Egypt topped developing countries in arms imports in 2015 - Sisi continues to squander national budget

Mada Masr
US report: Egypt topped developing countries in arms imports in 2015

December 27, 2016

 
Egypt imported US$5.3 billion worth of arms in 2015, more than any other developing country, according to a report released this month by Congressional Research Service, a public policy research arm of the United States Congress.

Egypt also came second among developing countries in 2015 arms transfer agreements — agreements that were signed but not necessarily delivered — signing agreements worth $11.9 billion. Qatar ranked first, with agreements worth $17.5 billion.

According to the report, which traces arms sales to developing nations between 2008 and 2015, Egypt signed arms transfers agreements totaling $30 billion, coming third after Saudi Arabia and India.

Egypt ranked sixth among developing countries in total arms transfers agreements between 2008 and 2011, worth $8.6 billion. The US was the biggest arms exporter to Egypt in this period, with 79 percent of total arms transfer agreements, followed by China then Russia.

In the same period, Egypt’s actual arms imports reached $5 billion, the fifth largest among developing countries. Between 2012 and 2015, Egypt ranked fourth in arms imports at a total of $9.8 billion, preceded by Saudi, India and Iraq. The report indicates that Egypt’s arms transfer agreements for this period reached $21.5 billion.

Western European countries and Russia were major arms exporters to Egypt in this period, with 43 percent of agreements respectively, then came the US with 6 percent.

The report revealed that US and Russia were major arms exporters to developing countries in the period between 2012 and 2015, with 81 percent of the total arms transfer agreements.

In 2015 only, Qatar topped the developing nations signing arms transfer agreements with $17.5 billion, followed by Egypt with $11.9 billion, Saudi with $8.6 billion, then South Korea with $5.4 billion.

Arms transfer agreements signed by Egypt in 2015 represented 15 percent of total agreements signed worldwide, which reached $80 billion, according to the report.

But the database of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has shown that Egypt’s arms imports between 2011 and 2015 reached just $3.4 billion, ranking 12th worldwide.

A report published by London-based global analysis firm IHS Markit. indicated that Egypt’s military imports reached $2.268 billion in 2015, making it the world’s fourth-largest defense importer.

Egypt receives $1.3 billion in annual military aid from the US, and under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi it has also made major purchases from other exporting countries, including Russia and France.

High-profile deals include a 2015 agreement with France to purchase 5.2 billion euro worth of military equipment, including 24 Rafale fighter jets and a naval frigate, and a contract with Russian firm Rosoboronexport to buy 46 attack helicopters.

Sweet lord have mercy upon the world!

The very worst of this bloody world!

Together we will ruin everything

 Oh' Ye Fuckers!

 

Further devolution of the American state & voter

 

"Representative democracy" with only 2 parties + an electoral college =

Trump in White House 

2015: A Year of Animal Headlines in Egypt

Mada Masr

A year of animals making headlines

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Jano Charbel 

Animals proved to be veritable news-makers in Egypt in 2015: From monkey antics on the streets of Nasr City to aggressive airport cats, and from calls to give up meat in protest at rising prices to calls to take up camel meat as an alternative, animals made headlines throughout the year.

Local residents chasing monkeys in the streets in Cairo’s eastern district of Nasr City came to public attention in March. Over a dozen moneys escaped from a veterinary hospital, wreaking havoc, jumping onto ledges of buildings, windowsills, and into trees.

Some outlets reported that 14 monkeys – with others reporting 18 – escaped together from a clinic into a highly populated urban landscape.

Some residents of Nasr City reported that these monkeys rampaged through their urban gardens, eating and destroying some vegetation.

Some users of social networking sites in Nasr City called for poisoning the monkeys while others proposed non-lethal ways of capturing them, such as luring them into cages.

A local resident tweeted: “We should welcome the monkeys and let them live among us like the street dogs do.”

How these monkeys were ultimately captured or apprehended was not subsequently reported on.

Then there was the donkey who made his way to Cairo International Airport on April 27. After breaching fences and several lines of security, the donkey reportedly found its way to Terminal 3. For two days, the donkey lingered around the parking lot as talk-show hosts discussed the issue.

 
“The donkey was chased out by the police and security personnel at the airport,” a statement by the airport police force's general directorate read, adding that the donkey is believed to belong to one of the garbage collectors who frequent the area surrounding the airport.

A source at the airport described the incident at the time to privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm as an “unprecedented scandal,” that can only be an indication of “serious flaws in the performance of the Ministries of Interior and Civil Aviation.”

According to the anonymous source, it was not the first time this donkey had breached security surrounding the airport.

Photos and videos of the donkey wandering through the parking lot at the airport were widely circulated on social media platforms. Several users suggested that even donkeys want to leave the country. “Donkey emigration … The donkey headed to Terminal 3 in hopes of leaving Egypt and its problems behind.”

In a separate incident in Terminal 3 of Cairo Airport, the chief quarantine officer there told media outlets that four EgyptAir employees were injured when a male cat violently attacked them on September 30. This cat had been sheltering in a storage room, and reportedly pounced upon the employees as they were attempting to remove some items from storage. Scratching and biting them, this aggressive kitty left his mark on the four employees.

Associated Press reported that authorities and staff were trying to capture a “rebellious feline” running around through the airport – ahead of a visit by representatives of the International Civil Aviation Organization. AP reported that as of October 28, airport staff were still chasing the cat around, unable to catch it. Passengers and airport staff had reportedly been feeding it.
AP added that airport authorities had declared the cat to be “persona non grata.”

Camels also captured headlines this year. An escaped camel ran loose through the new campus of the American University in Cairo (AUC) in May after jumping out a vehicle and then running through the campus gates.

When American porn actress Carmen De Luz posted a photo of herself in skimpy underwear on a camel during a visit to the Giza Pyramids, local media outlets reported that she was shooting an erotic film by the historic site.

 
An investigation ensued and De Luz apologized on her Twitter account for any inconvenience that her actions may have caused.

In other news, camel meat — which is not widely consumed as a source of protein in Egypt — is being promoted as an alternative to beef and other red meats, which is growing increasingly costly and beyond the means of many Egyptians. The state-owned Al-Gomhuriyya has recently been encouraging the expansion of the camel meat industry, indicating it currently represents just 2 percent of domestic meat consumption.

Some nutrition specialists have even been questioning the use of donkey meat as a source of protein. Speaking on a talk-show broadcast on Al-Assema satellite channel in June, Hussein Mansour, president of Egypt’s National Food Safety Agency, commented that donkey meat is indeed mixed-in among other meats and sold at some markets and restaurants in order to cut their expenses.

