Again and again demonstrators gathered in the streets and sidewalks of downtown Cairo, chanting slogans like "Freedom, Freedom, where are you?" Again and again the police had the same response.
They rushed the protesters, dragging the leaders away, pushing others to the ground, kicking and beating them. The protesters scattered, regrouped, and the police charged them again and again. (from VOA News)
Egyptian protesters gathered today to stop a disciplinary hearing against two judges who were detained and formally stripped of their judicial privileges due to their investigations into the violence and fraud in the recent Egyptian elections. More below...
Suppose America had an election where, in precincts that favored candidates opposed to the President, thousands of people were intimidated or beaten by the police and National Guard for attempting to vote or for acting as election monitors.
Further, suppose that two judges charged with overseeing the election and the investigations into allegations of election fraud and intimidation have been formally stripped of the privileges accorded them as jurists, and are to appear before a disciplinary committee appointed by the executive branch. When judges from around the country gather for a peaceful sit-in protest in Washington, citizens and representatives of other professional associations who gather in support – and even some of the judges themselves – are beaten by security forces. People are arrested on the charge of "supporting the judges" – which, of course, appears in nowhere in the legal code.
Finally, suppose that the reason that the judiciary is so united in opposition to the administration is that the Constitution has been suspended for 25 years under an "Emergency Law" that creates a de facto dictatorship with one party rule, and that they are demanding reforms that will bring real independence between judiciary and executive powers.
This is the kind of situation that arises in a country that loses the rule of law, and it is this situation – in its Egyptian equivalent – that motivated the repeated clashes between protestors and Egyptian security forces in Cairo today.
VOA News also reports that the security forces attacked reporters. Human rights activist Hossam Bahgat told VOA that he saw police "disrupt a television interview" and that some of the people involved were "carried into police trucks while their noses and mouths were bleeding."
More from VOA News:
An American reporter, Hannah Allam of Knight Ridder newspapers, was surrounded by plainclothes security and manhandled as she attempted to take a picture of someone being beaten. She said the police groped her and tried to tear off her blouse before colleagues heard her screams and intervened.
A few meters away, an al-Jazeera cameraman was severely beaten, his videotape confiscated. Television crews from Reuters and CNN were also attacked and had their cameras smashed or taken. A uniformed officer tried to smash the digital camera of a VOA reporter.
Violence against reporters, and molestation of female protesters and reporters by security forces has been common during the pro-democracy protests that have been occurring in Egypt for over a year.
The British newspaper Guardian yesterday published a letter by the two accused judges, Mahmoud Mekky and Hisham al-Bastawisy:
For more than 20 years, members of the Egyptian judiciary have been fighting for independence from the state. The political and economic reforms needed to achieve democracy and to restore public faith in government can be achieved only under an independent judiciary. So we are shocked to find ourselves before a disciplinary court, made up of government appointees, on charges of insulting the judiciary. The decision of the court, which is expected tomorrow, is likely to be instant dismissal.
Last year, we were part of a working party that monitored parliamentary elections. This was set up by the general assembly of the Judges' Club, the elected body representing Egypt's judiciary. We identified violations in a large number of electoral constituencies. We demanded the opening of an investigation into election fraud, intimidation and assaults on judges who were supervising the elections. Unfortunately a large number of those assaults were carried out by the very policemen who were charged with protecting us.
When the justice minister issued a decision to bring us before the disciplinary court, the Judges' Club called a protest sit-in. A large number of judges and other citizens turned up to show support for the judges' demands. After midnight, shortly after the sit-in began, our supporters were attacked by the police, yet they returned the following day in a show of defiance. Once again there was a savage attack by several thousand police officers. They surrounded the people protesting outside the club, beat them and carried them off in goods vans. One of the judges, Mahmud Hamza, was standing at the door of the club, recording what was happening on his mobile phone. An officer dragged him into the street and beat him up, causing numerous injuries.
