Group, the latter an industrial agri-food firm.

It was Malek who came up with the idea of EBDA and is its first chairman.

Joining the board of EBDA, on which Brotherhood investors and traders sit, requires members to meet two conditions, says Zein.

First, their firms must be able to show a record clean of corruption. Second, they must be medium-sized companies able to help start-ups and smaller enterprises.

"To this date, we have 500 membership applications. We only accepted 150," said board member Ahmed Abdel Hafez, describing a fastidious selection process. Membership costs LE2,500, with an annual subscription of LE2,000.

"We decided to encourage SMEs by cutting subscription annual fees to LE500," Abdel Hafez added.

"We've also invited many companies to join us," said Abdel Moneim Seoudi, another board member, who was jailed in Mubarak's time.

The owner of a supermarket chain and car-dealership, he told Ahram Online that he had invited Beshay steel makers, a business owned by a Coptic Christian family, to join.

"I am confident they will," he says, before two Freedom and Justice Party parliamentarians, calling him "Abu Obayda", ask to pose for a photo with him.

Before Malek starts his speech, four large screens play footage from 2011's mass demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Then the chairman takes to the stage.

"We seek empowerment for businessmen to boost economy. This comes through promoting investment and development but also through participating in decision making and economic legislature," he says, in words which at times echo those of Gamal Mubarak, the ousted president's 'business-friendly' son.

But for Malek the difference is in the players, not the supposed aims. He hails a "new class" of businessmen who will do things differently.

"It is time to take the lead. The corruption ring is now broken," he declares to the crowd. "We will support corporate governance and transparency in companies' management."

There is little information available about about the Malek Group, or indeed many other companies owned by members of the Brotherhood. During their years in the political opposition, many had to hide their sources of finance to avoid them being confiscated.

A few years ago, Malek's assets were frozen and he was tried before a military court. He was only cleared after the revolution.

None of these companies are listed on any stock markets, and hence deails on their sales revenues, activities and profits are not publicly available.

Despite being the majority party in parliament, the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice has not proposed any laws regarding corporate governance, corruption or conflict of interests.

According to a blog called Free Hassan Malek, created in 2007, Malek was an important trader, with his family known for investing in the spinning and weaving industry.

The blog claims that, the now 54-year-old Malek established a company called Salsabeel at the beginning of the 1990s. The firm has the same name as the lawsuit brought against members of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1992 after both Malek and his partner, Khairat El-Shater, were arrested.

Malek was put under provisional detention for a year before being released. He then branched into the furniture industry, establishing two Egypt-based companies that rely on imports from Turkey: Istikbal and Sirar.

But it is business itself that seems to be what intrigues Malek.

"We went through dozens of projects to adopt. We finally set our minds on two, following young businessmen advice," he told the EBDA meeting.

The association launches with a project to finance small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) clustered around bigger industry, working in partnership with the Social Fund for Development.
Another project aims to provide training programs to workers through their trade unions.

"There is a room for new business organisations," said another attendee, Alaa Ezz, an ex-member of the dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP) and current secretary general of the Confederation of Egyptian European Business Associations (CEEBA).

Sitting at the table nearest the podium and beside businessman Hussein Sabbour, Ezz said he welcomed the creation of the new business lobby and said he was attending as the secretary general of the Chambers of Commerce Federation.

"By law I have to be a member in every businessmen oganisation's board," he said, but added that he does not currently consider himself a member of EBDA.
Unlike Ezz, another attendee, Ahmed El-Swedy was enthusiastic about the association.

"Please let us look ahead," he said. "Islamists don't have enough experience and they need our help.

"Let's not start labelling people as Salafis, Copts or felool [remnants of the old regime]," he said in his speech. He told Ahram Online he has decided to become an EBDA member.

Egypt: People demand an independent judiciary

Egypt Independent
The people want a free judiciary

Thu, 22/03/2012

Jano Charbel


While grappling with many unattended revolutionary demands, Egypt has witnessed during recent months a series of high profile court cases in which rulings and procedures occurred in the absence of a guaranteed independent judiciary.

