GV Special Coverage Page - Egypt

Global Voices have launched a Special Coverage page for Egypt , the General Strike and it´s aftermath as to follow events as they develop. Thanks Amira, Solana, Ethan, Rebecka and everybody else at GV. You can find it here. Right now a piece by Lasto Adri is featured(originally by Ahmed in Arabic). It´s about the American student at the AUC , Sounilla who got caught up in the 6th of April demonstration on his way to the University, and snatched into a car , arrested and interogated.

Second fatal victim in Mahalla and George Ishak arrested

Masry al youm reports this morning of a 20-year-old man who died of bullet shots to his brain and chest. He was taken to hospital on Sunday evening were he died last night after having recieved intensive care since his admition according to the doctor who treated him at the hospital.

Ahmed al Sayed Abdel Kader was a tailor and was closing his shop when the demonstrations started on Sunday and he was caught up in the riots. This is to my knowledge yet to be confirmed by the authorities.

Is the victim the same person as the 20-year old that has circulated around blogs together with a nine year old the last couple of days?

According to the same news story 2000 people participated in a demonstration in front of the police station, the demonstrators were demanding that the detained should be released, the bulk of the protesters were relatives of the arrested.

(Sloppy reporting by me - i happened to state that there were 2000 arrested earlier, when in fact 2000 people participated in the demonstration outside the Mahalla Police Station, demanding the release of the detained). There is a slight difference in meaning between the English translation of the al Masry al Youm piece and the Arabic original.

Many of those that took part in the demonstrations on April 6-7 as well as those arrested seem to be youngsters, judging from photos here and here and reports

George Ishaq arrested

In another related development George Ishaq, the former Co-ordinator of Kefaya, was arrested yesterday morning.

Hossam al Hamalawy(you´re doing a terrific job) has translated the original arabic HMLC statement:

George Ishaaq, leading Kefaya activist had just returned home in El Bostan street, Cairo after a long day of preparation for a Kefaya conference to reply to the allegation of the Egyptian government regarding the recent Mahalla demonstrations on the 6th and 7th of April, when state security officers broke into his house searching all his papers and books. Ishaaq was alone. They confiscated papers and books from his library and seemed especially interested in “The Butterfly’s Flutter” by political activist Ahmed Bahaa Shabaan, a book which describes the evolution, nature and future of the Kefaya movement. SSI also took Ishaaq’s mobile phone and prevented him from contacting anybody. After about an hour of search his wife arrived and found them all over her house. For a moment she thought she must be in the wrong place. Irritated by the heavy police presence in her house and their rude manners she asked them to leave the house. They refused. When they tried to take the computer of her son Shady, she refused and insisted that the computer belongs to her son and not his father. They demanded to see her mobile. She denied using a mobile, upon which SSI arrested George Ishaaq and took him to a place, that remains unknown until now.

Hisham Mubarak Law Center has more on the charges on George Ishaq:
The Charges brought against George Isaac

The leading Kefaya member George Isaac was charged with plotting popular assembly in complicity with others with the purpose of assaulting people, public properties as well as using force and violence with the purpose of influencing public authority. So, according to the aforementioned charge, the Public Prosecution Office accused Isaac of the following charges:
The premeditated subversion of buildings and public properties with the purpose of enforcing chaos and resisting authorities, disrupting and jeopardizing the safety of public traffic, setting fire to residential buildings and shops, looting, and assaulting others.

Really ridiclious and pathetic allegations.

It´s not really that common that senior leaders of Kefaya faces arrest, but the authorities have other ways of making there prescence felt. Just about a month before the historic first Kefaya demonstration in November 2004 Abdel Halim Qandil was snatched on a Cairo street in broad daylight, driven to a location in the desert outside of Cairo and told in no uncertain terms to mind his own business, then finally stripped of his clothes and left on his own. This January, the new co-ordinator Abdel Wahab al Messiri faced the same ordeal when he, his wife and other activists was taken from a Kefaya demonstration in January 2008 protesting high prices, and in what could have been a re-run of what happend to Qandil, they were also driven out in the desert outside of Cairo, and left on their own. The only difference being that he was not threatened with a knife as well as verbaly, beaten up and stripped naked.

Here is an AP newswire by Pakinam Amer on the story and another one with a personal touch by CNN´s Ben Wedeman.

According to Kefaya, 61 of their members have been aerrested since the 4th of April.

UPDATE - George Ishaq is relaesed after paying 10 000 E.P for bail, pending his trial. He is not allowed to travel during that time according to a security official. - One of his associates got the usual 15 days of detention , while the other was awaiting the opinion of the medical comittee, to see if his health was good enough to face detention. The charges against all three men - inciting unrest and violence could give up to 10 years long prison sentences. More on this soon.

Also some disturbing news about photographer James Buck in Mahalla. Whose photos i have linked to in my previous post.

Friday noon

Another very gifted photographer, Nasser Nouri that have been providing us with images from day one in Mahalla has also been arrested according to Hossam´s twitter account just two hours ago, and is being held at Police Station I.

