Tightening the noose

By Jailan Halawi

Under the new security plan, guard was tightened around all sites that might be targeted by the militants. Police also intensified their daily campaigns against possible militant hide-outs. These include shanty towns, islands in the Nile and desert areas.

This "hot pursuit" policy inside and outside Egypt against Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya, who had taken responsibility for the carnage, drastically reduced their expatriate activities and broke up their networks. Security forces also tightened guard at all border, sea and air outlets and took measures to ensure that the militants' sources of financing and armament would dry up.

As a result, the so-called military wing of the Gama'a was torn apart, leaving only a few small groups on the run in southern Egypt. These groups include the followers of Farid Salem Kadawni in Minya, Abdel-Hamid Abu-Aqrab, Rifaat Zeedan and Mohamed Abdel-Rahman Salama in Assiut and Ala'a Abdel-Razek Attiya and Mohamed El-Farshouti in Qena. Security sources say the groups are continuing to shrink in size because of their inability to enlist new recruits. "Tightening the noose around these fugitives has forced them to become more concerned with looking for safe havens than with planning attacks or raising funds," one security source said.

The objective of the new security strategy is to uphold legality, as well as state prestige, and ensure a climate of domestic stability -- a prerequisite for gaining economic investments. "Security authorities also provide assistance to repentant militants and help them straighten out their deviant beliefs," the source said.

This year's harvest of violence came to 14 civilians and policemen killed and an equal number of militants dead, the latter mostly in Minya. The latest confrontation took place last week in Mallawi, Minya province, where two Gama'a militants were killed.

The decline in attacks has also been due to the security forces' success in intercepting communication links between expatriate leaders and their followers back home. As a result, police were able to pre-empt several attempts at reviving the activities of both the Gama'a and the Jihad in Cairo, Sharqiya, Daqahliya, Menoufiya and Giza governorates. Several attempts at staging attacks were also aborted before they could be carried out and more than 140 suspects are being questioned.

The Luxor massacre and the recent bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania have also resulted in greater international cooperation in the war against terrorism. Fruits of this cooperation are now materialising, as Egypt has had a number of suspects believed to be involved in terrorist operations extradited from several European, African and Asian countries. According to the security source, this international cooperation is likely to be stepped up.

State Security Prosecutor Hisham Saraya told Al-Ahram Weekly that the interrogation of Gama'a and Jihad suspects showed that the two groups suffer great domestic isolation and lack the necessary leaders, as well as "effective cadres in their military wings". He said many arrested suspects were not armed, "which indicates the militants' inability to acquire weapons -- a far cry from the situation in the early 1990's."

photo: Khaled El-Fiqi

MONTASSER EL-ZAYYAT, the Islamist lawyer who represents many Egyptian militants, described the Luxor massacre as an "alarm bell" for both the government and the Gama'a. El-Zayyat argued that this "explosion" took place as a result of a failure of communication between the government and Gama'a leaders, due to communication channels being blocked by security forces.

El-Zayyat described the slaughter as an "earthquake" that hit Egyptian society. The Gama'a's claim of responsibility has eroded any sympathy it might have had domestically and internationally. The carnage has also led to an unprecedented show of support by the world community for the Egyptian government.

In addition, the attack has triggered a dispute between the jailed "historic" leaders, who had issued a cease-fire appeal four months earlier, and the expatriate leaders. This appeal has recently been repeated by the jailed leaders and it has once more won the support of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Gama'a's spiritual leader, who is serving a prison sentence in New York.

El-Zayyat said that expatriate leaders living in Europe were more sympathetic to the cease-fire call than those living in Afghanistan. He denied that the latest appeal issued by the jailed leaders was an indication of surrender. "They have strong beliefs and they would not change their position to escape raids or confrontations. They have been in worse situations before and they never changed their position," he said.

El-Zayyat claimed that the militants who were extradited to Egypt are "not influential. The important leaders were careful from the start and did not apply for political asylum [in Europe]. They chose to take refuge in the fields and mountains of Afghanistan," he said.

The Luxor attack, El-Zayyat said, has proved that a security confrontation alone is not enough to deal with the problem. Under the new security policy, he added, police have shown greater respect for the law while making arrests, treatment has improved in prisons and some detained militants have been released. "Although the freed militants are not significant figures, we are satisfied. It is a step which has opened the way for building up a sort of trust," he said.

But the new policy continues to spurn open dialogue between the government and the militants, which could undermine the state's prestige, he added.