Since the 25 January Revolution, advocates of an independent judiciary have criticized the executive appointments of judges presiding over the landmark trials of Hosni Mubarak and other ousted statesmen, along with the trials of police and officials accused of killing some 1,000 protesters and — most recently — the trial of international NGO employees.

Although the trial of 43 Egyptian and foreign NGO workers charged with receiving illegal foreign funding is ongoing, Egyptian authorities allowed the foreign defendants to leave the country after their bail money was paid. These judicial breaches have caused uproar in Parliament against claims of interference from the ruling military junta and the interim cabinet. These breaches have also left the Egyptian public wondering about how much sway the executive authorities have over judicial authorities — in this case, and in many others.

“We judges are not party to the NGO conflict. This is a political and diplomatic conflict in which the judiciary was sucked-in,” said reformist Judge Assem Abdel Gabbar, who is also the deputy chief justice of the Court of Cassation.

According to Abdel Gabbar, “This NGO trial has tarnished the image and reputation of Egypt’s judiciary, even more than it was already tarnished.”

Abdel Moez Ibrahim, head of the Cairo Court of Appeals, has been on the forefront of criticism for mediating the travel ban lift on the foreign defendants. And after news circulated about his resignation this week, he denied these reports, saying that he is still authorized to hold his position since the court’s General Assembly has not decided otherwise.

The case has elucidated the lingering question of the independence of the judiciary and raised concerns about other critical cases such as the trials of former regime officials.

Judges actively advocating the independence of the judiciary through the “Independence Current” collective see the solution residing in a legislative change. The Independence Current has been demanding the replacement of Law 142/2006 with a new Judicial Authority Law that guarantees the right of judges — not the executive branch of government — to chose and appoint other judges, the right to administrative and financial independence and the right to discipline corrupt judges.

According to Judge Mahmoud Mekky, “the current Judicial Authority Law allows 60 different pretexts for interference in judicial affairs from the executive branch of government.” Mekky pointed out that the president, prime minister, public prosecutor, along with the interior and finance minister are allowed “legal gateways” through which they may administratively and financially curtail the independence of the judiciary.

However, it is the Justice Ministry which is the most direct interferer. “The justice minister is legally authorized to handpick the judges in certain politicized trials — as we have witnessed in the trial Mubarak and his associates, the ‘Battle of the Camel’ trial, and the trials of those accused of killing protesters during the 25 January Revolution,” Mekky added. The outcome of these trials rests in the hands of judges who have been cherry-picked by the executive branch.

At the request of the Supreme Judicial Council, a draft law was prepared and submitted by Judge Ahmed Mekky, a leading figure in the Independence Current. This draft, followed by another draft formulated by Judge Ahmed al-Zend, president of the Judges Club, was submitted for approval by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces late last year, but both drafts were shelved. These two competing drafts were resubmitted to the newly-elected Parliament this January.

According to the legal analyst and director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Bahey el-din Hassan, “The differences between the draft law submitted by the Supreme Judicial Council and that submitted by the Judges Club are few, but very significant.”

The differences between Mekky’s draft and that of Zend primarily center on the appointment of the public prosecutor and the judges presiding over specific court cases.

“Zend’s draft generally upholds the status quo,” said Hassan. It keeps the public prosecutor under the control of the executive branch. Regarding the appointment of judges presiding over certain courts, Zend proposes that they be appointed on the basis of their seniority within the judiciary.

Mekky’s draft, on the other hand, proposes that the public prosecutor be elected by judges, while judges should be elected by the top three most senior justices. “Mekky’s draft seeks to challenge the status quo and break free from the control of all executive authorities, especially from the Ministry of Justice,” said Hassan

Hassan pointed out that behind these two draft laws there may be a personal or ideological power struggle between the leaders of the Judges Club and the leaders of the Supreme Judicial Council.