I have limited time right now, but would like to include a translate booklet about the wawe of strikes that has been translated into English. Hossam provided the link once again (Thanks!). It´s written by two journalists from al Doustor and al Badeel, Mostafa Bassiouni and Omar Said and is : on the “Egyptian new workers’ movement: the strike wave of 2007“… you can find the English translation here .

I also want give you the link to an al Jazeera inside story on the day of the General Strike, April 6th, it´s in two parts here (part 1) and part 2. Discusssing the matter is Dr Maged Reda Boutrous, Dr Rabab al Mahdi and Dr Saad Eddin Ibrahim. I can´t help to think that Dr Maged is a blessing in disguise for everybody who wants democracy in Egypt. Every time he´s on international media, he makes anyone look like a super star, when matched against him.

When pictures speaks louder than words - Mahalla

In solidarity with the people and textile workers of Mahalla and activists, including bloggers arrested before, during and after the General strike. I want to point to Per Bjorklund´s photos from Mahalla. James Buck´s photos are also well worth a look.

Police using tear gas and rubber bullets on it´s citizens, is an ample description of the state´s attitude towards it´s people. To them Egyptians are only subjects that are supposed to do what they are told. We are still very far from an inclusive understanding of citizenry, where people have both rights and obligations, and not the other way around, that is the state have every right to do whatever it deems necessary to protect it´s interest, but no obligations what so ever. The social contract is broken over and over again. A basic right is the right to strike, of course due to the ever present Emergency laws, those righs are infringed upon. It will be interesting to see if that will change, when the EL is supposed to be replaced by the new anti-terrorism law this coming May. I´m quite sure that all of us can figure out the answer to that question..

UPDATE: Authorities confirmed today that 15-year-old Ahmed Hamada died in the clashes, presumably Monday. He is the only confirmed fatal casualty by the authorities. More on Ahmed Hamada can be found here, as well as coverage of state security hampering an al Jazeera crew from doing there job when P.M Ahmed Nazif came to town on Tuesday. the same happend to a reporter from the local as Saa.

In an attempt to solve the crisis in Mahalla , PM Ahmed Nazif traveled to the delta City on Tuesday, to speak with workers and managment. He promised to provide them with the bonuses, Maggie Michael from A.P provides us with reactions from the PM´s day in Mahalla :

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif hurried to Mahalla al-Kobra on Tuesday with several top economic ministers to meet with workers at the 50-year-old, state-owned Misr Spinning and Weaving factory complex that employs 25,000 people.

"We know Mahalla is suffering and you have passed through many crises," Nazif told them. "But it is through crises that men prove their mettle."

He announced they would receive a bonus of 30 days' pay and promised to address their demands for better health care and higher wages.

Workers in the hall cheered. But afterward, many were skeptical.

"What Nazif has said, we've heard it all before — what's new? They really have no idea how we suffer here," said Rashad Fathi, a factory worker who said his monthly wage of $34 was not enough to feed his four children.

Rashad Fathi´s salary of 34 USD/month means that he lives far below the UN poverty line of 2 USD/day, just like 20 per cent of Egypt´s population. Twenty per cent more lives slightly abowe that. On top of that food prices has hiked 50 percent since January 1st.

Here is an al Jazeera English report from Sunday.



Global Voices has good coverrage in two important posts. The first by Amira al Husseini about the arrest of blogger/activist Malek and Mustafa Khalil from Kifeya a day prior to the general strike. and the second by Eman AbdELRahman, Including a clip, originally posted by Ghariba

UPDATE: Amira al Husseini has a third installment of Global Voices coverage, and it makes me asking myself, did i do enough? The Egyptian blogospere collectively did certainly do much more than enough! As always, one is very proud and fortunate enough to be a small part of this.

Issam al Aryan op-ed on the Local Elections

The Muslim Brotherhood´s leading middle generation leader and head of the Political Bureau, Issam al Aryan has an op-ed in Forward on the Local Elections on Tuesday, April 8th.

We get to follow a MB candidate who is trying to run for a seat in the village Qawekeyya in the Delta. Muhamamed Shawkat al Malt, a 50 year old lawyer and blogger is one of several thousand candidates who tried to register their candidacy, but were ignored or turned down by the authorities, and like many he has filed a court appeal to make it on the ballot. An endeaouvor likely to be ignored and be in vain when the local elections is held on Tuesday. Read the full article by Fleishman/el Hennawy in today´s LA Times here.

In another development the Muslim Brotherhood decided on Thursday to give their moral support to the organizers of the General strike called for Sunday, 6th of April.

"We are with the strike as a means of expression and peaceful protest in the face of the despotic and suppressive actions of the executive authority,"

The 24 000 workers of Mahalla al Kubra´Misr Spinning and Weaving Company is striking on Sunday in protest of low wages.This has been a focal point of labour strikes for well over a year.

Kifayya is also organizing a demonstration in support of the workers in Giza on the same day.