The only way to ensure that donkey meat — or that of cats or dogs — was not being mixed into minced beef was to conduct DNA tests on samples, he said.

With the cost of beef ranging between LE35 per kilo (for lower grade meat) and LE100, a popular campaign emerged in August to boycott red meats altogether.

The campaign dubbed ‘Balaha Lahma,’ which loosely translates as “Let’s forget about meat,” encouraged consumers to refrain from purchasing meat with the aim of forcing the meat industry to bring down its prices to affordable levels. While this campaign picked up steam prior to the Eid al-Adha holiday when sheep are traditionally slaughtered, and even received mainstream media attention, it does not appear to have made much of an impact on the market prices of meat, or the population’s dietary habits.

Also related to the Eid al-Adha holiday and the consumption of livestock, poet Fatima Naoot stood trial this year on charges of blasphemy due to her critical online postings regarding the ritual slaughter of animals on this Islamic festival commemorating Abraham’s sacrifice of a sheep rather than his son.

Naoot’s trial began in January, after a lawsuit was filed against her by a conservative lawyer. In late 2014, Naoot had written, “Millions of innocent creatures have been driven to the most horrible massacres committed by humans for ten and a half centuries,” Naoot wrote. “A massacre that is repeated every year because of the nightmare of a righteous man about his good son.”

The blasphemy charges leveled against Naoot were subsequently referred to another court - for which she could face up to three years imprisonment.

During the last week of this year, the appointment of a new governor in Alexandria has reportedly led to a policy of killing street dogs after complaints from residents about the dogs’ growing numbers and their barking.

The governor denied these allegations while municipal veterinary employees also denied their involvement claiming that they had stopped the practice of killing street animals with shotguns since the year 2011.

A hashtag emerged on social networking sites denouncing the new governor, “The Governor of Alexandria is a Butcher.”

Al-Masry Al-Youm reported that some animal rights activists even sent photos of these dead dogs to Vladimir Putin’s Facebook page as the Russian president is apparently a major dog-lover.

In March, a rare verdict against an act of animal cruelty was issued, in which the Shobra al-Kheima Criminal Court sentenced four men to three years imprisonment in association with the brutal killing of a street dog.

Another act of animal cruelty — resulting in the deaths of several cats — was not referred to trial. In November, cats that had previously roamed throughout the grounds of Cairo’s Ahly Sporting Club were found dead at the entrance.

The club’s media spokesperson initially denied the incident, claiming that a contracted company had only drugged the cats, but protests by club members and animal rights activists against Al-Ahly Club’s management ensued.

According to media reports, after samples from two of the dead cats were sent for veterinary forensic analysis, the results revealed that poison had been put in their food. An official complaint was filed at the local police station, and the Qasr al-Nil District Prosecutor was notified of the vet’s findings, but the incident has not been referred to trial.

Cat killings, reportedly on a larger scale, have also taken place at Cairo’s Gezira Sporting Club in previous years. Similarly, this has resulted in outrage and protests, but no trials.

However, a cartoon animal – Mickey Mouse — did result in a trial and sentencing this year. In October, a military court sentenced 22-year-old army conscript Amr Nohan to three years imprisonment after he digitally altered an image of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, putting Mickey Mouse ears atop his head, and posted it on his Facebook account.

Nohan was then charged and reportedly found guilty of defaming the president and conspiring to overthrow the ruling regime.

Egypt: Labor Unrest from North to South

Mada Masr
Labor unrest from north to south

As 2015 draws to a close, worker protests are building momentum across the country

Saturday, December 19, 2015 

 

Jano Charbel

 

 

Thousands of workers across the country are protesting against what they call unjust employment practices, and an associated spate of industrial actions has picked up steam in recent weeks.

Protests have been concentrated at the Suez Canal Authority, at hotels and resorts in the Red Sea town of Sharm el-Sheikh, the Shebin al-Kom Textiles Company in Monufiya, across several governorates in the branches of the state-owned Petrotrade Company, and a fertilizer company in the Upper Egyptian City of Assiut.

In Suez, 2,000 workers employed by companies affiliated with the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) have been holding sit-in protests and partial strikes for close to two weeks.

Labor protests have been ongoing since December 8 at six out of the seven subsidiary companies that are administratively — but not financially — managed by the SCA. These subsidiary maritime companies offer the SCA services including maintenance, transport, roping and docking.

Workers have staged partial strikes and sit-ins to protest low wages and insufficient bonuses, demanding parity with employees directly employed by the SCA.

“There are clear discrepancies between working conditions and incomes at the SCA and those of the seven affiliated companies,” argues Seoud Omar, a fulltime SCA employee living in Suez City. “There are even discrepancies among these seven companies — some generate profits, while others incur losses. This translates into several different pay-scales for employees along the Suez Canal.”

Omar says he stands in solidarity with workers protesting in Suez and the rest of the nation, but “parity remains a difficult goal to realize for all these workers in these different companies.”

SCA officials are currently in negotiations with the strikers and protesting workers in the hopes of reaching a settlement. Trade union organizer Galal al-Gizawy, who works for the Canal Port Company in Ismailia City, hopes the negotiations will take into consideration the concerns and demands of the subsidiary company employees, such as a unified pay-scale.

“We are seeking to suspend the strikes and protests,” he explains, "but we are also demanding complete parity with our fellow employees at the SCA.”

Senior employees at the subsidiary companies can earn up to LE3,000 a month, Gizawy says, but a worker doing the same job at the same level for the SCA can earn up to LE15,000, and “that’s not to mention the regular bonuses, housing compensation, medical care, and access to sporting clubs and other benefits granted to fulltime SCA employees," says Gizawy.

Workers in Sharm el-Sheikh have also been protesting, but their complaints are different — they’re fighting against mass layoffs at hotels and resorts as the tourism infrastructure there massively retracts.

Tourism in the coastal city was hard-hit after a Russian Metrojet airplane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula on October 31 shortly after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh Airport.

Red Sea tourism has reportedly incurred losses of LE2 billion a month after tourists fled Sharm in the wake of the crash and Russia banned direct flights to and from Egypt, Egyptian Tourism Authority chief Samy Mahmoud told the privately owned daily Al-Shorouk.

Russia confirmed the tragedy was caused by a terrorist attack perpetrated by Sinai-based militants.

Around 30 percent of Sharm's workforce has been let go since the disaster, Tourist Guides Syndicate Treasurer Ahmed Hassan told Al-Shorouk.

Tourism workers are reportedly now filing complaints with the Manpower Ministry claiming they were fired illegally. Hotel managers have allegedly claimed their hotels needed to undergo renovation as a pretext to lay off the workers, and shut down several wings of their establishments, while other hotels have closed altogether. Many of those that remain open are on the verge of bankruptcy.

