Egypt: Women Sexually Assaulted at March Against Sexual Harassment

By RYM MOMTAZ | ABC News – June 14, 2012

Egyptian activists held a daylong blogging and tweeting campaign to end
sexual harassment on Wednesday in response to a violent attack by mobs of
men on a march against harassment in central Cairo on June 8. The men had
groped and sexually assaulted a small group of women in Tahrir Square
who'd assembled to protest widespread sexual harassment.

Though sexual harassment has been an issue in Egypt for years, activists
say it has been used, over the past year, as a political tool by the old
guard in order to counter the revolution that toppled president Hosni
Mubarak in February 2011.

"Since March 2011 there has been an increased trend of sexual assault and
harassment, especially by the military and police," alleged Mozn Hassan,
executive director of Nazra, a feminist group.

During the early days of Egypt's revolution in 2011, prior to Mubarak's
departure, activists said that protests were remarkably free of the
groping and harassment that has long marked public gatherings in Egypt.
But since Mubarak stepped down, incidents of sexual harassment and assault
against female activists have made international headlines.
Military-administered "virginity tests" of detained female protestors were
followed by a brutal assault on female protestors by policemen in November
2011 and the internationally circulated photos, in December 2011, of a
veiled woman beaten to the ground by soldiers, ripping off her clothes to
expose her blue bra.

While the attack on June 8 was not carried out by members of the armed
forces, activists say it was the same kind of group assault in which a mob
of men, sometimes as many as 50 at a time, surrounded a woman, groped and
stripped her, and inserted their fingers into her private parts. One
female activist who said she was assaulted recounted on her blog, "The
moment I fell, hands were reaching to my pants unfastening them,
instinctively I fought to refasten as I was trying to get up […] the mob
was all over me with seemingly no one able or willing to help out."

Some activists believe the attack was a premeditated attempt to discourage
women from taking part in political life. "The men were very determined,
they were moving in groups, they all knew each other and it just felt
organized, reminiscent of the Baltagiya during the revolution," said Shady
Khalil, a protestor who participated in the June 8 march. The "baltagiya"
refers to mobs of men believed to have been paid by the Mubarak regime to
attack the protestors in Tahrir Square, famously carrying out one raid on
camelback.

@jazkhalifa, a tweeter participating in Wednesday's online campaign,
expressed a feeling widely echoed online. "Sexual harassment," wrote
@jazkhalifa, is a tool to keep women out of the public spaces (streets)
and forcing them into the private spaces (homes)."

Activists concede that they cannot prove that the attack was a coordinated
effort, though they claim it is consistent with what they allege has been
a concerted effort by the ruling military regime to discredit the
revolution and discourage women from taking part in protests.

Despite the many reported incidents and promises of investigations,
activists say there is a culture of impunity that surrounds sexual
harassment. "There is no political will to punish anybody, whether
civilians or members of the armed forces who are supposed to protect
people," said Heba Morayef of Human Rights Watch. "This signals that the
state doesn't prioritize combating violence against women and that it is
acceptable". The "virginity tests" of 2011 were the only alleged incidents
of abuse to have been investigated and the alleged perpetrators were
officially exonerated.

Yet while accountability is lacking, activists note that the revolution
has made people more likely to speak up and report incidents. But Engy
Ghozlan, who co-founded HarassMap, a website that uses crowdsourcing to
map incidents of sexual harassment in Cairo, acknowledges that they are
fighting entrenched behavior. "In our society," said Ghozland, "men [need
to] understand that my presence as a woman is acceptable and not an attack
on them. This cannot be achieved by a president or one person. It is a
very long-term process."

Mob attacks women at Egypt anti-sex assault rally

By SARAH EL DEEB | Associated Press – June 8, 2012

CAIRO — A mob of hundreds of men assaulted women holding a march
demanding an end to sexual harassment Friday, with the attackers
overwhelming the male guardians and groping and molesting several of the
female marchers in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

From the ferocity of the assault, some of the victims said it appeared to
have been an organized attempt to drive women out of demonstrations and
trample on the pro-democracy protest movement.

The attack follows smaller scale assaults on women this week in Tahrir,
the epicenter of the uprising that forced Hosni Mubarak to step down last
year. Thousands have been gathering in the square this week in protests
over a variety of issues — mainly over worries that presidential elections
this month will secure the continued rule by elements of Mubarak's regime
backed by the ruling military.

Earlier in the week, an Associated Press reporter witnessed around 200 men
assault a woman who eventually fainted before men trying to help could
reach her.

Friday's march was called to demand an end to sexual assaults. Around 50
women participated, surrounded by a larger group of male supporters who
joined to hands to form a protective ring around them. The protesters
carried posters saying, "The people want to cut the hand of the sexual
harasser," and chanted, "The Egyptian girl says it loudly, harassment is
barbaric."

After the marchers entered a crowded corner of the square, a group of men
waded into the women, heckling them and groping them. The male supporters
tried to fend them off, and it turned into a melee involving a mob of
hundreds.

The marchers tried to flee while the attackers chased them and male
supporters tried to protect them. But the attackers persisted, cornering
several women against a metal sidewalk railing, including an Associated
Press reporter, shoving their hands down their clothes and trying to grab
their bags. The male supporters fought back, swinging belts and fists and
throwing water.

Eventually, the women were able to reach refuge in a nearby building with
the mob still outside until they finally got out to safety.

"After what I saw and heard today. I am furious at so many things. Why
beat a girl and strip her off? Why?" wrote Sally Zohney, one of the
organizers of the event on Twitter.

The persistence of the attack raised the belief of many that it was
intentional, though who orchestrated it was unclear.

Mariam Abdel-Shahid, a 25 year-old cinema student who took part in the
march, said "sexual harassment will only take us backward."

"This is pressure on the woman to return home," she said.

Ahmed Mansour, a 22 year-old male medical student who took part in the
march, said there are "people here trying to abuse the large number of
women protesters who feel safe and secure. Some people think it is
targeted to make women hate coming here."

"I am here to take a position and to object to this obscene act in
society," he said.

Assaults on women Tahrir have been a demoralizing turn for Egypt's protest
movement.

During the 18-day uprising against Mubarak last year, women say they
briefly experienced a "new Egypt," with none of the harassment that is
common in Cairo's streets taking place in Tahrir. Women participated in
the anti-Mubarak uprising as leading activists, protesters, medics and
even fighters to ward off attacks by security agents or affiliated thugs.
They have continued the role during the frequent protests over the past 15
months against the military, which took power after Mubarak's fall on Feb.
11, 2011.

But women have also been targeted, both by mobs and by military and
security forces in crackdowns, a practice commonly used by Mubarak
security against protesters. Lara Logan, a U.S. correspondent for CBS
television, was sexually assaulted by a frenzied mob in Tahrir on the day
Mubarak stepped down, when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians came to the
square to celebrate.

In a defining image of the post-Mubarak state violence against women,
troops dispersing a December protest in Tahrir were captured on video
stripping a woman's top off down to her blue bra and stomping with their
boots on her chest, as other troops pulled her by the arms across the
ground.

That incident prompted an unprecedented march by some 10,000 women through
central Cairo in December demanding Egypt's ruling military step down in a
show of outrage

In contrast, the small size of Friday's march could reflect the
vulnerability and insecurity many feel in the square, which was packed
with thousands of mostly young men by nightfall Friday. Twenty rights
groups signed on to support the stand and hundreds more vowed to take
part, according to the Facebook page where organizers publicized the
event, but only around 50 women participated.

Sexual harassment of women, including against those who wear the Islamic
headscarf or even cover their face, is common in the streets of Cairo. A
2008 report by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights says two-thirds of
women in Egypt experienced sexual harassment on a daily basis. A string of
mass assaults on women in 2006 during the Muslim feast following the holy
month of Ramadan prompted police to increase the number of patrols to
combat it but legislation providing punishment was never passed.

After Friday's attack, many were already calling for another, much larger
stand in the square against such assaults.

Another participant in Friday's march, Ahmed Hawary, said a close female
friend of his was attacked by a mob of men in Tahrir Square in January.
She was rushed off in an ambulance, which was the only way to get her out,
he said. After suffering from a nervous breakdown, she left Cairo
altogether to work elsewhere in Egypt.

"Women activists are at the core of the revolution," Hawary said. "They
are the courage of this movement. If you break them, you break the spirit
of the revolution."