The Supreme Judicial Council plays an administrative role, serving as a disciplinary committee and a body for judicial oversight, and conducting inspections of correctional institutions. As for the Judges Club, it acts as interest group for its members, serving to improve their working and financial conditions. “In this sense the club is more like unions or syndicates,” said Hassan.

According to Judge Abdel Gabbar, “The present leadership of the Judges Club,” especially under Zend, “is in no way representative of Egypt’s judiciary.” Abdel Gabbar added that the purging of corrupt judges and “reform of the judicial system may lead to a Judges’ Club which actually represents the judiciary rather than the ruling regime.”

Meanwhile, a group of 42 judges and lawyers prepared a list of 42 recommendations to guarantee the independence of the judiciary both in the constitution and the Judicial Authority Law. These include requiring the executive authority to impose the emergency law under judicial checks.

The suggestions also include that the new constitution should have a separate chapter on the judiciary that treats it as a comprehensive authority and does not fragment it into different courts under different authorities, which is the case in the 1971 Constitution. They added that all administrative decrees should be subject to judicial appeals.

The issue has been taken up by activists. “Plans to reform the judiciary and to promote judicial independence are not sufficient. We demand genuine justice through the judiciary,” said activist Alaa Abd El Fattah, who had been imprisoned for several months in 2006, whilst protesting for judicial independence and again in 2011, for taking part in a mostly Coptic protest in October near the Maspero state television building in which 27 were killed by army violence.

Abd El Fattah expressed his skepticism regarding the potential of Egypt’s judiciary in upholding the principles of equality and social justice in line with revolutionary demands. The youth activist also criticized the sexism and class-based interests of Egypt’s judges.

Abd El Fattah pointed to the discriminatory policies of the Egyptian judiciary which have led to a lack of female prosecutors or judges. “Even the police and armed forces employ women in their ranks, why not the judiciary?”


*Photo courtesy of Al-Masry Al-Youm's Arabic Edition

Egypt: No Jail For Police Who Killed Protesters

Associated Press
No jail for Egypt police who killed protesters

Mar 20, 2012

HAMZA HENDAWI

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Tuesday gave suspended one-year sentences to 11 policemen accused of killing 22 protesters and wounding 44 others during last year's uprising that ousted longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.

Judge Sabri Hamed acquitted three other policemen at a court hearing in Cairo held under tight security. Families of the dead protesters rejected the verdict and vowed revenge.

"Death to the murderers!" they chanted.

In his ruling, Sabri said the defendants had a legitimate right to self defense when a mob pelted their station with rocks and firebombs, but they used excessive force in dealing with the threat, since those killed included some in homes a distance away.

The verdict is the latest in what activists claim to be a pattern of acquittals and light sentences for police blamed for the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the 18-day uprising. The suspended sentences mean the 11 convicted Tuesday will not go to prison.

The ruling, carried by the official news agency MENA, said the crowd outside the police station in Cairo's Hadayeq el-Qoubah district were genuine protesters, but they were later infiltrated by a "misled minority" that attacked the police.

The killings took place on Jan. 28, 2011, the deadliest day of the uprising. On the same day, thousands of convicts escaped from prisons across the nation, and scores of police station were ransacked. The attackers made off with firearms and ammunition.

Sabri said the police at Hadayeq el-Qoubah station could not request backup because of the chaos everywhere in the city, and that it would have been "cowardly" if they were to surrender to their attackers.

"The right of self defense here is legitimate, but the defendants exceeded that right with good intentions," Sabri said. "This is shown by the use of so much ammunition and the large number of killed and wounded. Their gunfire killed and wounded many persons far from the station and inside homes and buildings facing it. That amounts to exceeding the boundaries of legitimate self defense."

Seeking justice for the nearly 900 protesters killed during the uprising and at least 100 more since Mubarak's ouster has been a key demand of the protest movement that engineered the uprising. Activists also want the generals who took over from Mubarak to be held accountable for torturing detainees and hauling at least 10,000 civilians for trial before military tribunals.