The mass layoffs in Sharm are triggering fears of increased unemployment rates across Egypt, particularly in the tourism sector.

Workers in Qalyubia are also unhappy. Since Tuesday, dozens workers have been protesting over their unpaid wages in front of the gates of public-sector Egyptian Dredging Company located in the town of Abu Zaabal, the privately owned news site Al-Bawaba reported. They say they haven’t been paid in two months.

And at the Shebin al-Kom Textiles Company in Monufiya, the entire workforce of 1,500 people has been on strike for four days to demand the payment of overdue bonuses, better wages and management changes. In addition, a group of former Shebin al-Kom Textile workers who say they were punitively fired or pushed into early retirement have been conducting their own protests for over a week to demand their jobs back.

Workers were galvanized to escalate their protest actions into a full-scale strike when the company’s security guards allegedly physically assaulted and injured several protesting workers last Saturday, the privately owned Al-Watan newspaper and Veto news site reported.

“Everyday for the past eight days, we have been protesting, rallying and demanding reinstatement in our company,” says Shimy. “Despite a court order for our reinstatement in 2011, we have not received any notifications or any proposals for our reinstatement.”

In addition, “we are demanding accountability for the administrative board,” says fired worker Ragab al-Shimy, “as well as the necessary investments to return our company to its original productive capacity, as opposed to the nearly 50 percent capacity at which it is now working.”

Previously a public-sector company, the Shebin al-Kom Textile Company was privatized almost 10 years ago when it was sold to the Indonesian-based Indorama Textiles Company. After workers filed lawsuits claiming the company was sold at below-market value, the Indonesian investors began divesting and firing workers en masse. The company's production dramatically deteriorated under these conditions.

In 2011, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the company was sold for less than its real value and ordered that it return to the management of the state-owned Holding Company for Textile Industries. The court also ordered the new managers to reinstate workers who had been fired or pushed into early retirement under the Indonesian owners.

In Alexandria, Upper Egypt, and several other governorates, some 12,000 workers employed by the state-owned petroleum services company Petrotrade have been on strike for the past 10 days as they demand their profit shares, which they say have only been distributed to top administrative board members, the privately owned Al-Tahrir news site reported.

The striking workers are based in 56 centers and offices across the governorate, Al-Shorouk reported. They have allegedly declined the company’s offer to implement a new profit-sharing agreement by March 15 if they suspend their strike.

Workers have held several strikes and protests at Petrotrade’s different branches nationwide over the past five years, but the majority have been in Cairo. The wave of worker dissatisfaction only recently spread to the Alexandria branches.

In Upper Egypt, workers reportedly occupied the Assiut Fertilizer Company factory on Wednesday to protest the administrative board’s decision to dock 25 percent of their wages. These deductions came just days after administrators established a new educational evaluation and placement system, according to Al-Watan.

Meanwhile, doctors working at hospitals belonging to the state-owned Health Insurance Authority have been protesting since early last week to demand parity with their colleagues employed by Health Ministry hospitals, which would include improved wages, benefits and working conditions.

The Doctors Syndicate planned a protest outside their downtown Cairo headquarters on Saturday to show solidarity with the protesting doctors, reported the state-owned Al-Ahram. The physicians are reportedly planning to escalate their protest actions if their demands are not met.

A list of these demands was sent to the Health Insurance Authority as well as the Cabinet, and the official responses — or lack thereof — will likely determine the doctors’ future course of action.

 

 

*Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Russia plane crash due to terrorist attack - Russian Federal Security Service

RT News

Plane crash in Sinai a terrorist attack - Russian Security Service

17 Nov, 2015 

The Russian plane crash in Sinai, Egypt, was caused by a terrorist attack as traces of explosives have been found in the wreckage of the plane, Federal Security Service director Aleksandr Bortnikov told President Vladimir Putin.

“We can say that that [Sinai plane crash] was a terror act,” Bortnikov told Putin. According to the FSB chief, experts analyzed passengers’ belongings as well as the parts of the plane. “After the examination on all these objects, we have found traces of a foreign-made explosive substance,” Bortnikov said.

“During the flight, a homemade device with the power of 1.5 kilograms of TNT was detonated. As a result, the plane fell apart in the air, which can be explained by the huge scattering of the fuselage parts of the plane,” he added.

This not the first time that Russia has faced “barbarous terrorist crimes, more often without apparent causes, outside or domestic, as it was with the explosion at the railway station in Volgograd at the end of 2013,” He added: “We haven’t forgotten anything or anyone. The murder of our nationals in Sinai is among the bloodiest crimes in [terms of] the number of casualties.”

But Russia won’t be “wiping tears from our soul and heart,” he said. “This [tragedy] will stay with us forever. But this won’t stop us from finding and punishing the culprit.”

Vladimir Putin has vowed to find and punish the culprits behind the Sinai plane attack. “Our military work in Syria must not only continue. It must be strengthened in such a way so that the terrorists will understand that retribution is inevitable,” he said.

The Federal Security Service director also announced a reward of $50 million for information on those behind the terror attack on the A321.

The Russian president asked the Foreign Ministry to “call on all our [foreign] partners” to assist in the search for the terrorists behind the attack. “We look forward in the course of this work to [help from] all our friends, including in finding and punishing the criminals," he added.
 
Russia will act in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, which provides for countries’ right to self-defense, Putin said. “Those who attempt to assist criminals should be aware that the consequences of such attempts will be entirely their responsibility,” he added.

The Kogalymavia A321 air crash took place over the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt on October 31. All 224 people on board the plane were killed, making it the deadliest air accident in modern Russian aviation history.



*Photo by Alaa El Kassas, courtesy of Getty Images

Workers question state claims of only 12.8% unemployment rate

Mada Masr

Workers question official statistics on unemployment figures

Monday, November 16, 2015

Jano Charbel 

According to figures published on Sunday by the state’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), unemployment increased slightly in the third quarter of 2015, affecting 12.8 percent of the Egyptian workforce.

CAPMAS reports there are currently 3.6 million unemployed Egyptians. According to these findings, the Egyptian workforce currently numbers around 28 million (from a total domestic population of over 89.4 million, with another eight million reportedly living abroad.)

Worker and labor rights activists, however, are questioning CAPMAS’s latest figures, claiming they are inaccurate.

CAPMAS indicates that 12.8 percent represents a minor increase in the national unemployment rate, as the second quarter of 2015 had registered a rate of 12.7 percent. This increase translates into 78,000 additional unemployed workers and employees in the third quarter of this year.