Egypt defends storming of civil society groups

By AYA BATRAWY | Associated Press Jan. 1, 2012

CAIRO — A top Egyptian official responsible for overseeing civil
society groups on Sunday defended sweeps through the offices of 10 human
rights and pro-democracy organizations, rejecting denunciations from the
U.S., U.N. and Germany.

It was the first comment from the Egyptian government since the sweeps
Thursday that targeted, among others, U.S.-based groups invited to observe
Egypt's months-long election process.

Reports of heavily armed police and soldiers storming into offices,
sealing the doors, rifling through files and confiscating computers set
off a wave of international protest against Egypt's rulers.

International Cooperation Minister Faiza Aboul Naga defended the operation
as a legitimate investigation into organizations suspected of operating
without permits and receiving "political funding" against the law.

Aboul Naga pointed to repeated complaints from the judiciary and the
ruling military about civil society groups acceptng foreign funds to
promote protests and instability and "influence public opinion in
non-peaceful ways." She said the order to investigate the groups came from
independent judges.

The military has pointed to "foreign hands" behind clashes with protesters
who are demanding that the military hand over power to civilians. More
than 100 people have been killed in the clashes since the military took
over in February.

Rights groups dismiss the charges as an attempt to taint the reform
movement that led to the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak in a
popular uprising that demanded democracy and human rights.

The U.S.-based National Democratic Institute, International Republican
Institute and Freedom House all denounced the sweeps.

Aboul Naga, who was appointed by Mubarak and has survived numerous Cabinet
reshuffles since his ouster, refused to call the coordinated security
sweep a raid.

"This was not a raid or a storming or an attack. It was an investigation,"
she said. "There are foreign civil society groups that began operating
without permission, which is totally outside the law."

Under Mubarak, the government rarely licensed pro-democracy and rights
organizations, forcing them to work in a legal limbo. The situation has
not changed since Mubarak's fall.

The U.S. said it received assurances that the sweeps would end. Defense
Secretary Leon Panetta spoke by phone to the head of Egypt's ruling
military council, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, to emphasize the
importance the Obama administration places on the country's democratic
transition and appreciation for the decision to stop the raids.

The State Department said Friday that U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson spoke
with members of the ruling military council and "received assurances that
the raids will cease and property will be returned immediately."

However, Justice Minister Adel Abdel-Hamid said Sunday that property and
bank statements would be returned only after a full investigation had been
completed. He did not say how long the investigations could take.

He also said the investigations would look into whether these groups are
behind the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the focus of protests by
Egypt's reformers.

Aboul Naga said that the 17 offices belonging to the 10 organizations
investigated last week sprouted up across Egypt "behind the government's
back" only after the Jan. 25 uprising that led to Mubarak's toppling. The
International Cooperation minister also alleged that some of the
organizations under investigation have received 200 million dollars since
January, but she declined to name them or explain how the government
believes the money was spent.

The National Democratic Institute said it had been operating in Egypt
since 2005 "in an open and transparent manner, working to assist the
efforts of political parties and civic organizations." Freedom House said
it applied for permits three days before the sweep.

Also Sunday, the country's ruling generals announced that elections for
the 390-member upper house, a primarily advisory body, will conclude in
February rather than March. Voters will be electing 260 members, while the
remaining third will be appointed by the generals.

Egyptians protest against beating of women

Thousands rally in Cairo to denounce military's attacks, as Hillary
Clinton denounces "systematic degradation of women".

Dec. 20, 2011 Al Jazeera

Thousands of people have filled the streets of the Egyptian capital in
protest against the beating of female protesters by the ruling military
during clashes in and around the city's Tahrir Square.

Female activists had called for Tuesday's demonstration to denounce the
attacks on women and call for an immediate end to violence against
protesters.

The rally came hours after Egyptian security forces clashed with
demonstrators in the capital on the fifth day of fighting that has left 14
people dead and more than 900 others injured since Friday.
The image of a woman stripped and stomped on by soldiers shocked
Egyptians, and the world [REUTERS]

The clashes sparked condemnation against the military among many people in
Egypt, particularly after one incident in which two Egyptian soldiers were
filmed dragging a woman protester on the ground by her shirt, exposing her
underwear, then clubbing and stomping on her body.

One of the women at Tuesday's protest said the country's military council
only cared about holding on to power.

"The reason for the protest is the picture and the video that was
published by news services around the world, and it showed us to what
extent the military council has no qualms about trampling on the women of
Egypt and the girls of Egypt, and has no qualms about beating them up and
stripping them naked," Islama Thabet told the Reuters news agency.

General Adel Emara, a member of Egypt's army council that took over after
Mubarak was overthrown in February, said on Monday the attack on the woman
protester was an isolated incident that was under investigation.

But there was outrage amongst the women who marched through Tahrir square
and downtown Cairo on Tuesday, with the protesters chanting that Egypt's
head of the military, Field Marshall Tantawi, was a coward, and that the
women of Egypt would not be humiliated.

While the images of the as yet unidentified woman who was stripped and
beaten have caused the most outrage, numerous other incidents of women
protesters being beaten or dragged by their hair have shocked Egyptians.

Many women who have been arrested by the army have also said that they
were molested while in custody and beaten while captive.

In what appeared to be a response to the protest, Egypt's military issued
a statement in which they expressed "deep sorrow" over the abuses of
women's rights that took place on the weekend, saying that those
responsible have had legal measures taken against them, Sherine Tadros
reported.

"Women humiliated"

In what has been some of the strongest criticism of Egypt's military
rulers by US officials, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state spoke
out against the treatment of Egyptian women in recent months.
Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal reports on the latest from Cairo following
the dawn fighting

"Women are being beaten and humiliated in the same streets where they
risked their lives for the revolution only a few short months ago,"
America's top diplomat said in a speech at Washington's Georgetown
University on Monday.

The US, which saw Egypt as a staunch ally in the era of deposed leader
Hosni Mubarak, gives Cairo $3bn a year in military aid, and has been
criticised by activists for not speaking out more strongly against the
violence, and for continuing to export small arms even as those weapons
are being wielded against protesters.

Clinton said women had been mostly shut out of decision-making by Egypt's
ruling military and by big political parties.

"Women protesters have been rounded up and subjected to horrific abuse.
Journalists have been sexually assaulted. And now, women are being
attacked, stripped, and beaten in the streets," she added.

"This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonours the revolution,
disgraces the state and its uniform and is not worthy of a great people."

'Hitler's incinerators'

Army generals and their advisers have condemned the pro-democracy
protesters, sometimes in extraordinarily harsh terms.

"What is your feeling when you see Egypt and its history burn in front of
you?" retired general Abdel Moneim Kato, an army adviser, told al-Shorouk
daily, referring to a government archive building set alight during
clashes.

"Yet you worry about a vagrant who should be burnt in Hitler's incinerators."

Presidential hopeful and former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed
ElBaradei said such statements showed "a deranged and criminal state of
mind".

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information denounced Kato's comments,
saying they "incite hatred and justify violence against citizens".

The violent crackdown has alarmed rights groups. Amnesty International
urged arms suppliers to stop sending small arms and ammunition to Egypt's
military and security forces.

Reporters Without Borders complained of the army's "systematic use of
violence against media personnel".

Many Egyptians want to focus on building democratic institutions, not
street activism, but have nevertheless been shocked by the tactics of
security forces in and around Tahrir.

Egyptian women march on frontlines of country's revolution

Thousands of Egyptian women marched across Tahrir Square Tuesday, calling
on their countrymen to join them and demand an end to the abuse of women
demonstrators.

Dec. 20, 2011 By Ayman Mohyeldin , NBC News

The plight of women in Egyptian society has been well documented over the
years. From enduring daily sexual harassment to being marginalized from
politics … being a woman in Egypt has been and is tough.

But there was something about the video of soldiers stripping and dragging
women in the street and ferociously attacking them that has triggered
public outrage here. Even as their bodies lay motionless on the concrete,
the soldiers repeatedly beat them over and over …

On Tuesday, Egyptian women fought back and by doing so, pro-democracy
activists say, they lifted the spirit of their cause and their country.

Thousands of women took to the streets of downtown Cairo, walking on the
same Tahrir streets where days earlier they had been beaten, arrested and
dragged.

PhotoBlog: Egyptians rally to protest treatment of women

They wore black and held signs that read “mourning.” They were protesting
abuse by soldiers, not just over the past few days but over the past
several months, which included alleged “virginity tests” against female
detainees, sexual intimidation and harassment.