The generals have promised to hand over power to a civilian administration after presidential elections in May. The winner will be declared June 21. Behind the scenes, the generals are thought to be trying to secure immunity from prosecution for alleged crimes during their rule.

Egypt: Gas pipeline to Israel bombed for 13th time

Associated Press
Militants attack Egypt gas pipeline for 13th time

March 5, 2012

Ashraf Sweilam


Militants again target Egypt's gas pipeline to Israel for 13th time since Egyptian uprising

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) -- Militants again blew up a gas pipeline in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula that transports fuel to neighboring Israel and Jordan, Egyptian security officials said Monday.

The attack on the pipeline was the 13th since the popular uprising that ousted longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak last year.

Police officials said militants attacked the pipeline just outside the north Sinai city of el-Arish Monday evening. There were no details on the extent of damage. Previous explosions have shut down gas flow for days or weeks.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with police rules, said that the gas was also used by residents in el-Arish.

Residents said they could see large plumes of black smoke and fire from as far as 30 miles (50 kilometers) away.

Officials said the militants buried explosives in the sand in the same area where the pipeline was attacked last month.

The security officials said the bombing came just three days after the pipeline was repaired and shipments to Israel and Jordan resumed.

Previous bombings of the pipeline have been blamed on Islamist militants who have stepped up activity in the Sinai, taking advantage of a security vacuum caused by a thin police presence in the post-Mubarak era.

Egypt's Parliamentary Hypocrisy

Al Jazeera
Egypt's parliamentary hypocrisy

02 Mar 2012

Through words and deeds, it's clear that the Muslim Brotherhood has descended into hypocrisy.

Sarah Mousa


Cairo, Egypt - The opening session of Egypt's post-revolutionary parliament, as it has come to be called, was widely greeted with hope. Even non-supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) could not help but express satisfaction with a parliament headed by prominent MB member Saad El-Katatny, who was detained under the Mubarak regime and sat outside of the previous parliament's sessions as a protester.

However, the swiftness with which the MB distanced itself from its reformist role and its history of political suffering and allied itself with the ruling military regime came as a surprise to even the group's critics.

In recent history, the MB has been a strong reformist voice. It is a skilled political group, and to its credit suffered under the Mubarak regime for its demand for the sort of democratic institutions that would allow it to harness its popularity and gain power. A principled and patient group however, the MB was willing to wait as the situation changed to the extent needed rather than risk its survival by pushing too hard when the political future was uncertain.

Under the Mubarak regime, rumours often circulated of deals made by top members of the Brotherhood with the government to secure silence on part of the MB in exchange for measured freedoms for the group.

In the years leading up to the revolution, young members of the group accused their leaders of turning a blind eye when they were detained in exchange for benefits from the government. Along with a realisation that the MB was not dedicated to change to the extent that they had in mind, this was one of the reasons that many young members split from the group prior to the revolution.

THE SADDLE AND THE DONKEY

The historical memory of the MB and its leaders is often painted to suit their interests. In the weeks following the revolution, Brotherhood leader Essam El-Erian went from mosque to mosque telling audiences of the group's suffering under Mubarak and giving the MB overstated credit for the revolution when in fact it was the young dissidents of the Brotherhood who were among the key instigators of real change.

This selective history-making is not new to the Brotherhood; in a reflection of the group's history, former Deputy Supreme Guide Mohamed Habib suggested that the MB's suppression under the Presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser was due to their support for democracy, where in fact there is no evidence of the group's advocacy for any sort of democratic measures prior to more recent decades.

A current case engulfing parliament, surrounding MP Ziad El-Eliamy, one of the few young revolutionary representatives, illustrates the MB's quick stray from justice. In a speech he made in Port Said, the city where nearly 100 soccer fans were killed during a match a few weeks ago, Eliemy used a common Arab saying to question the approach that was being taken to address the massacre: "Why do we always leave the donkey, and hold on to the saddle?"