The figures do show improvement compared to the same quarter last year, when the official unemployment rate was 13.1 percent.

However, Fatma Ramadan, an industrial-safety inspector at the Ministry of Manpower and independent union organizer, believes that the unemployment figures cited by CAPMAS "are inaccurate and have been largely downplayed."

“The real unemployment rate may be up to double that which they are currently claiming,” she asserts.

"We demand genuine and accurate statistics regarding unemployment, so that we can find genuine solutions to this national problem,” Ramadan explains.

“Apparently, this unemployment rate doesn't include or take into account factors such as seasonal unemployment, temporary employment, masked and hidden unemployment, or child labor.”

Among those not accounted for within the statistics are homemakers, domestic help, and many other workers in the informal sector.

“CAPMAS calculates unemployment rates based on the numbers of those actively seeking employment — primarily at the offices of the Ministry of Manpower," Ramadan explains. “What typically happens is that if a jobless worker doesn’t find a job opportunity through the ministry, they don’t keep coming back.”

Ramadan adds that these workers may instead seek job opportunities via private employment firms, or informal networks.

Ramadan highlighted in particular the mass-layoffs associated with the closure of hundreds of state-owned factories since the 2011 revolution, adding that only a trivial number of new factories or industries are being established.

“The government is not concerned with the plight of unemployed workers, and this is reflected in the lack of implementation of judicial verdicts demanding that stalled public sector companies be re-operated, and that thousands of workers be reinstated,” Ramadan argues.

Proportional to the workforce, the unemployment rate in urban areas of Cairo currently amounts to 15 percent while in rural areas it reportedly amounts to 11.2 percent. These rates are gradually increasing – in both the countryside and cities – in comparison to the past four quarters.

CAPMAS issued additional details regarding the unemployment rate. According to its breakdown, 9.3 percent of males in the workforce are unemployed, while 24.9 percent of females in the workforce are currently jobless. Over the last few quarters, the unemployment rate continues to gradually increase among women, while it has slightly decreased among men.

Hisham al-Oql, one of nearly 600 former workers at the Tanta Flax and Oils Company, who has been unemployed for the past seven years, also points to the general governmental disinterest in labor rights.

Oql dismisses CAPMAS’s unemployment figures as inaccurate. "Real unemployment probably amounts to more than double the figure they’ve cited.”

“We are filing further legal appeals for the implementation of the court verdicts," Oql explains, referring to those issued in 2011 for the re-operation of stalled companies and reinstatement of workers. "Yet the government is simply ignoring our demands, and refusing to respect judicial rulings,” he adds.

Fifty-year-old Oql adds that he has to rely on his mother for financial assistance, so that he can support his wife and son.

For the past four years, Oql has been seeking to unify the efforts and demands of thousands of other jobless workers to demand the re-opening of the following stalled companies: Tanta Flax and Oils, Simo Paper, Nile Cotton Ginning, Nasr Steam Boilers and Omar Effendy department stores, among others.

Oql said the government talks of promoting production and creating additional job opportunities, but is not doing so effectively.

Ramadan also pointed to “an increase in the rate of punitive sackings of workers,” including laborers who are fired for organizing independent unions in their workplaces for protesting, striking, or "calling for the accountability of corrupt administrators.”

According to the independent unionist, the fourth quarter of 2015 may bear the grimmest unemployment rate yet, as tourism has been hit hard over the past two weeks in Sharm el-Sheikh and elsewhere, amid allegations of a bomb on board a Russian Metrojet passenger plane that crashed in Sinai, killing all 224 passengers and crew members on October 31.

Ramadan concluded that this employment crisis coincides with the high season of foreign tourism to Egypt.

*Photo courtesy of Aawsat.com

Putin suspends Russian flights to Egypt after Sinai plane crash

The Guardian
Russian plane crash: flight recorder captured 'sound of explosion'

Vladimir Putin orders halt to all flights to Egyptian airports as evidence mounts that flight 9268 was brought down rather than suffering mechanical failure

Saturday 7 November, 2015

The sound of an apparent explosion can be heard on the flight recorder of the Russian-operated plane that came down over the Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 people on board, adding to the evidence that a bomb was smuggled aboard, French media sources said on Friday.

Giving further credence to the idea that the plane crash was a terrorist act rather than because of structural failure, Russia, which for a week has been resistant to speculation about a bomb, suspended flights to all Egyptian airports.

An Egyptian-led international team of aviation experts, including some from France, successfully recovered the black box, the flight recorder, from the crash site.

Several French media outlets, including the television station France 2, reported that the investigators had listened to it and concluded that a bomb had detonated, which would seem to rule out structural failure or pilot error.

The pilots can be heard chatting normally, including contact with airport controllers, up until the apparent explosion.

One source close to the investigation told AFP that the black box data “strongly favours” this theory. While another source reportedly said: “Everything was normal during the flight, absolutely normal, and suddenly there was nothing,” adding that the plane had suffered “a violent, sudden,” end.

A news conference is due to be held on Saturday afternoon by the Egyptian aviation minister, Hossam Kamal, and the head of the Egypt-led investigation into the disaster, although the government warned it could be delayed.
 
While Russia had earlier suggested that the UK was acting prematurely in halting flights to the Red Sea resort over terrorism fears, Vladimir Putin ordered even wider restrictions on Friday, including halting all flights from Cairo. The head of his federal security services said it would be expedient to suspend flights until they had discovered why the Airbus A321 had crashed last Saturday.

Meanwhile, the US announced new security measures – including tighter screening – for flights from some airports in the Middle East. Jeh Johnson, the homeland security secretary, said that the move was motivated by “an abundance of caution.”

Russia initially dismissed claims by Islamic State of responsibility for downing the Metrojet flight, which came weeks after threats of retaliation for Russian planes bombing Syria, and Moscow reacted angrily after David Cameron said it was “more likely than not” a bomb.

Suspicions had intensified throughout the week that the Metrojet airliner was blown up. In addition to the French media reports about the black box, according to reports from the US, a “flash” from the plane was picked up by US satellites.

American officials have also told Reuters that intercepted intelligence “chatter” involving militant groups in Sinai supported the bomb theory. An Isis-affiliated group has claimed three times that it was responsible for bringing down the plane.

Russia will now begin to bring home its tourists, up to 79,000 of whom are currently on holiday in Egypt, according to Russian tourist authorities.

However, there were chaotic scenes at Sharm el-Sheikh airport on Friday as the schedule of “rescue flights” apparently agreed by airlines disintegrated. Thousands of travellers who had gone to the airport expecting to leave were further delayed. Eight easyJet flights were cancelled in the morning, while empty Monarch, Thomas Cook and Thomson airliners that had flown from Britain to bring back holidaymakers were diverted before reaching Egypt.