The women were from all walks of life. Young and old, Muslim and
Christian, rich and poor walked shoulder to shoulder.

Niveen Redha, an Egyptian woman living in Canada and visiting Egypt,
joined the march to denounce the military crackdown on protesters and
women over the past few weeks.

Others called on people watching the march wind through the streets to
join them, shouting, “It could be your sisters and mothers that will be
attacked next.”

'True protectors'
As the women marched around central Cairo, men formed a human chain around
them, making sure no one could disrupt their march.
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On more than one occasion men came up to me and said of the obviously
peaceful protesters, “look at these thugs” -- a sarcastic rebuke to the
ruling military council, which has tried to paint the pro-democracy
protesters as lawless thugs.

One man said the “noble women of Egypt are the true protectors of the
revolution” and called on the men of Egypt to “shave their mustaches” –
telling someone to shave his mustache is often considered an insult in
this patriarchal society.

Images of a veiled woman being beaten and stripped on the street, exposing
her upper body down to her bra, have fueled the determination of
pro-democracy activists calling on the military council to hand power
immediately to a civilian government. The video and the images from
Saturday’s crackdown have drawn strong condemnation from the UN and US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonors the revolution,
disgraces the state and its uniform, and is not worthy of a great people,"
she said Monday.

Sexual threats
Ghada Kamal was one of the women assaulted on Friday. For three weeks she
was part of an “Occupy Cabinet” protest outside the prime minister’s
office. The protesters there wanted to prevent the military-appointed
prime minister from entering his office. On Friday, the military entered
the encampment and attempted to break up the protest.

The 28-year-old pharmacist was dragged away by soldiers who kicked her in
the face, groped her and clubbed her head with a baton. While she was in
military custody, she said, a soldier taunted her by saying, “We will have
a party with you today and show you how much of a man I am.”

Such accounts are common among women who are detained by the military.
Human rights organizations also have documented cases of women being given
forced virginity tests.

In the face of mounting domestic and international criticism, the military
said in a statement Tuesday on the Supreme Council of Armed Forces
Facebook page that it apologizes to the women of Egypt and said it had the
deepest respect for them and their right to protest and to participate in
political life during Egypt's transition to democracy. It added that the
military would investigate and hold to account all of those responsible
for these violations.

The recent military crackdown has united Egypt’s political forces in
demanding a quick transfer of power to a civilian government. The closest
thing to a civilian government taking shape in Egypt is the lower house of
parliament. Two-thirds of that body has been elected, and the final round
of elections is expected in early 2012.

But the military says that until then, it has no plans to concede power.

When Egypt's uprising began 10 months, pro-democracy activists trusted the
military would protect the revolution. Now that trust is all but gone.

Egypt Police Violence Video

Violent repression in Egypt. You probably don't want to watch this, but it

also shouldn't be suppressed.

http://youtu.be/4iboFV-yeTE

Violence ends brief truce at Egypt protest

Digest: Articles from Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen


Riot police break ceasefire near Cairo's Tahrir Square as crowd swells in
demand for end to military rule.

Last Modified: 23 Nov 2011 Al Jazeera

A brief attempt by Egypt's military to interpose a ceasefire between riot
police and civilians near the epicentre of protests against military rule
has disintegrated into another night of violence around Cairo's Tahrir
Square.

Police from the interior ministry's Central Security Forces appeared to
fire an unprovoked barrage of tear gas at a large crowd gathered on
Mohamed Mahmoud Street on Wednesday afternoon, witnesses said, despite a
truce that had settled in after the arrival of army vehicles and religious
scholars.

"Protesters are on the front lines to stop the security forces from
attacking the rest of us in Tahrir," Rebab el-Mahdy, a politics professor
at the American University in Cairo, told Al Jazera.

"Interior ministry forces are out of control ... they're not being
professional and they're not being controlled by the military council."

Ambulances raced back from Mohamed Mahmoud Street and other frontline
battles south and east of the square throughout the night, ferrying dozens
of protesters suffering from tear-gas inhalation.

Fighting also resumed in other cities. In Alexandria, Egypt's
second-largest city, clashes erupted for another night along a street near
the main security directorate.

Riot police there fired tear gas after the withdrawal of the army, which
had stepped in to oversee a prisoner release.

Besides Alexandria, clashes were reported in Ismailia, a city east of Cairo.

During a tour of Tahrir Square during the day, Amr Helmy, the health
minister, acknowledged that security forces had used live ammunition, but
he denied swirling rumours that they had also fired tear gas mixed with a
nerve agent.

Many protesters have described having unusually painful and intense
reactions to the tear gas being used in Cairo.

According to Human Rights Watch, doctors and morgue workers have counted
at least 22 people shot dead by live ammunition.

At least 35 people have died and 3,250 have been wounded across Egypt
since violence broke out on Saturday, the health ministry announced on
Wednesday.

The ceasefire in Cairo was reportedly negotiated by religious scholars
from al-Azhar University, the historical seat of Sunni theology, after
Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of al-Azhar, called on the riot
police to halt their attacks on protesters.

The military deployed three armoured personnel carriers to Mohamed Mahmoud
Street and positioned soldiers between the riot police and protesters, but
the truce ended within an hour in a hail of gas.

Concessions rejected

Thousands of people have remained in Tahrir Square in rejection of
concessions offered during a Tuesday-night speech by Field Marshal
Muhammed Hussein Tantawi, the chairman of the ruling Supreme Council of
the Armed Forces, which took power in February after President Hosni
Mubarak was ousted following an 18-day uprising.

"The people want the fall of the field marshal," they called in thunderous
unison, waving large Egyptian flags and signs denouncing the military.

The crisis began when riot police violently cleared a small encampment in
Tahrir Square on Saturday, and protesters say the continued fighting has
hardened their resolve to remove the military from power and complete a
revolution that began in January.

"The entire movement over the past few months has been about putting the
military in check. Now, the general sentiment is we don't trust authority,
or at least, we don't trust this authority."

- Amr Gharbeia, Egyptian activist

Tantawi announced on state media that the military had no interest in
staying in power and that parliamentary elections scheduled to begin on
November 28 would go ahead.

He also pledged that a presidential election to replace the military
council would take place before July 2012, the first time the military has
set a deadline for the vote.

The presidential election would mark the last step in a transition of
power to civilian rule.

"We ask for fair elections. We do not care who runs for elections and who
is elected president and yet we are accused of being biased," Tantawi said
on in his address.

But protesters in Tahrir Square and else have demanded an immediate
transfer of power to a civilian council with authority over the SCAF.

"There was nothing he could say that would meet our expectations. They
have nothing to give us. All we want is for the end of military rule,
immediately," Sherief Gaber, a 27-year-old demonstrator, told Al Jazeera.

"People were burned once by thinking they could trust Mubarak’s people and
the only thing they can trust is their own presence in the streets."

Pressure mounts

Domestic and international pressure for the SCAF to end the violence also
continued to mount as the interior ministry riot police appeared
increasingly to act without orders from the military.

In the US, the White House said it was "deeply concerned" by the security
forces's response, while the state department said the Egyptian government
- meaning the SCAF - "has a particular responsibility to restrain security
forces" and must "exercise maximum restraint".

Victoria Nuland, the state department spokeswoman, said Washington was
"looking forward to the naming of a new Egyptian government".

Also on Wednesday, Navi Pillay, the United Nations' human rights chief,
called for a "prompt, impartial and independent investigation" into the
riot police's "excessive use of force [and] ... improper use of teargas,
rubber bullets and live ammunition."
Follow in-depth coverage of country in turmoil

The SCAF, in a new communique released on its Facebook page on Wednesday,
said its forces had not used tear gas and would never "shed the blood" of
the Egyptian people. The military urged the people not to listen to
"rumors".

Though the SCAF has accepted the resignation of an interim cabinet that it
approved earlier this year, a new government has yet to form.

Sources told Al Jazeera the military had asked Novel laureate and
presidential hopeful Mohamed ElBaradei to form a "national salvation"
government, but ElBaradei was said to be hesitating over whether he would
have authority to choose his own ministers.

In Alexandria, lawyers and activists told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that at
least two people were killed during protests in the northern city
overnight.

At least one man, identified as 38-year-old oil engineer Sherif Sami Abdel
Hamid, was killed by live ammunition.

Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh, reporting from outside a morgue in Alexandria,
said Abdel Hamid was walking with his wife and two children and not
participating in the protest when a stray bullet hit him.

Witnesses said a second victim - believed to be a high school student -
suffocated from tear gas in the city, though Al Jazeera could not
immediately confirm the death.



Dozens of deaths reported in Syria crackdown

Activists say at least 41 killed in 24 hours as Turkey says Assad's
actions pose risk of regional turmoil.

23 Nov 2011 Al Jazeera

Activists say at least 41 people have been killed across Syria over the
past 24 hours, amid warning by Turkey that President Bashar al-Assad's
crackdown on dissent threatened to "drag the whole region into turmoil and
bloodshed".

The Local Co-ordinating Committees activist network said that at least
nine people were killed in Syria on Wednesday, including a child. Of those
killed, three died in the central city of Hama and two in the suburbs of
Damascus.

The UN says that more than 3,500 people, most of them civilians, have been
killed since the protests first broke out in Syria in March.

The deaths were reported as Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president, during a
speech during a state visit to Britain on Wednesday, accused "the Baath
regime continues to use oppression and violence on its own people".

"Violence breeds violence. Unfortunately Syria has come to a point of no
return," he said.


Separately, Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, said he would seek
an EU backing for humanitarian corridors in Syria "to alleviate the
suffering of the population".

However, he ruled out the possibility of military intervention to create a
"buffer zone" in northern the country. Juppe made the comments after a
meeting on Wednesday in Paris with Burhan Ghalioun, the head of the Syrian
National Council, the main opposition bloc.

"If it's possible to have a humanitarian dimension for a securitised zone
to protect civilians, that's a question which
has to be studied by the European Union on the one side and the Arab
League on the other," he said,

Juppe described the Syrian National Council as "the legitimate partner
with which we want to work".

"We are working with the Arab League and all of our allies towards its
recognition," he said.

UN resolution

Syria came under increased diplomatic pressure when the UN General
Assembly's Human Rights Committee condemned its security crackdown in a
vote backed by Western nations and a number of Arab states.

Tuesday's resolution, drafted by Britain, France and Germany, received 122
votes in favour, 13 against and 41 abstentions.

Arab states that voted for it included co-sponsors Bahrain, Jordan,
Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as Egypt.

Russia and China, which vetoed a European-drafted resolution that would
have condemned Syria in the UN Security Council last month, abstained.

Bashar Jaafari, the Syrian ambassador to the UN, said the resolution had
no meaning for his country and portrayed it as a US-inspired political
move.

"Despite the fact that the draft resolution was basically presented by
three European states, however it is no secret that the United States of
America is ... the main mind behind the political campaign against my
country," he said.

"This draft resolution has no relevance to human rights, other than it is
part of an adversarial American policy against my country."

Jaafari displayed for delegates what he said were documents containing the
"names of terrorists arrested while smuggling arms through the borders of
Syria".

He said the documents offered clear proof of a US-led plot to topple the
government of Assad.

Earlier on Tuesday, Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, called on
Assad to leave power, accusing him of "cowardice" for turning guns on his
own people and warning he risked the same fate as dictators who met bloody
deaths.

Earlier this week, a bus carrying Turkish pilgrims came under fire in
Syria as they were travelling back from the Hajj, leaving two injured.



Bahrain inquiry confirms rights abuses

Commission says security forces used "excessive force" and tortured
detainees in a report accepted by government.

23 Nov 2011 Al Jazeera

Bahraini security forces used "excessive force" and tortured detainees
during its crackdown in March on Shia Muslim-led protests demanding
democratic change, an Independent Commission of Inquiry has declared.

The mass demonstrations which rocked the Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab kingdom
were violently crushed as government forces used live ammunition and
heavy-handed tactics to scatter protesters.

The report, released in Manama on Wednesday, said the commission did not
find proof of an Iran link to the unrest.

"Evidence presented to the commission did not prove a clear link between
the events in Bahrain and Iran," Cherif Bassiouni, the commission's lead
investigator, said.

Responding to the inquiry's findings on Wednesday, an official spokesman
said the Bahrain government accepted the criticisms.

King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, speaking after Bassiouni delivered his
report, pledged that officials involved in the abuses would be held
accountable and replaced.

"The government welcomes the findings of the Independent Commission, and
acknowledges its criticisms," an official Bahraini statement said. "We
took the initiative in asking for this thorough and detailed inquiry to
seek the truth and we accept it."

The report blamed the opposition for not having accepted the Bahraini
crown prince’s initiative in March which it says might have led to a
peaceful solution. It also mentioned instances of aggression against the
Sunnis of Bahrain as well as foreign workers.

Rights abuses

Bassiouni said the death toll from the month-long unrest reached 35,
including five security personnel. Hundreds more were injured. The
findings, which studied events in February and March, said that 11 other
people were killed later.

The commission concluded that a total of 2,929 people were detained during
the protest movement, at least 700 remain in prison.

International organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights
Watch and the UN human rights agency, have repeatedly accused the
government of violating citizens' rights, citing allegations of torture,
unfair trials, excessive use of force and violent repression.

Investigations conducted by the panel revealed that security forces "used
excessive force" while "many detainees were tortured", Bassiouni said.


Unrest rocked Bahrain between February 14 to March 18

In March, Bahraini security forces boosted by some 1,000 Gulf troops
crushed the uprising in Manama's Pearl Square, the epicentre of the
anti-government movement.

Bassiouni said the commission found no evidence that Gulf troops violated
human rights.

"The commission did not find any proof of human rights violations caused
by the presence of the Peninsula Shield forces," he said.

Iran and fellow Shias across the Arab world had criticised the Bahraini
government for calling in forces from fellow Sunni monarchies, claiming
that the Saudi-led force was used against Shia Bahrainis.

The report's findings were released hours after clashes in at least two
predominantly Shia villages on the outskirts of Manama.

In A'ali, about 30km south of the Manama, clashed took place after
officers allegedly ran a driver off the road.

Al Jazeera's Gregg Carlstrom, reporting from A’ali, said police had used
tear gas and sound bombs against the protesters.

"Protests initially began after police allegedly forced a man off the
road, causing him to crash into a house and die," he said. He said police
also raided a makeshift clinic and arrested a number of people.

Protests called

In his remarks, Hamad blamed much of the unrest on efforts by Iran to
incite violence, but said laws would be reviewed and if necessary revised.

"We do not want, ever again, to see our country paralysed by intimidation
and sabotage ... nor do we want, ever again, to discover that any of our
law enforcement personnel have mistreated anyone," he said.

"Therefore, we must reform our laws so that they are consistent with
international standards to which Bahrain is committed by treaties."

Hamad established the five-member commission in June to investigate
"whether the events of February and March 2011 [and thereafter] involved
violations of international human rights law and norms".

At least 35 people have been killed in this year's violence, with hundreds
more wounded and detained.

Journalists have recently been welcomed back into the country after months
of restrictions, and the government announced on Monday that all forms of
torture would be illegal, with more stringent penalties for those who
commit them.

Nabeel Rajab, president of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, a leading
opposition group, praised the government’s move to ban torture, but argued
that the Bassiouni report would limit itself to a handful of low-level
targets.

Bahrain's government had already admitted using excessive force against
protesters before the release of the independent commission's report.


Two very different Bahrains, 10km apart

By Gregg Carlstrom 2011-11-23 Al Jazeera

I'm writing from A'Ali, a predominantly Shiite village in the centre of
Bahrain, which was the site of clashes all morning between anti-government
protesters and the police.

A few hours later, 10 kilometres down the road, the Bahraini government is
released the official report into this year's alleged human rights abuses.
The government hopes the report is a chance to turn the page and "move
forward," as a spokesman said earlier this week.

Ask anyone here in A'Ali, and they'll tell you those abuses are still
going on.

Witnesses here said a convoy of police vehicles sped through the village
this morning, forced a man's car off the road, and crashed into him,
killing him. I did not witness the accident, but I've seen Bahraini police
speed through other villages, tearing recklessly down narrow streets at
high speed. It's a common occurrence. (Just on Saturday, in fact, another
Bahraini, a 16-year-old boy, was run over by police vehicles in the suburb
of Juffair.)

The Bahraini government issued a statement calling it a simple traffic
accident, a car colliding with a house. But the damage did not match that
description: The car was crumpled on the sides, not the the front, as
you'd expect from a head-on collision.