Egyptian blogger Baheyya had this to say about the judges' piece:
[I]n what may very well be a first, sitting Egyptians judges have penned an opinion piece in a major foreign newspaper ... thus considerably widening the audience for this remarkable drama. Particularly notable are the two judges' firm avowals of self-reliance in their battle for autonomy. As is to be expected, powerful third parties are now intensely interested in what used to be the marginal and rarefied affair of Egyptian judicial independence, viz. American and European governments. I read Mekky and Bastawisi's concluding statement as a clear signal that they will have no truck with attempts to appropriate their struggle by those who have their own agendas: "In Egypt we don't have any confidence in US policy because it is a contradictory policy that pays lip service to democracy while supporting dictatorships. We have confidence in the Egyptian people. We welcome support from any quarter, but we won't rely on it. We will depend on ourselves in our campaign for reform and change."
According to VOA News, the disciplinary hearing for Mekky and Bastawisi has been postponed, and Bastawisi refused to enter the court building after other judges who had turned out to support him were barred entry.
He said he will boycott the hearing until police release all of the detained protesters. "They are beating the people in the street," El-Bastawisy says. "The women. It is like a war in Cairo. I will not go to that court until releasing everyone they catch. I cannot go to a trial in this situation. Thousands of policemen. It is not a trial. It is a war. It is a real war. War in the streets."
Political science professor Marc Lynch (a.k.a. Abu Aardvark) has details on the reaction to these events in the Arab Media, and also notes that the U.S. State Department has deigned to take notice of the situation:
We are deeply concerned by reports of Egyptian Government arrests and repression of demonstrators protesting election fraud and calling for an independent judiciary. Particularly troubling are reports of Egyptian police tactics against demonstrators and journalists covering the event that left many injured. We urge the Egyptian Government to permit peaceful demonstrations on behalf of reform and civil liberties by those exercising their rights to freedom of assembly and expression.
We are also troubled by reports that the periods of detention of many of those arrested have been extended and that security-related charges have been filed against them. We have noted our serious concern about the path of political reform and democracy in Egypt and actions such as these are incongruous with the Egyptian Government's professed commitment to increased political openness and dialogue within Egyptian society. We will be following up with the Egyptian Government regarding our concerns and will continue to push for political reform and freedom of speech and press. We support the rights of Egyptians and people throughout the Middle East to peacefully advocate for democracy and political reform.
While the U.S. has made appropriate noises from time to time about recent conflicts in Egypt, there have also been events like Laura Bush's ill-timed visit to Egypt last year where she praised Mubarak's "democratic reforms" even though his attempt at liberalising Egypt's presidential election process was widely regarded as a sham. Two days after her visit, there was widespread violence against protesters during the referendum on the "reforms".
Update:
Some more links on this story:
What is happening in Egypt today has caught the men of the regime off guard. They never anticipated the resolve of judges to follow through on their mission of ensuring clean elections. They never anticipated the persistence and depth of popular support for the judges. And they never imagined that indiscriminate and brute force would only reinforce the resolve of both judges and activist segments of the public. Most of all, they never thought that election-time mobilisation would continue well after elections were over.
Note:
Baheyya writes mostly about Egyptian politics. However, she is an eloquent voice for democracy and for women's issues – a wonderful writer whose work resonates beyond the particular milieu she discusses. One of my favorite quotes from her:
The current American debates about how much and in what ways the United States government ought to promote Arab democracy are simply the latest disputes between longstanding policy schools within the American foreign policy establishment. Each faction's attempts to bolster its own credentials by including a few token Arabs or "Arabists" has more to do with winning the upper hand in the domestic debate than understanding or supporting Arab democratisation. Need it really be pointed out that real Arab democratisation means Arab citizens having a real say in every aspect of their lives, rather than submitting to new control projects masquerading as "curriculum and school reform," "NGO capacity building", "empowering women," "modernising religious discourse," "gradually opening up the political system," "transparency and accountability," and all the other euphemisms for continued government tutelage with American blessings? Above all, real Arab democratisation means the right to oppose U.S. and Arab government policies without being accused of anti-Americanism, recidivist Arab nationalism, Islamic "fundamentalism", shrill whateverism, and generally being treated like a mental patient who only needs a good dose of American "public diplomacy" to make everything all better.
(Cross-posted to My Left Wing)