EasyJet claimed that Egyptian authorities were blocking their extra flights, as passengers were sent back to their hotels pending “top-level government talks” to resolve the situation. In extraordinary scenes at the airport, Britain’s ambassador to Cairo, John Casson, was heckled by passengers, who shouted: “What is the problem and when can we go home?”

Tour operators promised that stranded customers would remain in their accommodation free of charge or be reimbursed.

Egypt’s civil aviation ministry denied that it was blocking any flights, but said only eight of the 29 planned flights from Sharm el-Sheikh to the UK on Friday were operating because the airport did not have the capacity to store hold luggage. Only hand luggage is being allowed on flights back to Britain amid fears that a bomb was placed in the hold of the Metrojet plane.

Kamal, Egypt’s aviation minister, said: “The British airline [easyJet] wants to schedule 18 flights at the same time and wants to transport British passengers from Sharm el-Sheikh without their luggage, which we would have to transport later. This constitutes a huge burden on the airport because its capacity does not allow for that.”

Britain had expected that all passengers who were due to fly home this week before flights were cancelled over security fears – about 3,500 people – would have returned by Friday night. Patrick McLoughlin, the transport secretary, had told the BBC: “We feel that should be possible.” But as the day unfolded, a Downing Street spokesman said the situation was “very fluid … complicated and difficult.”

He said a broken-down aircraft at the airport had contributed to delays on the ground.

The first 180 tourists to return to the UK arrived at Gatwick airport on an easyJet flight at 4.25pm, describing chaotic scenes before departure. They said the pilot had assured them that intelligence officials from MI5 and the Egyptian army had guarded their plane before takeoff to ensure its safety.
 
Some were in tears outside the arrivals area of Gatwick. Emma Turner, from Kent, said her husband had been hit by other tourists, whom she believed to be Russian, amid scuffles to get through the departure area in Egypt. “It was absolutely horrendous. We got hit twice in arrivals at Sharm going through security. They had one door open and we had children with us.”

Nicky Bull, from Bath, described the airport as “dreadful”, saying: “I appreciate all the extra security, but they just could not cope with it … everybody was getting crushed. Everybody was shouting and screaming.”

Another passenger, Nathan Hazelwood, said security at Sharm was shocking. “I think it’s a joke. We need a bit of a presence out there. I don’t think we should be flying out there at all. Security needs to be tightened.”

A further 179 passengers were on board a second easyJet plane that landed at 5.30pm at Luton. A number of the cancelled UK –bound flights were expected to operate on Saturday, while the hold luggage of returning British passengers would be transported on separate flights over the next 10 days.

While Egypt said the decision to cancel the majority of UK-bound flights on Friday was purely logistical, an easyJet spokesman suggested it was a political decision after Britain took a lead in restricting travel. Egypt has rejected claims that Isis carried out the attack and maintains there is nothing wrong with security at Sharm el-Sheikh airport.

The country stands to lose a large, critical source of income in the region if the tourist industry is in effect shut down because of terrorism fears.

Isis, which has not generally pursued major attacks outside its base in Syria, has claimed responsibility for bringing down the plane. The suspension of flights to and from Egypt is the first sign that Moscow is attaching credibility to the theory, but the Kremlin continued to insist there is no presumption of a bomb.

A spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said: “The decision of the president to suspend flights to Egypt does not mean that a terrorist attack is the main suspected cause of the catastrophe with [the airline] Kogalymavia.” He said Putin was not suspending flights to Egypt until the cause of the crash was identified, but only “until it is possible to establish the necessary safety level for air travel.”

Russian state television channels have largely shied away from discussing the possibility that a terrorist bomb or missile could have caused the crash, and politicians described the UK’s decision to cancel Egypt flights as “psychological pressure” on Russia over its airstrikes against Syrian rebels.

On Friday, a Downing Street spokesman said Britain’s curbs on flights to the Red Sea resort were not dependent on the possible causes of the Metrojet disaster. “The evidence we received suggested there was a credible threat with regard to Sharm el-Sheikh airport, which is why we have taken the actions we have.”

In 2014, about 1.9 million Russians visited Egypt, making it the second most popular holiday destination for Russians after Turkey. Although the number of Russians holidaying abroad has been falling since the Ruble lost half its value in 2014, Egypt has remained popular, as operators have lowered prices for package tours there.

Vladimir Kaganer, the general director of the tourist agency Tez Tour, which said it had 10,000 clients in Egypt, claimed that an evacuation order would be needed to bring Russian holidaymakers home. “If people are at a resort and they come to them to say a plane was sent to take you back, they would say: ‘No, we want to be on holiday for two more weeks, we’re not going anywhere.’”

A third Russian government plane carrying victims’ remains and their personal belongings from Egypt returned to St Petersburg on Friday.
  

___________

*Reporting by: Ewen MacAskill, Gwyn Topham, Peter Beaumont in Sharm el-Sheikh

Ben Quinn, Andrew Sparrow and Alec Luhn in Moscow

**Photo courtesy of European Pressphoto Agency (EPA)

Egyptian protesters block Downing St. as Dictator Sisi visits London

Agence France-Presse 

Protests block Downing Street as Egypt president visits UK

Thursday November 5, 2015

(AFP) LONDON - Campaigners opposed to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Thursday blocked the entrance to Downing Street, the London residence of British Prime Minister David Cameron, ahead of a meeting between the two leaders.

Around 200 demonstrators protested against Sisi’s human rights record, but they were outnumbered by those proclaiming support for the Egyptian leader.

Police removed five anti-Sisi protesters dressed in white boiler suits, who lay on the pavement playing dead while blocking the gates to Downing Street.

One had “Freedom” written on his back and another “Human Rights”, while another wore a noose around his neck.

The protesters wore T-shirts with the four-fingered “Rabia” logo, which is associated with those killed in the crackdown on the Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp in Cairo in 2013.

“He took the presidency by the sword, by killing,” said a man who gave his name as Abu Hamza.

“The world must know that he’s a killer and does not deserve the presidency.”

“Why are protesters being arrested when it’s Sisi who should be arrested?” said Anne Alexander of the Egypt Solidarity Initiative

“He shouldn’t be having lunch with the prime minister. He should be in jail.”

They were opposed by a group of around 300 Sisi supporters, who held placards reading: “We love you Sisi” and “Welcome Sisi”.

“Egypt was lost,” said 50-year-old restaurant owner Magdi Khalil.