Protesters came out in the streets afterwards, chanting yasqat Hamad
("down with Hamad," the king) and throwing paint bombs at police vehicles.
The police responded with tear gas and sound bombs.

My colleague Matthew Cassel shot this video of protesters reacting to
being tear gassed:

I went into one makeshift clinic a few minutes after it was raided. I saw
sound bombs on the floor inside, and the air still reeked of tear gas. The
women inside, who did not want to be photographed for fear of the
consequences, said they had been roughly searched by police, and that the
medics providing care were detained.

We also saw a Bahraini photojournalist, Mazen Mahdi, arrested by police
while trying to do his job. He was loaded into a jeep and driven away. (He
later tweeted that he'd been released, because the police couldn't figure
out what to charge him with.)

The government calls the official report an "unprecedented and historic
step" and hopes it will open the door to political reconciliation. But
unless it follows the report with significant concessions - ending the
regular police raids in the villages, declaring an amnesty for prisoners -
protesters here say they'll keep coming out.



Yemen's Saleh agrees to transfer power

Yemenis express mixed reactions in response to Saleh signing Gulf
initiative to begin transfer of power.

23 Nov 2011 Al Jazeera

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has signed a deal to hand over his
powers under an agreement brokered by the Gulf Co-operation Council.

The deal signed on Wednesday, will see Saleh leave office in 30 days,
making way for Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, the Yemeni vice-president, to
negotiate a power transfer with the opposition in return for a promise of
immunity from prosecution.

As part of the deal Saleh will retain the honorary title of president, yet
his deputy is expected to form and preside over a national unity
government before presidential elections take place within 90 days.

In response to the deal, there were mixed reactions some protesters
celebrated, while other rallied in Change Square in the capital, Sanaa,
and said they would reject a deal giving the president immunity.

Live footage of the ceremony aired by Saudi state television showed Saleh
sign the Gulf- and UN-brokered agreement in Riyadh's Al-Yamama royal
palace watched over by members of the Yemeni opposition as well as Saudi
King Abdullah and Gulf foreign ministers.

Saleh, who has ruled Yemen since 1978, spoke of the cost of the uprising
to Yemen, but did not mention the demands of protesters who called for his
ouster. Instead, he referred to the protests as a "coup'' and called a
bombing of his palace mosque that seriously wounded him "a scandal.'

After signing the deal, Saleh said his government welcomes the partnership
with what he called the "brothers in the opposition" and pledged a "real
partnership" with them.

The Saudi king hailed the signing as marking a "new page" in the Yemen's
history.

Saleh, 69, will now seek medical treatment in New York, UN chief Ban
Ki-moon said on Wednesday.

"He [Saleh] told me that he would come to New York after signing the
agreement to have medical treatment," Ban said, giving details of a
telephone conversation they had on Tuesday.

Saleh had rejected signing similar agreement to step down in the past few
months, sometimes resisting at the last minute.

Fresh protests

In response to the deal, Yemenis voiced both joy and frustration.
Celebrations erupted in Sanaa as Yemenis danced through the street, but
many others said the deal is not enough for them

Al Jazeera's special correspondent in Sanaa said that those gathered are
"protesting his [Saleh's] immunity from any legal repercussions".

"There is a tension in the air. Most people are here to celebrate, but
they see it only as a victory for now," our special correspondent said.

Saleh's family members continue to have powerful posts in the military and
intelligence service, and it is unclear how much political power Saleh
will have.

"For youth revolutionaries this deal is not accepted," Ibrahim Mohamed
al-Sayidi, a Yemeni youth opposition activist, told Al Jazeera.
For more on Yemen, visit our Spotlight page

The US welcomed the deal and Mark Toner, a state department spokesperson,
said: "The United States applauds the Yemeni government and the opposition
for agreeing to a peaceful and orderly transition of power."

In May, Saleh's supporters - many of which also reject the GCC deal - took
to the streets besieging the UAE embassy in Sanaa where foreign
ambassadors were gathered for a signing ceremony. The UAE is one of the
members of the GCC.

The signing was postponed and clashes broke out for the first time between
Ahmar's men and Saleh's forces in Al-Hasaba.

Three American Students Arrested in Cairo

By Ben Forer | ABC News – Nov. 22, 2011

Three American students were arrested in Cairo today after allegedly
participating in the violent protests that have rocked the city since
Saturday.

According to an Egyptian Interior Ministry official, the three men were
apprehended on the roof of an American University in Cairo building, where
they’d been throwing firebombs at security forces clashing with protesters
in Tahrir Square.

The students, Luke Gates, from Indiana University, Gregory Porter from
Drexel University and Derrik Sweeney, from Georgetwon University, were
shown on Egyptian state television with their student IDs.

On Saturday Gates tweeted that he hoped to die in Egypt, and on Sunday he
described one of his trips to Tahrir Square.

“[E]arlier tonight rubber bullets, a charge and then a retreat, my knee
and elbow are f**ked up,” he wrote.

ABC News Affiliate WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., learned that Sweeney had
been an intern in the office of Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., last
spring, and that according to Luetkemeyer’s press secretary, the
congressman had contacted the State Department to try to assist Sweeney.

The U.S. Embassy has been in touch with Egyptian authorities regarding the
students, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

She said that the U.S. had requested, and expected to soon get “consular
access” to the three students and that the State Department had no reason
to believe the students were not safe at the moment.

The Associated Press, WJLA-TV and ABC News’ Kirit Radia contributed to
this report.

Egypt in turmoil as cabinet offers to quit

Cairo protests against military rule continue as clashes leave at least 33 dead, prompting cabinet's offer to resign.

22 Nov 2011 Al Jazeera

Egypt's interim cabinet has offered its resignation to the country's
ruling military council as clashes raged for a third day in Cairo's Tahrir
Square, pitting police and soldiers against protesters demanding
democratic change.

"The government of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has handed its resignation
to the [ruling] Supreme Council of the Armed Forces," Mohammed Hegazy,
cabinet spokesperson, said in a statement aired on Monday night by the
official MENA news agency.

"Owing to the difficult circumstances the country is going through, the
government will continue working" until the resignation is accepted,
Hegazy added.

The military council on Monday appealed for calm and asked the country's
justice ministry to investigate the violence, the worst since Hosni
Mubarak, Egypt's former president was toppled in February.

In a statement, it invited "all the political and national forces for an
emergency dialogue to look into the reasons behind the aggravation of the
current crisis and ways to resolve it as quickly as possible."

Egypt's health ministry said at least 33 people had been killed and 1,500
wounded in clashes between government forces and protesters since
Saturday, raising concerns over parliamentary elections due to begin later
this month.

'Organised protests'

"Thousands of people in unison are chanting 'The people want the end of
the field marshal’,” Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros reported on Monday night
from Tahrir Square, referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi,
the leader of the military council.
Locations where Egyptians were protesting on Monday

Tahrir Square has become the major rallying point for protesters,
recalling the 18-day uprising that ended Mubarak's three decades of power.

Tadros reported that thousands of people began flocking into Tahrir Square
on Monday evening, with ambulances coming in to take away the injured.

"The resolve of people is pretty amazing, they keep showing up… everyone
seems to feel this is very much a battle between them and the police,” she
said.

Egyptian political forces behind the uprising that toppled Mubarak called
for a mass rally on Tuesday to demand the army cede power to civilian
rule.
Tahrir Square and surrounding area in central Cairo

The Coalition of Revolution Youth and the April 6 movement, among others
called for the protest at 4:00 pm local time (14:00 GMT) on Tuesday in
Tahrir Square.

Reporting from the seaside town of Alexandria, Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh
said a "million man march" was also being planned there for Tuesday.

Sporadic clashes between protesters and security forces erupted throughout
the day on Monday in Cairo and other parts of the country, notably
Alexandria and Suez in the north.

During the clashes in Cairo, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets
while protesters broke up pavements to hurl chunks of concrete at police.

General Saeed Abbas, deputy head of the central military region, said that
the military was protecting government buildings and not targeting
protesters.

"The armed forces were dispatched following a request from the interior
minister. It was approved by the head of the military supreme council to
assist the security forces in protecting the ministry of interior, nothing
else," Abbas said.

"They did not come to disperse protesters, or to remove them from Tahrir
Square. They didn't leave the vicinity of the interior ministry."

Few of the protesters believe this message, however, as footage showing
apparent police brutality continues to emerge.

