Security alert
Hundreds of anti-war activists and demonstrators have reportedly been detained following clashes with police. Officials told Jailan Halawi that they are merely reacting to security threats
As the US-led war on Iraq began last week, Egypt's Interior Ministry was in a state of maximum alert, with an enhanced security presence visible throughout the country's various governorates, as well as at ports, borders, and vital installations.
In Cairo, police were out in force, particularly around the US and British embassies, considered primary targets of anti-war demonstrators. Almost all of the side streets leading into the Garden City suburb where the embassies are located were blocked by security cordons, and only residents were allowed to go through after their identities had been verified.
Just a few hours after the "Iraq freedom" operation began on Thursday 20 March, thousands of protestors gathered at downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square, just a couple hundred metres away from the embassies. As the day went on, whenever the demonstrators tried to cross the police cordons to get closer to the embassy, clashes -- involving water cannons and occasional rock throwing -- occurred between security forces and protestors.
The next day things got considerably more out of hand. Following Friday prayers, demonstrations began outside Al-Azhar Mosque, as protestors again attempted to break through police lines and march towards Tahrir Square and the embassies.
The violence that subsequently occurred resulted in conflicting reports about how it started, and exactly how many people ended up injured and arrested as a result.
According to official reports, the clashes that broke out occurred when demonstrators hurled stones at anti-riot police and set a fire engine ablaze. Police responded by arresting almost a hundred rioters, although some were then released.
Although the exact number of arrested demonstrators remains unconfirmed, 35 were reportedly remanded in custody on charges of illegal assembly, damaging public property, deliberately setting a fire engine ablaze, inciting strife and inflicting violence on police forces using stones and empty bottles. Twelve people, including eight lawyers, are also reported to be in custody on charges of obstructing traffic on Ramsis Street.
Prosecutors are currently interrogating 27 others on similar charges of inciting strife, which investigators say resulted in the damage and destruction of a number of downtown bazaars and five-star hotel windows. This group is also being investigated for allegedly injuring dozens of policemen, who have been hospitalised.
According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, however, up to 800 people have been detained, including journalists, university professors, students, innocent bystanders, as well as children as young as 15 years old. The report said that hundreds of protestors were injured when security forces used water cannons, truncheons, dogs, and even stones against the demonstrators.
According to an eye-witness who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly, it was plain-clothes police agents who set a fire engine ablaze on Friday afternoon, and orchestrated the violence so that "police would have a pretext" to ban demonstrations.
In response, a top ranking security official speaking to the Weekly on customary condition of anonymity, denied these allegations, describing them as "imaginary claims". According to this source, the government has been allowing peaceful demonstrations to occur since last September, and thus it is unbelievable that "as security personnel, we would be the ones to incite violence".
Responding to allegations that police have beaten demonstrators, he said, "our forces have been working overtime to secure the nation. They are deployed in the streets away from their families only to enforce the law. We are in a totally reactive mode, only responding to illegal acts, and that does not mean making illegal arrests."
On Friday night, Interior Minister Habib El-Adli issued a statement saying that as part of the ministry's continuing efforts to curb any act of violence or incitement of strife, demonstrators will have to obtain a permit indicating the time and place of their assembly.
Under Emergency Law, street protests are banned in Egypt, with demonstrations permitted only on university campuses or in mosque complexes. With security raised to the highest levels, anti-riot police forces were deployed outside university campuses to prevent demonstrators from moving onto the streets.
In statements to the media on Sunday after an extended meeting with his cabinet President Hosni Mubarak said: "We do not object to some of the demonstrations which are taking place, and we want to reassure every citizen that his country has done its utmost to avoid war. There is no need for citizens to demonstrate and destroy property because this is very dangerous, and we will have to compensate the owners, even though our budget is [suffering] because of a near halt in tourism, a drop in exports and a scarcity of foreign currency."
Further, the president stressed that "while the citizens have every right to express themselves... they need not do it in an aggressive manner."
As Egyptians, Mubarak urged, "we must be fully aware of our country's interests and keep them at the forefront." The president said the government is just as frustrated as citizens are, "but expression of these feelings should not endanger domestic security."
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 27 March - 2 April 2003 (Issue No. 631)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/631/eg9.htm