“We were going on the path of Syria and Libya. Sisi and the army rescued Egypt.”

“Those (anti-Sisi protesters) are liars and traitors,” added an Egyptian policeman who declined to be named.

“They are neither Muslim nor brotherhood. They plant bombs, they attack police. I’m here getting treatment after being shot in the leg.”

Sisi and Cameron were set to talk Thursday on security and the Sinai plane crash, as concerns mount it could have been caused by a bomb.

Britain on Wednesday suspended flights to and from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh due to new information that suggested a “significant possibility” the crash was caused by a bomb.

Sisi’s visit is his first to Britain since he led the Egyptian army’s overthrow of his predecessor Mohamed Morsi and critics have accused Cameron of putting trade interests above human rights.

They accuse Sisi of crushing all opposition in Egypt and jailing thousands of people, from Muslim Brotherhood supporters to secularists and leftists.


*Photo courtesy of AFP 

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Read also:

UK: Press Egypt on Rights Crisis (Human Rights Watch)

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Russian plane crash in Egypt: Investigation begins into cause of aviation disaster

The Guardian
Russian plane crash: investigation begins into cause of A321 crash

Saturday - October 31, 2015

Both black boxes recovered as Russian aviation regulator cautions against speculation on causes of crash

• All 224 on board, including 17 children were killed, when a Metrojet flight from Sharm el-Sheikh bound for St Petersburg when the Airbus A321 crashed into the Sinai desert.
• Images of the wreckage show that the plane was almost completely destroyed.
• The cause of the crash remains unknown and claims of responsibility from Islamic State have been dismissed by Russian authorities.
• Families of the passengers have gathered at St Petersburg airport as bodies begin to arrive back in Russia.

Mokhtar Awad, an analyst with the Center for American Progress, tells the Guardian that the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility is quite vague.

“It doesn’t state how they were able to ‘down’ the plane allegedly. Even the most sophisticated of portable surface-to-air missiles cannot reach that high an altitude and are only a threat during periods of take-off or landing, but the plane had already climbed to its target altitude (from what we know thus far) when it began to likely experience technical failures. 

The local affiliate, Wilayat Sinai, has been under some pressure over the past few months and may have jumped the gun on taking credit. Although there isn’t a precedent for such a spectacular lie about something they claim to have done, Islamic State itself has recently been embellishing more and more. For instance it claimed that the recent prison raid by Kurdish and US special forces were a total failure, when in fact video evidence surfaced showed them freeing the hostages. So this may be an instance of the rooster taking credit for the dawn.”

Russian aviation regulator Rosaviatsia said it has not yet found any reason to blame the crash of the Russian airliner in Egypt on a technical failure, an error by the crew or external actions, RIA Novosti reports.

Until there is reliable evidence about the circumstances of what happened, there is no sense in putting forward and discussing any versions.

The Guardian’s reporter in Cairo Jahd Khalil analyses the burgeoning relationship between Russia and Egypt.

Russians make up 19.7% of tourist arrivals to Egypt, the largest of any single country and 1.7 million were forecast to arrive in 2015 alone.

The Egyptian government has cancelled visa costs for Russian tourists to encourage more visitors, and there is also a currency deal between Russia and Egypt being discussed.

Since President Sisi took power, relations between Russia and Egypt have grown closer and been lauded in Egyptian press.

Biltaeral agreements included developing nuclear power in Egypt and a $3.5 billion arms deal, as Egypt seeks to diversify its arms suppliers beyond the United States.

Egypt also welcomed Russia’s latest intervention in Syria to support even as its Gulf allies, which have kept the Egyptian economy afloat with aid, vehemently opposed the Russian intervention.

Islamic State claim 'not accurate' - Russia

Russia’s transport minister Maksim Sokolov has said that the claim Islamic State militants brought down the plane “can’t be considered accurate.”

Now in various media there is assorted information that the Russian [plane]... was supposedly shot down by an anti-aircraft missile, fired by terrorists.
This information can’t be considered accurate.

Shadi Bushra, reporting for the Guardian in Cairo, has also spoken to Mohamed Samir, Egypt’s army spokesman, who also refuted the claim.

They can put out whatever statements they want but there is no proof at this point that terrorists were responsible for this plane crash.

We will know the true reasons when the civil aviation authority in coordination with

Russian authorities completes its investigation.

But the army sees no authenticity to their claims or their video.

Egypt’s prosecutor general has agreed to allow a Russian government agency to participate in investigating what caused the Russian passenger plane to crash, according to state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram.

The North Sinai prosecution office has reportedly summoned air and ground traffic control officials for questioning over the incident, and ordered a technical team from the Civil Aviation Ministry to analyse the contents of the plane’s black box.

Meanwhile, Russian investigators are searching the Moscow offices of Metrojet, the company that chartered the plane.

The Investigative Committee is questioning both Metrojet employees and also the St Petersburg-based Brisco tour agency that had contracted for the flight from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg, said spokesman Vladimir Markin.

This is the statement from a group claiming to be speaking on behalf of Islamic State, posted on their affiliate site, translated by our correspondent in Cairo, Jahd Khalil. It offers no evidence that the group brought down the plane, apart from their word.

Breaking: Downing of Russian airplane, killing of more than 220 Russian crusaders on board.

Soldiers of the Caliphate were able to bring down a Russian plane above Sinai Province with at least 220 Russian crusaders aboard.

They were all killed, praise be to God. O Russians, you and your allies take note that you are not safe in Muslims lands or their skies.

The killing of dozens daily in Syria with bombs from your planes will bring woe to you. Just as you are killing others, you too will be killed, God willing.

Many experts have expressed scepticism that groups operating in Sinai have the capacity to bring down an airline from the height it was travelling.

Islamic State-linked group 'claims responsibility' for crash

A militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt has claimed responsibility for bringing down the Russian passenger plane as it flew through Sinai peninsula on Saturday.

The claim was circulated by supporters on Twitter and also published on the Aamaq news website, which has previously been used on a semi-official basis by Islamic State to circulate propaganda.

There is no confirmation from any other sources that the plane crashed as a result of terrorist activity - and Egyptian officials were quick to rule that out as a cause of the crash earlier this morning.

A report in July by military expert IHS Janes said Islamic State affiliate group Wilayat Sinai had propaganda videos in which militants are seen with a type of man-portable air defence systems (SA-18 Igla MANPADS), which can reach about 10,000 feet.

The airliner was said to be travelling at least 31,000 feet, before it made a steep descent as it crashed.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Saturday it was checking fuel samples from the airliner’s last refuelling stop, in the Russian city of Samara, news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Spokesman Vladimir Markin said investigators are questioning people who were involved in preparing the aircraft and its crew and are carrying out searches at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport where the airline that operated the plane is based.

