The Skeptic الشكاك

126 Out with the old, in with the old

Nobody knew what to expect of yesterday’s protests marking the anniversary of last year’s violent dispersal of protests against an amendment to the Constitution governing the conduct of the Egyptian presidential elections.

Some expected continued police violence. The Interior Ministry had detained hundreds of activists over the previous month. Interior Ministry thugs had beaten dozens of others in the street. Police had beaten and sexually assaulted journalists and even a senior judge. A court refused to hear Ayman Nour’s appeal of his sentence to five years in prison.

“The age of protest in Egypt is over,” a State Security official reportedly told Ahmed Salah, a pro-democracy activist detained early in the crackdown, while he was in detention. “For a year and a half there was a little break. Now this is finished. Now, when you demonstrate, you go to jail.”

One Tuesday, President Mubarak, apparently confusing himself with God, told the quasi-official daily Al-Gomhuria that coverage of police violence against protesters was “libel and blasphemy,” that the press reports were illegal under Egyptian law (true), and that the only reason the journalists weren’t in jail for reporting them was because he supports freedom of the press.

Others thought the government would not crack down on these protests. International newspapers, rights organizations, and governments had sharply criticized the government’s actions. The Washington Post hinted that Dick Cheney had called Gamal Mubarak, son and possible heir to the president, on to the carpet about the crackdown. A reporter friend with good contacts in the U.S. State Department and Cheney’s office told me that his connections in both places had confirmed that Cheney had delivered a stiff message about the crackdown to Gamal. Though these off-the-record, wink-wink, nudge-nudge “leaks” smelled of the U.S. government telling reporters what they wanted to hear without actually having to go on record as having told them anything, the regime’s light treatment of Justices Mekki and Al-Bastawissi and its release of prisoners detained April 24 seemed to confirm the rumors and to suggest the government would not crack down on the May 25 protests.

In the event, both the optimists and the pessimists were right. The protests passed peacefully. When I showed up at the Journalists’ Syndicate yesterday, a State Security official asked who I worked for. Having passed several squads of glowering beltagiya—plainclothes State Security officers who have been responsible for most of the violence over the past month—on my way in, I was nervous. I told him I was a human-rights researcher. His face lit up. “Welcome, be at ease,” he said, inviting me to pass through the police lines into the crowd of protesters gathered on the steps of Journalists’ Syndicate. “Freedom,” he exclaimed, spreading his arms in an expansive gesture at the protesters. I thanked him and declined the invitation to cross the police lines.

Hundreds of judges, encircled by an enormous Egyptian flag, marched from the Judges Club around the corner to the High Court, composed themselves into dignified poses for the cameras, received the crowd’s enthusiastic applause, then left without incident. Leaders marched back around to the Journalists’ Syndicate and saluted the Kifaya protesters, who went bananas (see photo, top). “At times like this, I’m proud to be an Egyptian,” one woman told me. “Should we ululate? I want to ululate,” another woman asked her friend. “No, these are judges. They might not approve.”

The protesters stayed on the steps of the Journalists’ Syndicate until they had shouted themselves hoarse at around 3:30 p.m. They were allowed to leave peacefully. One friend, a journalist for the LA Times, was pepper-sprayed as he was trying to cross police lines to leave the protest, but I saw him immediately afterward and he was fine. I’ve posted a few photos of the day’s events on Flickr. Contributors to Arabist.net were all over it. Sandmonkey has some very funny quotes from his day in the sun.
It seemed the day had passed peacefully, that the government deserved congratulations for having come to its senses and realizing that cracking down on such protests damage it far more than permitting them. And then word came over SMS that Karim Al-Shaer and Mohamed Al-Sharqawi, two recently released activists who had defied warnings not to attend further protests, had been arrested, beaten, and brutally sexually assaulted in police custody at the Qasr al-Nil police station in downtown Cairo. Activists who saw them at the State Security Prosecutor’s office collected their testimony. State Security interrogators imprisoned both for another 15 days. Ahmed Salah, another recently released activist who had defied warnings not to participate in further protests, managed to escape arrest by hiding in the Judges’ Club.

Yesterday’s message was clear: this protest would be tolerated. But lest anyone think the government had relinquished control, the Interior Ministry would keep its promises to the detainees. And the beltagiya would still stand in disciplined rows, clubs at the ready, as a reminder. The government had retreated from its tough stance of the past weeks, but it was a tactical retreat, and could be temporary. The ground rules still apply.

[tags]Egypt, judges, protests, kifaya[/tags]

3 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

1. I found this quote from the Daily Star article particularly creepy:

   “Mubarak said his policy toward the banned Muslim Brotherhood was unfairly characterized as harsh.

   “Mubarak, and no one else, has allowed their entrance into the parliament as the biggest opposition block, although he could have prohibited them if he wanted,” he said, speaking about himself in the third person.”

   This immediately brought to mind a grotesque, one-eyed, comic megalomaniac ’80s Bollywood villain called Mogambo, who always referred to himself in the third person. “Mogambo is happy” or “Mogambo is displeased.”

   Comment by SP — May 27, 2006 #

2. Too funny. I know Issandr and Angry Arab have been on the vache qui rit kick… might start the Mogambo kick.

   Comment by Administrator — May 28, 2006 #

3. […] I was among those who blogged an Associated Press’ story reporting that Mubarak had told Al-Gomhouria that press reports about police beating protesters were “libel and blasphemy.” AP issued a correction. It was an Al-Gomhouria editorial, not Mubarak.   […]

   Pingback by The Skeptic ?????? » Correction — June 1, 2006 #

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.

I'm Reading: