Shooting Demonstrators

NDP MPs Call upon the

Police to Shoot Demonstrators!

Representatives in Egypt's People's Assembly have called upon the Police to shoot demonstrators with live bullets. These statements came during a Parliamentary session in Cairo. Nachaat El Kassas and Ahmed Akrab, members of the National Democratic Party (NDP), as well as Ragab Helal Hemida, supposedly an opposition MP, said that it is acceptable to kill scores of demonstrators to safeguard the country's vital interests! The People's Assembly is Egypt's lower chamber of the Parliament.

In a joint session between Human Rights' Committee and Defense and National Security's Committee of Egypt's parliament, members of the ruling party blamed minister of Interiors for not firing at activists who demonstrated on 6th April because they are employed by foreign powers to push Egypt, according to the NDP MPs, into creative chaos, Condoleezza Rice style! Nachaat El Kassas asked, "what is this 6 April Movement? And for how much longer are we going to tolerate these illegal organizations?" Nachaat El Kassas then addressed deputy minister of interiors present at the joint session, saying: "There are 80 million Egyptians. We can tolerate losing a few rotten ones!"

The joint session hearing was originally held to question the Deputy Minister of Interiors about reports of heavy-handed handling of demonstrators and human rights abuses as police crushed the peaceful demonstration, arresting over 90 protestors and beating up activists including Ayman Nour's own son, Nour, who was besieged amongst other members of El Ghad Party including Ayman Nour himself. At one point Nour Ayman was captured by the security but release shortly after. But instead of blaming the police for violence, NDP members decided that the police was too soft in dealing with the activists!

Nachaat El Kassas continued exclaiming: "why use water canons?", asking the deputy minister to "fire at these outlaws!" according to the MP's own words!

Ragab Helal Hemida, supposedly an opposition MP, claimed that most of the demonstrators are financed by foreign money. "They (demonstrators) deceive our people with false dreams ... they want creative chaos, Condoleza Rice' style. Ministry of Interiors is to blame for not acting in full limits of the law, firing bullets at the demonstrators. Do we want to burn down an entire country but not accept a few to fall?". Ragab Helal Hemida, was once a member of El Ghad Party before being allegedly lured by the regime's security apparatus to suspend the Party's newspaper and replace Editor in Chief, Egypt's top opposition journalist, Ibrahim Eisa, with writers more loyal to the regime. Ragab Hemida then allegedly conspired to splinter El Ghad Party by creating a faction loyal to the regime which was dismissed by majority of El Ghad Party members. Ragab Hemida then won a seat in the Parliament during 2005 elections where cases of rigging and irregularities were widely reported.

These statements were met with an uproar in the Egyptian media. Realizing the gravity of the situation, even NDP top officers, were quick to denounce these statements. Ayman Nour and others filed complaints with Egypt's General Attorney against the aforementioned parliament members for instigating murder of innocent Egyptian Citizens.

The Writer is a Co-founder of El Ghad Party

First Published at Huffington Post

Terms of Endearment

Mubarak Gets Only 39%

Support on His Own

Facebook Fan Page

By:

Wael Nawara

On his own Facebook fan page, only 39% of those who participated in a poll that is hosted on the same page said they would vote for Mubarak for another term (a 6th Term), while 52% said they would not elect him and 7% were undecided. The fan page has only about 1,284 fans. To put this in perspective, Amr Mousa, Egyptian ex-Foreign Minister, currently serving as Secretary General for the Arab League, has 4,626 fans, Ayman Nour who came second in 2005 Egyptian Presidential Elections and who has just been released from jail, has 817 fans on his page, King Abdullah of Jordan has over 23 thousand fans while Barack Obama has over 6 million fans. Nancy Ajram, a Lebonese female Singer has over 151 thousand fans and Amr Diab, an Egyptian male singer has 115 thousand fans.

The poll on Mubarak's fan page asked this question: “Will you vote for President Honsi Mubarak for another Term?”. Seeing results of the poll, Egyptian Facebookers comments were hilarious. Someone said, "I was born and he (Mubarak) is a president, I just have one wish. On the day of my death, I hope he is not a president". Another said, “Is there still in the bag yet another term?”. Mubarak has been in office for the past 28 years, since 1981. About 60% of Egyptians have never known another President. Mubarak, who is 81 years old, has recently “vowed” to stay in office as long as he breathes! “As long as my heart beats, I will stay”, were his very words in an address to the Egyptian People's Assembly, widely dominated by members of his ruling party the NDP. The honorable members applauded this announcement of their boss who is "promising" to stay as a president till the very last pulse as if it was a precious gift. Mubarak celebrates his 81st birthday on the coming 4th of May.

Youth of the 6th April movement vowed to give him a host of birthday gifts this year. Last year, 6th April youth called for a general strike on 4th May 2008 to commemorate Mubarak’s 80th Birthday and protest sky-rocketing prices and high rates of inflation. Mubarak made a pre-emptive strike by announcing a 30% increase in wages to curb the strike. Because of this and other factors, the 4th May 2008 strike was not as successful as the 6th 2008 April strike which was also a novelty. The sequel strikes, including that on 6th April 2009, which was declared as “Day of Rage”, never seemed to match the original strike in intensity. The fact that the government had to increase the wages and respond to many of the strikers’ demands is surely seen as a sign of success. The success of 6th April strike of 2008 is also seen as a milestone and a sign of change to come, that a few individuals using viral communication and social utility tools like the Facebook can break the state-owned media blackout, amass great popular support and exert critical political pressure on authoritarian regimes.


The level of support for Mubarak’s next term (39%) is probably higher than the real level of support, since the Poll is hosted on Mubarak’s own fan page. There are about one million Egyptians using Facebook out of about 10 millions who have “some” access to the Internet one way or another. In a recent online poll conducted on this blog, 89% of participants thought that the “People’s Assembly” does not truly represent them as Egyptians. So, I would say congratulations are in order for the President.

See the page and the poll result before they are removed. Snap-shot taken on April 18th 2009, at noon, Cairo Local Time:


http://www.facebook.com/pages/-/27537274055#/pages/-/27537274055?v=wall&viewas=691420567

Day of Rage

Day of Rage

By:
Wael Nawara

Columns and Columns of heavy police carriers moved in downtown, days ago in anticipation. Arrests were made in various governorates. Regime-sponsored attempts to discredit the movement and the youth organizing it utilized huge billboards all over Cairo amongst many other free media. Rage, however, was unstoppable.


“Where are our national resources? What did you do with our money?” Chanted demonstrators at the footsteps of the Press Syndicate, led by Kamal Khalil and much younger leaders of the youth protest movement of “6 April”. “Egypt is a rich country”, explained one of the protestors, almost to himself. “It has been systematically robbed off by successive corrupt regimes. The fact that we can still find bread to eat despite corruption and misgovernment, is a testament to Egypt’s unbelievable wealth.”


“How many terms do you want?” another series of chants broke off. After 28 years in office, in the middle of a staggering fifth term, no one has any sympathy left to Mubarak’s claims that “stability comes first”. Egyptians seem to have had “Enough” of this brand of stability. “Stability, stability, whenever we demand change they flash out the stability card. Their stability in the seats of power has meant stagnation for Egypt and poverty for Egyptians. Enough is enough.” Another protestor explained. The yellow signs of “Kifaya”, literally meaning “Enough” were in abundance, in various shapes and forms. Kifaya leaders participated in the chanting.

A Folkloric piece of chants was to follow. It portrayed key symbols of corruption and their infamous deeds. From bribery filling one guy’s oversized belly, unconstitutional laws tailor-made by another of the regime’s men, specially designed to sustain the power monopoly, corruption and enhance the regime’s grip on things, to cancer-causing pesticides imported, widely distributed and sponsored yet by another of the those high officials. There was a special verse for NDP leaders accused of abuse of power in building steel monopolies and other lucrative cartels and concessions. The chanting went on.


The chants then turned to the poor conditions of the soldiers working in the security and compared the meager wages of the soldiers to the generous benefits of their superiors. A smart move to win the troops hearts! Apparently there was no need for that tactic. Many of the police officers on the scene could not hide their unspoken sympathy with the cause of the protestors. Soldiers and officers, everyone suffers from the high prices and the stinking corruption at the highest levels. Abdel halim Kandil, Kamal Khalil, Mohamed Abdel Koddos and Ayman Nour were amongst the hundreds of demonstrators, barricaded by thousands of security forces. But the majority of the protestors were from a young angry generation that has never known any president but Mubarak. They carried Egyptian flags, hand-made banners of protest, Kifaya signs, and many wore orange scarves distinctive of El Ghad Party members.

And so on went the day. Hours earlier Ayman Nour, George Ishak, Anwar Sadat and a few other opposition leaders announced the release of “Cairo Declaration” at the State Commissioners Court, the highest administrative court in Egypt, demanding election of a national assembly responsible for drafting a new constitution which can guaranty dignity, liberty and human rights for every Egyptian while limiting the wide powers enjoyed by the presidential establishment. Esraa Abdel Fattah and other young activists who started the 6th April movement in 2008 on Facebook also read articles of the ten-point declaration. The ten-point declaration demanded freedom of the press and election of all officials from village mayors to the president through a clean, transparent and democratic process. Ayman Nour announced that “We shall engage other opposition streams in developing a final version of this preliminary draft. We will then go door-to-door, to every Egyptian village, town and city to ask for support from our fellow Egyptians and collect as many signatures as we can on this declaration. The time for change has come and we shall together work to make it happen. If these demands are not met within the next twelve months, we call for a general strike and a state of civil disobedience on 6th April 2010, exactly one year from today.” Ayman Nour stands behind the idea of the Cairo Declaration and for the past month worked on gathering support around it. The same demands were announced at the Lawyers Syndicate and at several other governorates all over Egypt simultaneously.