Military seeks distance

As the death toll rose on Monday, the military council tried to distance
itself from the violence, reiterating its commitment to its "road map" for
transition and expressing "sorrow" over the situation.
Follow our coverage of the historic vote

Egyptians are scheduled to elect a new parliament in a staggered vote that
starts on November 28. Yet, even when the assembly is picked, executive
powers would remain with the army until a presidential election, which may
not happen until late 2012 or early 2013. Protesters want a much swifter
transition with presidential elections by April next year.

"We are all insisting on having the election on time; the government,
parties and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces," Hegazy, the cabinet
spokesperson, said.

The security crackdown on protesters elicited condemnation from parties
across the political spectrum; from Mohamed ElBaradei, a presidential
hopeful and head of the National Association for Change, to the Muslim
Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.

Anti-graft law

In what appeared to be a concession to the protesters, Egypt's ruling
generals issued a law on Monday barring anyone found guilty of corruption
from politics, but protesters said it would not allay their concerns that
former supporters of Mubarak may regain influence.

"The council is out of step with the people," Mohamed Fahmy, an activist,
said.

A press conference planned for Monday to detail how the election process
would proceed was postponed with no new date set.

Meanwhile, several political parties and individual candidates said they
were suspending their electoral campaign, raising concerns over whether
the vote would go ahead at all.



Egypt's Cabinet resigns amid widening protests

By MAGGIE MICHAEL | Associated Press Nov. 21, 2011

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's state television says the Cabinet has submitted its
resignation to the ruling military council but will stay on to run the
nation's day-to-day affairs until a decision is made.

The resignation of the Cabinet on Monday came amid widening protests
against the ruling military. Protesters are demanding that the military
quickly announce a date for the handover of power to a civilian
government. At least 24 protesters have been killed in the past three
days.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's government has come under consistent
criticism from across the political spectrum since it came to office in
March for its perceived inefficiency and its subordination to the
military.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information.
AP's earlier story is below.

CAIRO (AP) — Security forces fired tear gas and clashed Monday with
several thousand protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the third straight
day of violence that has killed at least 24 people and has turned into the
most sustained challenge yet to the rule of Egypt's military.

After months of growing tensions between the two sides, revolutionary
activists threw down the gauntlet, vowing they would not leave the iconic
downtown roundabout until the ruling generals leave power — or at least
set a clear date for doing so.

Repeated attempts by security forces and military police over the weekend
have failed to eject them from the square, and the rising death toll has
only brought out more and angrier protesters.

But the bid to launch what some tout as a "second revolution" is snarled
by politics, with Egypt coming up on key parliament elections only a week
away. The loose coalition of groups that led the 18-day uprising that
ousted Hosni Mubarak in February is fragmented. In particular, the Muslim
Brotherhood, which gave the first revolution powerful muscle, so far
refuses to take to the streets again, fearing the turmoil will derail
elections it expects to dominate.

And those in the square have yet to find cohesion on a picture for what's
next. Some want the military out immediately. Others would be happy with a
set date in the near future for them to quit power. Many want the military
to transfer power to a national unity government.

"We want the council to leave immediately so we can continue our
revolution, which the military sold out," said Mohammed Ali, a shoemaker
among the protesters, referring to the Supreme Council of the Armed
Forces. "A civilian Cabinet from the square is what we want."

Throughout the day, young activists skirmished with black-clad police,
hurling stones and firebombs and throwing back the tear gas canisters
being fired by police into the square, which was the epicenter of the
anti-Mubarak protest movement. Sounds of gunfire crackled around the
square, and a constant stream of injured protesters — bloodied from rubber
bullets or overcome by gas — were brought into makeshift clinics set out
on sidewalks, where volunteer doctors scrambled from patient to patient.

An Egyptian morgue official said the toll had climbed to 24 dead since the
violence began Saturday — a jump from the toll of five dead around
nightfall Sunday, reflecting the ferocity of fighting through the night.
The official spoke on condition of because he was not authorized to
release the numbers. Hundreds have been injured, according to doctors in
the square.

The eruption of violence, which began Saturday, reflects the frustration
and confusion that has mired Egypt's revolution since Mubarak fell and the
military stepped in to take power. Protesters also marched Monday other
cities, including thousands of students in the coastal city of Alexandria.

Activists and many in the public accuse the ruling Supreme Council of the
Armed Forces of seeking to hold on to power, and they fear that no matter
who wins the election the military will dominate the next government just
as they have the current, interim one they appointed months ago. Many
Egyptians are also frustrated by the failure of the military or the
caretaker government to conduct any real reforms, quiet widespread
insecurity or salvage a rapidly worsening economy.

The military says it will hand over power only after presidential
elections, which it has vaguely said will be held in late 2012 or early
2013. The protesters are demanding an immediate move to civilian rule. On
Monday, a group of 133 diplomats from Egypt's Foreign Ministry took the
rare step of issuing a petition demanding the military commit to hold
presidential elections and transfer power by 2012.

"What does it mean, transfer power in 2013? It means simply that he wants
to hold on to his seat," said a young protester, Mohammed Sayyed,
referring to the head of the Supreme Council, Field Marshall Hussein
Tantawi.

Sayyed held two rocks, ready to throw, as he took cover from tear gas in a
side street off Tahrir. His head was bandaged from what he said was a
rubber bullet that hit him earlier Monday.

"I will keep coming back until they kill me," he said. "The people are
frustrated. Nothing changed for the better."

During an overnight assault, police hit one of the field clinics with
heavy barrages of tear gas, forcing the staff to flee, struggling to carry
out the wounded. Some were moved to a nearby sidewalk outside a Hardees
fast food restaurant. A video posted on social networking sites showed a
soldier dragging the motionless body of a protester along the street and
leaving him in a garbage-strewn section of Tahrir.

The military on Sunday night issued a statement saying it did not intend
to "extend the transitional period" and vowed not to let anyone hinder the
"democratic transition." The government has said elections will be held on
schedule, starting on Nov. 28 and extending over numerous phases for
several months.

Amnesty International condemned the violence.

"While the Egyptian authorities have a duty to maintain law and order,
they must not use excessive force to crack down on peaceful protests,
something that poses a severe threat to Egyptians' rights to assembly and
freedom of expression," the London-based group said in a statement.

So far, the powerful Muslim Brotherhood has declined to join the Tahrir
protests, though some individual members are participating. Their
reluctance is believed to be because of worries the demands for the
military's exit will lead to a postponement of parliament elections, in
which the group is expected to make a powerful showing. Some of the
secular protesters in Tahrir are worried the vote will give too much power
to the fundamentalist group.

Monday afternoon, a prominent Brotherhood figure, Mohammed el-Beltagy,
visited the square and was met by heckling and volleys of thrown water
bottles from protesters angry at the group's refusal to join.

As the violence raged, the military council issued a long-awaited
anti-graft law that bans anyone convicted of corruption from running for
office or holding a government post.

The timing of the move suggested it was an attempt to placate protesters.
But the law falls far short of demands by many that all members of
Mubarak's former ruling party be banned from politics.

The interim government also said Monday it was seeking to replace culture
minister Emad Abu Ghazi, who submitted his resignation Sunday to protest
the Cabinet's response to Tahrir clashes, MENA reported.

The protesters' suspicions about the military were fed by a proposal
issued by the military-appointed Cabinet last week that would shield the
armed forces from any civilian oversight and give the generals veto power
over legislation dealing with military affairs. It would also give them
considerable power over the body that is to be created after the election
to draft a new constitution. Activists already accuse the military of
ruling with the same autocratic style of Mubarak.

Furthermore, there is widespread discontent with a military-backed
government that has been unable — or unwilling — to act as woes have
mounted in Egypt.

Over recent months, security around the country has fallen apart, with
increased crime, sectarian violence and tribal disputes. The economy has
badly deteriorated. Because of the weekend violence, Egypt's main stock
index fell for a second straight day Monday, and airport officials
reported a sharp drop Monday in international passenger arrivals — a
further blow to the country's crucial tourism industry, which is one of
the top foreign currency earners.

One of the most prominent democracy proponents in the country, Nobel Peace
laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, called on the civilian government to resign
and for a national unity government to be formed "grouping all the
factions so it can begin to solve the problems of Egyptians."

"Power is now in the hands of the military council, which is not qualified
to run the country, and the government, which has no authority," he said
on a TV political talk show late Sunday. For the next six months, "we want
see the powers of the military council given completely to a civilian,
national unity government, and the military goes back to just defending
the borders."