The point that Eleimy was making was clear to those present - he felt that excessive concern with the local governor and security officials of Port Said would not tackle the root of the problem, but that higher powers should also be questioned. When asked by an audience member who the "donkey" was, Eleimy responded with: "The Field General".

In addition, Eleimy criticised the salafi sheikh, Mohamed Hassan, who has gained recent fame for his suggestion that the Egyptian people should gather money and give it to the government to replace a need for military and economic aid from the United States. Hassan has been gathering this money for over a week; donation boxes for his cause can be found around Cairo.

Hassan’s nonsensical proposal comes in the context of a current case against American and Egyptian non-profit workers for a series of charges, including illegal financing. State media has used the case inaccurately to illustrate negative US influence on Egyptian sovereignty and to distract audiences from more pressing issues facing the country.

During a recent parliamentary session, MP Mustafa Bakri pointed out the statements made by Eleimy and demanded that he publicly apologise; Katany backed Bakri. Since the round-about apology that ensued was not considered sufficient, the case of Eleimy was referred to a higher committee that will hear his defence. This decision was greeted by a thunderous applause from parliament members.

PROTECTING POWER

The case of Eleimy may not have been as significant were it not for the fact that Bakri, the same MP who forcefully demanded that Eleimy be held accountable for his remarks, had stood in parliament days before and slandered former Presidential Candidate Mohamed El-Baradei as an American agent. In response to the spectacle, several MPs suggested that it would be inconsistent with parliamentary guidelines and unjust to hold Eleimy to his statements in such an aggressive manner, while disregarding the slanderous statements made by Bakri.

The request for an apology from Bakri was overwhelmingly voted against by Parliament. The difference between the statements made by Bakri and Eleimy is that Bakri was not criticising a member of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which the MB has seemingly formed a close alliance with, nor was he criticising an Islamist. Rather, Bakri was slandering a symbol of the Egyptian revolution in the same way that the Mubarak regime had and that SCAF and state media continue to.

The case illustrates the height of the MB's hypocrisy and its lack of dedication to democratic principles. When the popularity of the revolution and its imminent success became evident, the MB was quick to express support. It soon became clear, however, that SCAF had not hastened the resignation of Mubarak for the sake of the revolution, but rather for its own self-interest.

The ruling body has been using its tools to rather successfully slander the image of those who instigated the revolution and continue to fight for its cause. As it became evident that the more powerful force is SCAF as opposed to the revolutionaries, the MB has distanced itself from the youth and their causes and is rumoured to be negotiating with SCAF behind the scenes on many issues, including the future form of the Egyptian government.

The MB was one of Baradei's earliest supporters when he expressed interest in running against Hosni Mubarak for presidency in 2010 and founded the National Association for Change (NAC). In fact, Katatny himself was a signatory of the NAC on behalf of the Brotherhood. As SCAF and state media spread propaganda about the revolutionary figure, and his resulting decreasing popularity among segments of the population became clear, the MB distanced itself from the leader.

Silence on part of the Brotherhood as an MP echoed a slander that had been created and used by the Mubarak regime against a man who they had closely associated themselves with before again highlights the hypocritical nature of the Islamist-run parliament.

It has become increasingly clear in recent months that SCAF did not remove Mubarak so that it could support the revolution, but so that it could protect itself and secure its own power and interests; in this they have thus far been successful, partly due to the near-majority parliamentary election of the MB, a group that has used the power that the people have entrusted it with to form alliances, make deals and emulate the previous regime in manipulating its position to further entrench its authority.

SCAF has been steering the Egyptian people away from a path to democracy and has been distracting citizens with superficial issues, rather than working to establish a proper layout for a democratic state.

The Supreme Administrative Court recently deemed Egypt's parliament unconstitutional and referred the case to the High Constitutional Court; the additional failure of the MB-dominated parliament to prove itself as a truly democratic body may add to the opposition building against the institution in its current form.

As the revolution continues, some foresee the need to break the dominating rule of SCAF as well as the MB before real progress can be made.