One word. Rage. But will this rage continue to gather momentum as to actually put sufficient weight behind this demands? Or will the regime manage to bleed off a wee bit of the pressure with some phony appearances of reform and meanwhile buy time to survive for a few more years as it has skillfully managed to do for decades? Will opposition truly stand united behind a unified goal and engage the average Egyptian man and woman to support the cause of reform? I think the answer to this very last question will determine the fate and fruits of this rage over the coming days, weeks and months.

Captain de Sade Trial on Facebook

محاكمة شعبية

للنقيب المتهم بضرب

وسحل شباب الغد

و 6 إبريل

من مذكرات

أحمد نصار
التي يصف فيها
ما حدث من النقيب
عبد العزيز مهابة
مباحث أمن الدولة بالأسكندرية

يوم 23 يوليو 2008

النقيب عبد العزيز وهو ايضا احد ظباط امن الدوله بالاسكندريه الذى قام بالقبض علينا بطريقه بشعه ونحن على رصيف بحر سيدى بشر نغنى اغانى وطنيه يحتفل بعضنا بذكرى 23 يوليو ، حيث هجم هو ومخبريه علينا وهددونا بالامواس واعتدوا علينا وامرونا ان ننام على وجوهنا على رصيف البحر وكنا ننام فوق بعضنا البعض فتذكرنا جميعا ما حدث للاخوة العراقيين من تعذيب على ايدى قوات الاحتلال الامريكى بسجن ابو غريب بالعراق ، ثم امر
هذا الضابط السادى مخبريه ان يضعوا ارجلهم على رقابنا واجسادنا وقام بتمزيق علم مصر والبصق عليه قائلا طظ فى مصر ، ثم وجدته يسال" احمد عراقى
فييييييييييييييين؟"

مش عارف مين ابن الناس الطيبه اللى قاله اهو فهجم عليا وضربنى بجزمته فى وجهى ضربه
قويه ولكنى لم اهتز ، ثم اخذ يضرب اخر ويقول له عاملى بطل يا احمد يا ماهر والغلبان
اللى بيضرب يقوله مش انا احمد ماهر والله ما انا، ثم تم اقتيادنا جميعا الى قسم الرمل اول حيث تم الاعتداء علينا بالضرب والسب من قبل النقيب عبد العزيز الذى جعلنا
نقف اكثر من 7 ساعات وجوهنا للحائط رافضين اعطائنا الماء

قد نفهم - بصعوبة - أن ضباط أمن الدولة يؤدون واجبهم ويطيعون الأوامر بتحجيم نشطاء الحركة الوطنية المصرية واعتقالهم


وهؤلاء نقول لهم

اسم الجهاز الذي تعملون به هو
جهاز مباحث أمن الدولة
وليس أمن النظام
ووظيفتكم هي
حماية أمن الدولة
لا تحويل الدولة إلى دولة بوليسية

دولة أمن


وهذا كله كوم
وعلى جنب لوحده



ولكن أن يصل الأمر بأحد
الضباط أن يتلذذ بضرب
وسحل وتعذيب وإهانة شباب وشابات مصر


هنا نقول


قف مكانك
نحن لا نسدد راتبك المتضخم
من قوت أولادنا
كي تعذب أو تهين أولادنا


وإذا ثبت ما يقال في حقك
فمكانك وراء القضبان
مثل اي مجرم معتدي

أو في المصحة العقلية
مثل اي مريض سادي


ولن ينفعك وزير أو رئيس

إلى كل شرطي
أو مسئول

يظن أن منصبه
يحميه من الملاحقة القانونية

نقول له



فكر مرة أخرى
اطلب استشارة قانونية ودية من أحد أصدقائك المحامين
لأنك أنت على ما يبدو قد نسيت القانون الذي كان من المفترض أن تتعلمه
ووطأت بحذائك الدستور الذي أقسمت وأقسم رئيسك ورؤساؤه على احترامه




العدالة سوف تصل إليك
وستجلب العار

على نفسك وعلى أبنائك وأهلك
لأنك استمرأت إذلال أهلك
وبهذه الجريمة سوف تهلك


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ادع كل أصدقائك للمشاركة في هذه المحاكمة الشعبية
والمطالبة بتقديم هذا الضابط لمحاكمة جنائية


http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=20682357511



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ارسل هذه الرسالة لكل أصدقائك
انشرها في الجروبات التي أنت مشترك فيها