__

Associated Press writer Ben Hubbard contributed reporting.

Police burn protest tents to clear Cairo's Tahrir

By MAGGIE MICHAEL and SARAH EL DEEB | Associated Press Nov. 20, 2011

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian soldiers and police set fire to protest tents in
Cairo's Tahrir Square and fired tear gas and rubber bullets in a major
assault Sunday to drive out thousands demanding that the military rulers
quickly transfer power to a civilian government. At least seven protesters
were killed and hundreds were injured.

It was the second day of clashes marking a sharp escalation of tensions on
Egypt's streets a week before the first elections since the ouster of
longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in February. The military took
over the country, promising a swift transition to civilian rule. But the
pro-democracy protesters who led the uprising have grown increasingly
angry with the ruling generals, and suspect they are trying to cling to
power even after an elected parliament is seated and a new president is
voted in.

The military-backed Cabinet said in a statement that elections set to
begin on Nov. 28 would take place on time and thanked the police for their
"restraint," language that is likely to enrage the protesters even more.

"We're not going anywhere," protester Mohammed Radwan said after security
forces tried unsuccessfully to push the crowds out of Tahrir, the
epicenter of the uprising. "The mood is good now and people are chanting
again," he added after many of the demonstrators returned.

Two protesters were killed on Saturday, putting the toll for two days of
violence to nine. The clashes were some of the worst since the uprising
ended on Feb. 11.

They were also one of only a few violent confrontations to involve the
police since the uprising. The black-clad police were a hated symbol of
Mubarak's regime and after the uprising, they have largely stayed in the
background while the military took charge of security.

The military, which took over from Mubarak, has repeatedly pledged to hand
power to an elected civilian government, but has yet to set a specific
date. The protests over the past two days have demanded a specific date be
set.

According to one timetable floated by the army, the handover will happen
after presidential elections late next year or early in 2013. The
protesters say this is too long and accuse the military of dragging its
feet. They want a handover immediately after the end of the staggered
parliamentary elections, which begin on Nov. 28 and end in March.

The protesters' suspicions about the military were fed by a proposal
issued by the military-appointed Cabinet last week. It would shield the
armed forces from any civilian oversight and give the generals veto power
over legislation dealing with military affairs.

But other concerns are also feeding the tensions on the street. Many
Egyptians are anxious about what the impending elections will bring.
Specifically they worry that stalwarts of Mubarak's ruling party could win
a significant number of seats in the next parliament because the military
did not ban them from running for public office as requested by activists.

The military's failure to issue such a ban has fed widely held suspicion
that the generals are reluctant to dismantle the old regime, partly out of
loyalty to Mubarak, their longtime mentor.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued a statement expressing
"regret for the events."

The council doesn't intend "to extend the transitional period and will not
permit by any means hindering the process of democratic transition," it
said a statement read out on state TV.

The violence began Saturday when security forces stormed a sit-in at
Tahrir Square staged by protesters wounded in clashes during the 18-day
uprising in January and February and frustrated by the slow pace of
bringing those responsible to justice.

The wounded, some on crutches, ran away when police attacked, but some
fell down and were beaten by police.

One of those injured on Saturday was dentist Ahmed Hararah, who lost the
sight in his right eye on Jan. 28 and now thinks he lost the sight in his
left eye despite treatment at an eye hospital in Cairo.

The violence resumed Sunday, when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets
to try to clear about 5,000 protesters still in Tahrir. Many chanted
"freedom, freedom" as they pelted police with rocks and a white cloud of
tear gas hung in the air.

"We have a single demand: The marshal must step down and be replaced by a
civilian council," said protester Ahmed Hani, referring to Field Marshal
Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling military council and Mubarak's
longtime defense minister. "The violence yesterday showed us that Mubarak
is still in power," said Hani, who was wounded in the forehead by a rubber
bullet.

Many of the protesters had red eyes and coughed incessantly. Some wore
surgical masks to ward off the tear gas. A few fainted, overwhelmed by the
gas.

Around sundown, an Associated Press reporter in Tahrir said police and
troops briefly chased the protesters out of most of the square. They set
at least a dozen of the protesters' tents, along with blankets and
banners, ablaze after nightfall and a pall of black smoke rose over the
square as the sound of gunshots rang out.

"This is what they (the military) will do if they rule the country," one
protester screamed while running away from the approaching security
forces.

Protesters initially ran away in panic while being chased by army soldiers
and police hitting them with clubs. But they later regrouped at the
southern entrance of the square next to the famed Egyptian museum and
began to walk back to the square. Hundreds made their way back, waving the
red, white and black Egyptian flags and chanting "Allahu akbar," or God is
great.

Both sides then began pelting each other with rocks.

Security forces pulled back to the outskirts of the square, where clashes
continued into the night.

A medical official at Cairo's main morgue said at least seven protesters
were killed on Sunday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was
not authorized to talk to reporters.

Doctors at two field hospitals in the square said that among the dead was
one man killed by a blow to his head and another by gunshots.

Rocks, shattered glass and trash covered Tahrir Square and the side
streets around it. The windows of the main campus of the American
University in Cairo, which overlooks the square, were shattered and stores
were shuttered.

"The marshal is Mubarak's dog," read freshly scrawled graffiti in the square.

An Interior Ministry statement said 55 protesters have been arrested since
the violence began on Saturday and a total of 85 policemen were hurt in
clashes. It said some of the protesters were using firearms, firebombs and
knifes to attack security forces.

Doctors staffing two field hospitals in the square said they have treated
around 700 protesters on Sunday. Alaa Mohammed, a doctor, said most of
those treated suffered breathing problems or wounds caused by rubber
bullets.

"The police are targeting the head, not the legs as they normally do,"
said Mohammed.

Clashes also took place in the city of Suez east of Cairo, the coastal
city of el-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, the city of Alexandria and Assiut
in southern Egypt.

___

Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy contributed to this report from Cairo.

Ex-Guantánamo prisoner seeks amnesty from Egyptian military

August 2, 2011 Reprive

Reprieve is calling on Egypt's Military Prosecutor to grant an immediate amnesty to Adel Al-Gazzar, a former Red Crescent volunteer erroneously held in Guantánamo for eight years and subsequently arrested on returning home to Egypt in June.

Adel remains imprisoned by the Egyptian military on the basis of an in absentia sentence handed down by the Mubarak regime in 2002, while Adel was in Guantánamo and unaware that the trial was even taking place.

Due to the flimsiness of the Mubarak-era charges, Adel’s lawyers are confident that his sentence would be overturned on appeal. However, 50 days of the 60-day window during which Adel has a legal right to appeal have now passed and the Military Prosecutor continues to create arbitrary obstacles, effectively preventing him from challenging his imprisonment.

Reprieve is alarmed by the Egyptian military's apparent attempt to strip Adel once more of his legal rights, and is now calling on the Military Prosecutor to grant compassionate release on the basis that he has already endured nearly decade of unlawful imprisonment without charge or trial.

While in US custody at Kandahar and then Guantánamo, Adel was subjected to torture – including routine beatings, exposure to freezing temperatures and sleep deprivation – and lost a leg to gangrene due to medical negligence.

Soon after Adel was sold into US custody, the US authorities realized that they had made a mistake and he was cleared for release. However, because the US deemed it unsafe for Adel to return to Egypt, he spent eight years in Guantánamo. He was eventually transferred to Slovakia where he was illegally imprisoned in an immigration detention centre for over six months.

It was urgent concerns about his family that forced Adel returned to Egypt in June, despite the risk of re-arrest and imprisonment. Adel’s family has been left extremely vulnerable by his decade-long absence. His four children whom he had last seen as babies are now teenagers and his elderly mother recently suffered a cerebral hemorrhage which has left her paralyzed and requiring full-time care.

Reprieve's Life After Guantanamo Project Officer, Katie Taylor said: “Adel has already suffered far too much in one lifetime. He has been unjustly detained for nearly a decade, and as a result, has suffered permanent injury and chronic health problems and his family now stands on the edge of poverty. The Military Prosecutor has the ability to finally give Adel and his family the justice that is long overdue by granting him amnesty and releasing him.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. For further information please contact Donald Campbell in Reprieve’s press office on +44 (0) 20 7427 1082 / (0) 7791 755 415

2. Adel Al Gazzar was injured in a US airstrike while volunteering with the Red Crescent in Afghanistan, and subsequently sold from his hospital bed in Pakistan to American security agents for a bounty; he was then brutally tortured in Kandahar, subjected to medical neglect so severe it resulted in the amputation of his leg, detained in Guantánamo Bay for eight years without charge or trial, and detained in a Slovakian immigration detention centre upon his release from Guantánamo—again without charge or reason. He returned to Egypt to be reunited with his family, hoping that Egypt’s revolution would have led to a transformation in the Mubarak-era judicial process, but was arrested on arrival at the airport and has been imprisoned ever since. His lawyers’ efforts to submit a memorandum of appeal—a right guaranteed under Egyptian law—have been thwarted by the Military Prosecutor. Further information on Adel can be found here: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/cases/adelalgazzar

Egyptians riot in Suez over police trials

July 6, 2011 BBC

Riots have erupted in the Egyptian city of Suez, after a court upheld the
release on bail of policemen accused of killing 17 people during the
uprising.

Hundreds of family members of the victims attacked police cars and pelted
the court building with stones.

Similar clashes erupted in Cairo on Monday when the seven officers were
originally granted bail.

Anger has been growing in Egypt about the slow pace of trials for
Mubarak-era officials and security forces.

Activists have called for a million-strong demonstration on Friday in
Cairo's Tahrir Square - the epicentre of the 18-day uprising that forced
President Hosni Mubarak to resign on 11 February.
Brotherhood backing

Since then, only one policeman has been convicted in more than a dozen
court cases over the deaths of nearly 850 people in the government
crackdown on protesters, the AP news agency reports. He was tried in
absentia.

And on Tuesday, a Cairo court acquitted three ministers from the Mubarak
regime who had been charged with squandering public funds.

Following today's release on bail of the Suez policemen, Egypt's powerful
Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement said it would back Friday's planned
protest.

"The Brotherhood has decided to participate in the demonstration on 8 July
[aimed at] raising the flag of justice so that all rights can be regained,
and all criminals punished and all the demands of the revolution met," it
said.

Official figures show that at least 846 people died in the
January-February uprising, and 6,000 more were injured.

Some 10,000 civilians face military trials for their part in the protests,
which has further enraged pro-democracy activists demanding an end to the
repressive methods of the old regime.

Ex-Guantanamo prisoner held in Egypt

After a decade in detention, Adel al-Gazzar arrested on his return home on what his lawyers call "trumped-up charges".

by Bilal Randeree 14 Jun 2011 Al jazeera

Adel al-Gazzar spent eight years at Guantanamo Bay after it was deemed unsafe for him to return to Egypt [Reuters]

Egyptian police have arrested a man who returned home after being jailed for years at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay.

Adel al-Gazzar told reporters on Monday that the Americans had not sent him back to Egypt for fear that he would be tortured in his homeland.

He was arrested upon arrival in Egypt on what his lawyers describe as "trumped-up charges".

Katie Taylor, who works for Reprieve, a legal charity based in London that represents prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, told Al Jazeera that al-Gazzar suffered a "decade-long ordeal of torture and detention without trial".

"He arrived home to Egypt, only to face further discredited, trumped-up charges."

Al-Gazzar was sentenced in absentia in Egypt in 2001 to three years in prison for affiliation with a group called Al-Wa'ad.

'Political prisoner'

Ahmed Ghappour, al-Gazzar's lawyer in the US, said that nearly half of the defendants present at the trial were found innocent.

"Such cases were often used as a tool by the Mubarak regime to silence dissent," Ghappour said.

He added that before being arrested in Egypt, Al-Gazzar was "allowed to see his wife and four children for about an hour". This was the first time he had seen them in over ten years.

Katherine O'Shea, press officer for Reprieve, told Al Jazeera that Al-Gazzar was taken to "the Military Prosecution to sign his sentence, and was then transferred to the Criminal Prison of Appeals in Cairo".

"This is unusual as political prisoners are usually sent to the Tora prison, which has better conditions. The Criminal Prison of Appeals is overcrowded," O'Shea said.

She said that he on arrival at the prison, the security services were concerned about the conditions and decided to transfer him to be detained in the airport.

"Adel has been told that tomorrow he will be taken to the prison authority, who will determine which prison he will be sent to serve his sentence."

Not safe to return

Al-Gazzar says he went to Pakistan in 2000 to preach Islam, and signed up with the Red Crescent to go into Afghanistan to help refugees. Within two hours of crossing the border to a refugee camp, the area was hit by a US airstrike.

His leg was injured in the airstrike and he was treated in a Pakistani hospital. He says he was sold to the US military for a bounty and transferred to a US prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Al-Gazzar was reportedly tortured for eleven days before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay. He had received no medical attention during his time in Kandahar, and as a result, his leg had to be amputated.

Cleared for release by US authorities, it was deemed unsafe for him to return to Egypt and he had to wait eight years for a third country to accept him.

Released from Guantanamo in 2010, he was transferred to Slovakia where he was imprisoned in an immigration detention centre for more than six months.

He was released after going on a hunger strike to protest against the manner in which he was being held.

Katie Taylor said that Reprieve was calling for Al-Gazzar to be allowed "to rejoin his beloved family and to build a new life in the new Egypt".

"What kind of ‘Arab Spring’ is it when the Egyptian military compounds the mistakes of America's 'War of Terror'?"

Egypt remembers man whose death sparked revolution

By MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press – Mon Jun 6, 2011

CAIRO – Crowds of Egyptians dressed in black held demonstrations Monday to
honor a young man from Alexandria beaten to death a year ago in a savage
attack blamed on police that helped inspire the uprising that brought down
Egypt's president.

Photographs of Khaled Said's badly disfigured and bloodied face were
posted on the Internet and became an instant rallying point for
campaigners trying to bring attention to rampant police brutality under
the regime of Hosni Mubarak.

A Facebook page in his honor called "We are all Khaled Said" was used
months later to call for the protests that toppled Mubarak on Feb. 11.

On Monday's anniversary of his death, crowds held protests in Cairo and
Alexandria to remember him and draw attention to continued abuses by
Egyptian police.

In Cairo, about 300 activists demonstrated in front of the Interior
Ministry, spray-painting pictures of Said's face onto a wall of the
building and around its entrance. They raised banners reading "Enough
police abuse" and calling for the trial of those who killed protesters in
Egypt's uprising.

Some chanted, "Is Mubarak still ruling or what?" and "We are all Khaled
Said."

Around 100 others in black help pictures of Said on one of the main
bridges across the Nile, passing out leaflets calling for a large protest
Monday against police abuse.

A year later, Said's death continues to stir anger, especially since the
policemen accused of killing him are still on trial. The court is set to
issue its verdict at the end of this month.

The trial of police agents Mahmoud Salah and Awad Ismail Suleiman was
postponed repeatedly after Mubarak's ouster because court officials said
it would be difficult to secure the proceedings.

The circumstances of Said's slaying — witnesses say two plainclothes
officers dragged him from an Internet cafe and beat him to death on the
street — resonated with many young Egyptians.

The reason he was confronted by police has never been fully explained.

Security forces and forensics reports initially maintained Said suffocated
by swallowing a packet of drugs when he was approached — a claim met with
derision after the photos were circulated showing his body covered with
bruises, his teeth broken and jaw smashed.

After a public outcry, prosecutors charged Salah and Suleiman with illegal
arrest and harsh treatment, falling short of his family's demands for a
murder charge.

Said's family visited his grave in an Alexandria cemetery on Monday. His
mother, Laila Marzouq, wearing a pendant around her neck with a photo of
her son, sat beside the tombstone.

In front of Said's house in Alexandria, his family and hundreds of
protesters in black held a silent demonstration.

"As long as there is no prosecution of those who practiced torture there
will be always torture," said his sister, Zuhra. "As long as there is no
punishment, no justice, I can't forgive."

Adding to Egyptians' frustration is the continuation of police abuse even
after Egypt's most feared security apparatus, State Security, was
dissolved after Mubarak's ouster.

Rights activists have raised claims that several people have been killed
by police in recent weeks. In one case, a bus driver is believed to have
been beaten to death by police in downtown Cairo.

Egypt's interim military rulers are also accused of abusing protesters
detained during rallies calling for a faster transition to democracy and
quick prosecution of Mubarak and other regime officials.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Council of The Armed Forces announced Monday that
in mid-June it will end the overnight curfew that has been in place in
many parts of Egypt since the uprising.