*Photo courtesy of GETTY IMAGES

Egypt: Recent policing reminiscent of Mubarak era

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Egypt: Recent security force policing 'reminiscent of Mubarak' era

22 February 2012

*Over 100 protesters killed in last five months
*Recently-imported US tear gas played a key role in excessive response

A year after the uprising, Egypt's security forces continue to kill protestors with the same brutal tactics used in Hosni Mubarak’s last days in power, Amnesty International said after concluding that riot police used excessive force in policing recent protests in Cairo and Suez.

The protests earlier this month followed the Port Said tragedy in which more than 70 supporters from Al-Ahly club were killed after a football match on 1 February. In Amnesty’s view, between 2 and 6 February the Ministry of Interior’s Central Security Forces (riot police) used excessive force as they dispersed the protests, killing at least 16 people and injuring hundreds of others in the process.

Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said:

“The behaviour of the security forces in dealing with these protests is unfortunately very reminiscent of a time many Egyptians thought they had left behind after the ‘25 January Revolution’.

“Promises of reform of the security forces continue to ring hollow in the face of the killing of more than a hundred protesters in the last five months.

“Not only have the authorities not reformed the security forces, but evidence of the use of rubber bullets and live ammunition is met with denial and accusation of foreign interference by Egyptian officials.

“Police should not use firearms against persons except in self-defence or defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury. Intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.

“Security forces have a duty to restore law and order, however, the recent use of excessive force by the security forces show a complete disrespect for human life.

“It is now very clear that the newly-elected parliamentary assembly must urgently tackle the long overdue reforms to the way security forces have been policing demonstrations.

“Unless the Egyptian security apparatus is reformed with the aim of providing security and upholding the right to peaceful protest, we fear more bloodshed will follow.”

Previous calls for reform of the security sector only led to piecemeal changes while the authorities continued to inappropriately use teargas and live ammunitions.

The Egyptian authorities ostensibly announced investigations into incidents leading to the killing or severe injury of protesters. Yet no lessons were learnt and no clear instructions seem to have been given to the security forces, including military personnel, to uphold the right to peaceful assembly and to police demonstrations in line with international standards.

Lethal force was used without prior warning to disperse protesters in Cairo and Suez who were, for the most part, peacefully demonstrating and chanting. Some protestors were, however, throwing stones at the security forces and Amnesty heard occasional reports of protesters throwing Molotov cocktails at the riot police. In rare incidents, shotgun ammunition and fireworks were also fired at riot police.

CASUALTIES

The Cairo University Hospitals alone received some 269 injured people during the protests as well as seven of the 11 deaths that took place in the capital. Most of those injured were suffering from tear gas inhalation or injuries from shotgun pellets, which, in some cases, caused rupture to the eye globe. In one case, a protester died from shotgun ammunition after a pellet reached his brain. Two others died from gunshots to the head and one from a gunshot to the stomach.

In Suez, Amnesty obtained a list of some 85 injured who were treated at the Suez General Hospital, mainly from shotgun pellets and live ammunition. Five people died in the city from gunshots to the chest, head or stomach. The list included four members of the security forces who were also reported to having been injured by shotgun pellets in Suez.

EXCESSIVE USE OF TEAR GAS

Amnesty delegates witnessed riot police relentlessly firing tear gas at groups of anti-SCAF protesters standing in Cairo's Mansur street and Mohamed Mahmoud street, both leading to the Ministry of Interior and which witnessed the worst clashes. Riot police used tear gas disproportionately in instances when protesters did not represent an imminent danger to safety. They never gave notice before firing tear gas canisters.

Volunteer doctors and witnesses in both Cairo and Suez reported that riot police aimed tear gas directly at the very field hospitals that provide first aid treatment to protesters suffering from tear gas inhalation and other injuries. In Suez, some media workers for TV 25 were also targeted directly with tear gas causing respiratory difficulties.