Passengers at St Petersburg airport on Saturday morning who had been due to fly out to Egypt on holiday with Moscow-based tour operator Brisco, have said their plane has failed to show up.

 
“Nobody came out to talk to us yet, we don’t know what plane we’ll be on,” a passenger called Anzhelika told the Rossiya-24 channel.

“If it’s Kogalymavia, we don’t want to fly.”

No representative of the airline could be found at the airport and nobody at the company was answering the phones, AFP reported.

*Photos courtesy of ITAR/TASS, and AFP/Getty Images

Tourists film porn at Giza pyramids, enraging officials

New York Daily News
Tourists film porn at pyramids of Giza, enraging officials

Saturday, March 7, 2015

 

Jason Silverstein 

 
Let my people O!

Egyptian authorities are monumentally mad after tourists filmed an amateur porn video at the Pyramids of Giza and put it online.

"A set of sexually explicit scenes was illegally filmed inside the Giza Necropolis by a foreign tourist while visiting the site," Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damati said in a statement to Egyptian Streets.

The video, shot on a handheld camera, shows a woman walking around the iconic attraction, showing her breasts and briefly giving the cameraman oral sex on the Giza Necropolis grounds, with the pyramids and the Sphinx behind her.

At one point she turns and flashes the camera while walking with a group of tourists.
She also keeps complaining about one of the world's seven wonders.

"This f---ing sucks. What is there to look at?" she says.

"It really sucks, even our resorts are better."

Egyptian officials initially denied the clip's authenticity, but later announced that prosecutors were investigating the incident.

The names of the Sphinx sex stars haven't been released, but officials believe the woman is a Russian tourist.

 

The woman appears to be a 23-year-old porn star named Aurita, who posts videos on a website called Porn Traveling. But she is called Sasha in the video and on Porn Traveling's page for the video.
The site's pyramid video page features photos from the clip and a story about its filming.

"The only thing I liked about that excursion was a quick blow--- Sasha gave me near the pyramid," the story says.

"Anyway, at least that nightmare is over now, and we saw the f---ing pyramids and all," it says.
It's unclear when the video was shot.

Most of the video's naughty bits take place in an area closed off from tourists, and one local NGO has suggested security officials took bribes to allow filming of the pyramid porn, Egyptian Streets reported.

Egypt: Interim government resigns amid labor strikes

Associated Press 
Egypt’s interim Cabinet resigns amid labor strikes

The resignation fuels speculation that the military chief, Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, will soon announce a presidential bid

February 24, 2014 

Hamza Hendawi

CAIRO — Egypt’s interim Cabinet resigned Monday in a surprise move that could pave the way for the nation’s military chief to announce his widely anticipated plans to run for president in the spring.

The resignation, announced by Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi in a televised statement, came amid a wave of labor strikes over the government’s failure to fix the economy and rising popular anger nearly a year after Islamist President Mohammed Morsi was ousted by the military.

The Cabinet will remain in office in a caretaking capacity until a new one is formed. Its resignation fueled speculation that the military chief, Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, will soon announce a presidential bid.

The 59-year-old career infantry officer, who has been defense minister since Morsi named him to the Cabinet post in August 2012, has already secured the support of Egypt’s top military body, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, to seek the presidency.

Military and security officials said the British- and U.S.-trained el-Sissi has been working with a team of advisers on a program of action that he intends to announce when he declares his candidacy.

Making the announcement against a backdrop of rising popular anger and harsh media criticism of el-Beblawi would not have looked good for el-Sissi.

El-Beblawi did not say why his Cabinet was resigning. His military-backed government was sworn in in July, less than two weeks after el-Sissi ousted Morsi.

El-Sissi has been increasingly acting in a presidential fashion.

He paid a highly publicized visit to Russia earlier this month, when he secured the Kremlin’s blessing for his likely presidential bid and negotiated a large arms deal. Last week, his wife made her first public appearance since he became defense minister. Intisar el-Sissi was seated next to him during a ceremony to honor senior officers.

Thousands of el-Sissi posters are plastered on walls and hoisted on lampposts across much of the country. Songs praising him are played on radio and blare from coffee shops. He has often been likened to a lion and Arab nationalist leader Gamal Abdel-Nasser and portrayed as a savior who will bring strength and prosperity to Egypt.

A new constitution adopted in a referendum last month gives the military the exclusive right to pick the defense minister for the next two, four-year presidential terms. In Egypt, the defense minister is routinely the armed forces’ commander in chief.

So if el-Sissi, as expected, is left out of the next Cabinet lineup, that will most likely mean that his announcement on a presidential bid is imminent. His chief of staff, Gen. Sobhi Sedki, is expected to succeed him.

El-Beblawi’s government is likely to be remembered for authorizing security forces in August to storm pro-Morsi sit-in protests in Cairo — a crackdown that killed hundreds — and for labeling the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

El-Beblawi has been heavily criticized for failing to prevent high-profile terror attacks blamed on pro-Morsi militants. In the last seven months, several security headquarters have been bombed and dozens of policemen, some in key intelligence jobs, gunned down in the streets. Authorities daily announce the seizures of extensive caches of arms and explosives.

The latest wave of labor unrest to hit Egypt included strikes by public transport workers and garbage collectors and a partial stoppage by doctors. An acute shortage of cooking gas cylinders has also fed popular frustration. This week also saw the end of a crippling, 11-day strike by thousands of textile workers in the industrial city of Mahalla in the Nile Delta.

“The Cabinet has, in the last six or seven months, responsibly and dutifully shouldered a very difficult and delicate burden, and I believe that, in most cases, we have achieved good results,” the outgoing prime minister said.

“But like any endeavor, it cannot all be success but rather within the boundaries of what is humanly possible.”

Syria: One year into uprising, death toll at 8,000+

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Syria: Witnesses Describe Idlib Destruction, Killings
One Year On, Indiscriminate Attacks Inflicting Heavy Toll

March 15, 2012


(New York) – Accounts from witnesses reveal significant destruction and a large number of deaths and injuries of civilians in Syria’s bombardment of the city of Idlib, Human Rights Watch said today. On the anniversary of the Syrian uprising, Human Rights Watch urged Russia and China to agree to a UN Security Council resolution calling on Syria to halt the indiscriminate attacks on cities and demand access for humanitarian workers, journalists, and human rights monitors.