Some US-made tear gas canisters in Suez bore a manufacture date of August 2011, suggesting they were part of a recent US shipment of tear gas delivered to Egypt in November. In December 2011 Amnesty called on global arms suppliers to halt the transfer of tear gas, small arms, ammunition and other repressive equipment to the Egyptian military and security forces.

ILLUSTRATIVE INDIVIDUAL CASES

*CAIRO
Twenty-four year old painter Ahmed Hassan Ali, a protester in Tahrir square, suffered a rupture to his right eye from a shotgun pellet significantly affecting his sight. He told Amnesty he was injured from a rubber bullet in Mansur Street on 4 February at 6am. He sustained the injury as he went to tell other protesters to return to the square and avoid confrontation with the riot police. He said protesters were peacefully chanting against SCAF when police opened fire prior to warning.

On 5 February at around 1.30am, Ahmed Maher, General Coordinator of the “6 April Youth Movement” pro-democracy protest group was injured with a fracture in the top of his skull as he stood at the intersection of Mansur and Mohamed Mahmoud streets, causing internal bleeding. After a meeting with MPs in the parliament he went to tell protesters to move away from the area and end the protest, so that the authorities could build a concrete wall at Mansur Street by the Ministry of Interior. He fell as a result of his injury, losing his blackberry. The Twitter account he administers for the movement was subsequently hacked. Amnesty fears he may have been targeted in this incident as the authorities have been mounting a smear campaign against “6 April”, accusing it publicly of conspiring against Egypt.

On 5 February at around 11pm, 26-year-old Salma Said Abdel Fattah, an activist in the “No to Military Trials for Civilians” and “Mosireen” (Determined) groups, was injured by shotgun pellets as she filmed riot police armoured vehicles attacking protesters from Mansur street rushing towards Falaky square. She told Amnesty that a hooded riot police officer on the top of an armoured vehicle shot at her three times, first at her face, chest and legs, and finally as other protesters were carrying her away.

*SUEZ
In Suez, most casualties took place near the Security Directorate headquarters near Paradise Street and Al-Shohadaa Street between 2 and 4 February. The Security Directorate oversees a large square with a garden, from where protesters attempted to approach the building, among other side roads. Access to the building itself was barred by barbed wire. Around sunset, according to protesters, riot police fired indiscriminately tear gas and shotgun ammunition without any prior warning as they approached the Security Directorate.

MOHAMED AHMED ATTA was reportedly killed in the evening of 2 February from a gunshot to his upper body while throwing stones at riot police. Rami Mohamed, a 25 year old member of the “Suez Youth Bloc”, told Amnesty he had witnessed security forces shooting at Atta without issuing any form of warning. Rami Mohamed was himself injured the next day from a live round in his pelvis also while throwing stones at riot police near the Security Directorate.

MOHAMED AL-SAYED AHEMD FARRAG, a 28-year-old daily wage labourer, was killed, apparently by a sniper, in the early hours of 3 February after throwing stones at riot police. Friends of Farrag told Amnesty they witnessed riot police using tear gas intensively near the Security Directorate and climbed to the top floor of a 12-storey residential building still under construction to escape from the effects of the gas. The group said that from the roof they watched security forces shooting live ammunition at protesters and saw snipers at the top of the Security Directorate and in buildings next to it. Every time the police pushed protesters out of the square, the group would throw stones at the riot police. At around 2am Farrag was standing by the window when he was shot in the head and died instantly.

BACKGROUND

Last June Amnesty's Secretary General presented a copy of its publication “Understanding Policing” to the then Minister of Interior Mansour Essawy. This explains international standards on the use of force and firearms, notably that law enforcement officials must use force only to the extent necessary to achieve a legitimate aim and only in proportion to this legitimate aim. The response should be gradual with an obligation to use non-violent means whenever possible to minimise damage and to protect life. The use of firearms should be limited to situations of threats to life or of serious injury. Both in Cairo and in Suez the intensive and indiscriminate use of force and firearms without prior warning and causing a high number of casualties indicate that these international standards were disregarded in the security forces’ handling of the demonstrations.