Idlib is the latest opposition stronghold to come under attack by the Syrian security forces attempting to rout the armed opposition. Syrian activists have compiled a list of 114 civilians killed since the current assault there, which began on March 10, 2012. Five witnesses, including three foreign correspondents, gave separate accounts to Human Rights Watch that government forces used large-caliber machine-guns, tanks, and mortars to fire indiscriminately at buildings and people in the street. After they entered Idlib, government forces detained people in house-to-house searches, looted buildings, and burned down houses, the witnesses said.

“City after city, town after town, Syria’s security forces are using their scorched earth methods while the Security Council’s hands remain tied by Russia and China,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “One year on, the Security Council should finally stand together and send a clear message to Assad that these attacks should end.”

The attacks on Idlib follow months of atrocities that both the United Nation’s Commission of Inquiry and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have described as crimes against humanity.

The large-scale military operation on Idlib on March 10 began at around 5 a.m.

“Michael,” an international journalist who was in the city, told Human Rights Watch:

The army started shelling the city in the morning with tanks and continued until the night. They were shelling everywhere. In the morning we could hear shells every two minutes. There was a short pause in the middle of the day before they started again. They were not shelling anything in particular. They were just trying to scare the population. The rebels were trying to fight, but it was impossible. After the shelling, the army started to move into the city.

“Maria,” another international journalist who was there that day, said that when the army opened fire from an armored personnel carrier on a building close to her, she ran to help people who had been wounded:

[After I heard about the attack] I ran to the building with a group of Syrians to help the people there. Some of the Syrians running to the building had weapons and cell-phones, but they were not taking active part in the fighting. There was a helicopter flying above us and it seems like the attack was well coordinated. Just before I reached the building – I was about 10 meters away – the government forces attacked again. It seems like they were shooting from the gun on an armored personnel carrier. If they had been shooting with anything bigger I would have been dead.

There were no weapons in the building and, although there was fighting in the vicinity, nobody had been shooting from that building. They were just attacking places where they could see groups of people, not caring at all whether the people were actually part of the fighting.

Maria, who like some of the others interviewed asked that her name not be used for fear of reprisals, told Human Rights Watch that at least five people were wounded and two killed in that attack.

Government forces also used mortars during the attack on the city. “Wasim,” an Idlib resident, described to Human Rights Watch what he saw when he went to a building on Ajama street in the northwestern part of the city that had been attacked around 6 a.m. on March 10:

Half of the building was destroyed. Three children – two girls and one boy – and their father had been killed. One of the girls had fallen from the building so she was lying in the street. The other members of the family were injured as well. It looked like the building had been hit from the roof. There was no particular reason for the army to attack this building. They just shot at everything. They are crazy. They have no particular targets.

“Hassan,” a journalist with significant experience working in war zones, told Human Rights Watch that one of the people extracting the wounded and killed from the building on Ajama street brought him remnants of the shell used to attack the building. Hassan identified the remnant as a mortar.

Another international journalist, who was just outside the city, said that shelling was continuing on March 12, and to a lesser degree on March 13.

Many of the wounded and killed were brought to a hospital in the old city, which was quickly overwhelmed by the number of casualties. Michael told Human Rights Watch:

At least 20 killed people were brought to the hospital the first day. There were more the second day – at least 30. The third day was terrifying. I don’t think anybody was keeping lists at that point. Wounded people kept arriving all the time. Medical personnel were trying to revive and attend to the wounded on the floors in the corridors because there was no space. Doctors were doing surgery without the proper equipment. They were doing their best, but they were really exhausted.

Hassan described the same hospital in similar terms:

The hospital was in total chaos. They couldn’t cope with the number of killed and injured. The dead were buried right away in a nearby park. But by Sunday [March 11] they had run out of space in the park and the park and school behind it were also being attacked so they had to bury the dead wherever they could.

Four witnesses among those Human Rights Watch interviewed who visited the hospital during the onslaught said that many of the killed and injured had clearly not taken part in any fighting. Michael told Human Rights Watch:

I would say that about half of the casualties were clearly civilians. There were women, children and elderly among them. Most of the civilians were wounded or killed because of shelling.

As government forces moved in to occupy areas of the city, they frequently looted shops and apartments, and deliberately burned down houses of suspected activists, the witnesses said. Wasim told Human Rights Watch that after he left the city on March 12, his father called him to tell him that the forces had destroyed many of the shops in their street and that they had torched the building on the opposite side of the street.

Another Idlib resident, “Mustafa,” told Human Rights Watch:

I have a list of almost 30 houses that have been burned down. At least some of them belonged to activists. On certain streets all the stores and shops have been looted. They even took the safe from some of the stores.

Government forces also detained scores of people during the offensive, both in Idlib and in surrounding towns. Some were released, while others are still in detention.

The witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that it is very difficult for people to leave the city as the highway encircling Idlib, forming a belt around the city, is controlled by the Syrian army. Landmines planted by government forces along the border with Turkey have made it even more difficult for people to flee the government’s onslaught. Hassan estimated that 85 percent of Idlib’s population is still in the city.

“The army controls the highway,” Hassan said. “The only way to get out is to sneak through the olive trees at night and try to cross the highway without the army noticing.”

Mustafa said that he had walked through fields in the dark for 15 kilometers to get out of the city.

The witnesses told Human Rights Watch that city residents had been killed by sporadic shelling and sniper fire before the March 10 offensive, but on a smaller scale.


One year after the uprising began in Syria, security forces have killed at least 8,000 civilians according to lists compiled by local activists. Vetoes by Russia and China have prevented the Security Council from taking any action on Syria despite evidence that crimes against humanity are being committed.

The UN secretary-general’s special envoy, Kofi Annan, will brief the Security Council on his efforts on March 16. Human Rights Watch urged Russia and China to support a United Nations Security Council resolution that would give Annan’s efforts the strongest possible backing as well as demanding that the Syrian government end the indiscriminate shelling of cities and allow access to affected areas for humanitarian workers, journalists, and human rights monitors.

The resolution should also provide for targeted sanctions against officials involved in the abuse and an embargo on arms delivery to the Syrian government, and refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has, on multiple occasions, recommended that the Security Council refer the situation to the court. Similarly, a growing number and wide range of countries have voiced their support for an ICC referral. On March 13, during a session at the UN Human Rights Council, Austria delivered a cross-regional statement on behalf of 13 countries supporting the High Commissioner’s call for a referral.

Human Rights Watch urged others to join the mounting calls for accountability by supporting a referral to the ICC as the forum most capable of effectively investigating and prosecuting those bearing the greatest responsibility for abuses in Syria.


*In Arabic:
سوريا: شهود يصفون أعمال التدمير والقتل في إدلب

**Photo courtesy of REUTERS
***Map & statistics issued by Syrian Martyrs