Massacre of Sudanese refugees in Cairo

Thanks to Ian Birchall for forwarding this link to an excellent piece by Joel Beinin and Hossam el-Hamalawy on the current strike wave taking place in Egypt.

Where the police are reported to have arrested over five hundred demonstrators. Coverage here, here and (bizarrely) on Harry's Place. More contex

There was a superb piece in yesterday's Guardian by Mahmud Mekki and Hisham Bastawisi, two of the judges at the heart of the ongoing protests in Cairo. It should be compulsory reading for all those who think democracy and the rule of law are Western concepts: people are fighting for them today, and in Egypt most of those people are Muslims.

The Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is now holding a European tour which covers Italy, Germany and France.

This visit is taking place while more than 188 Egyptian activists (Islamists, Socialist, Liberals, Nasserites, and independents) have been arrested the past two weeks for their Support for an independent judiciary and Against the extension of Emergency Law.

As they remain in custody under inhumane conditions with more than 37 of them on hunger strike, there is an emergency to show solidarity for democracy fighters in Egypt.

We call on Activists of all affiliations to Protest Against Mubarak's visit to their country.

Show Your solidarity with democracy activists and demand the immediate release of our colleagues

From: Egyptian Political Forces and Democracy Groups.

Eleven protesters were seized by Egyptian security forces on in front of the court in Cairo where a hearing was meant to take place in the case of the 48 democracy protesters arrested ten days ago. According to eyewitnesses, police beat and kicked demonstrators. Three were later released. Eight remain in custody, but their exact whereabouts are unknown.

The European Social Forum in Athens backed an international day of action on 25 May in support of the pro-reform judges whose protests led to the original arrests and in support of the detainees.

Please send messages of protest to the General Prosecutor, Maher Abdel Wahid, fax +202 577 4716.

Those detained on Sunday are:
- Ahmed Abdel Gawad, Ghad party, Youth for Change activist
- Ahmed Abdel Ghaffar, Youth for Change activist
- Alaa Ahmed Seif, Youth for Change activist, and son of Ahmed Seif the director of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, one of the most outspoken human rights organizations in Egypt.
- Asmaa Ali, Center for Socialist Studies and Youth for Change activist
- Fadi Iskandar, Karama party, Youth for Change activist
- Karim El Shaer, Labour party and Youth for Change activist
- Nada el Qassas, Kefaya movement
- Rasha Azab, Youth for Change activist

More details here and below

2 May 2006: When the judges went on strike

I've posted previously on the reform movement in Egypt, but nothing I've heard of matches the scale of last Thursday and Friday's events: first, a number of judges announced that they no longer believed that last year's 'elections' had been free and fair, then the judges (expecting to be arrested) barricaded themselves in the Cairo judges club, next a large movement of people from the kefiye democracy network took to the streets, marching in support of the judges, after that the police and army turned up (some US papers have estimated that 10,000 troops were sent out), and then the arrests began. More details here, here, and here.

I have just been sent the following message from friends in Egypt: 'At about 3:00 am on Monday 24 April, the Egyptian police raided a solidarity sit-in organised by Kefaya members and other activists of the democratic movement in front of the Judges Club in Cairo. The sit-in aimed at expressing solidarity with the Judges in their sit-in (inside their club) in protest of the state's attempt to terrorize the club and the reformist judges from exposing violations and corruption and rigging of the last parliamentary elections (The state - represented by the appointed Juridical Supreme Council - decided to send two of the leading judges to a committee to penalize them, and the committee, which would congregate on Thursday 27 April, have the power to lay the two judges off). The police raid on the dawn of the 24th of April resulted in arresting 12 activists, and in beating a university professor and a judge. The 12 activists were sent to the prosecutor office who decided to put them in custody for 15 days. More repression is expected in the coming few days as the 2 reformist judges are expected to stand in front of the committee on Thursday morning, and as the democratic movement is planning to escalate its solidarity campaign. Your solidarity is needed. If Mubarak's repressive regime succeeds in crushing the judges reformist movement and the solidarity campaign, this would be a big setback to the democratic movement in Egypt. We need your support in whichever way you can: publishing news of the event in the press, solidarity statements, letters by MPs MEPs, demos in front of Egyptian embassies.. etc. The detained activists, and the movement, need your help and solidarity.. do not hesitate. Solidarity is Strength.'

Massacres in Cairo

Readers of this blog will know that at the end of the year I put up links to an eyewitness account of the massacre that took place in Cairo last December against Sudanese refugees. The Al-Jazeera account is here.

I was surprised therefore to receive an email today, stating the opposite view to mine: that the massacres was in some senses warranted.

> As a British resident of Cairo, I believe that your reporting of this so-called massacre is one sided and does not help the plight of the Sudanese community in Cairo.
> First, there are two kinds of asylum seekers - the refugees from Darfur, which all of us agree are genuine refugees from genocide.

> The others from Southern Sudan are economic migrants who wish to be "transferred" to Europe or America. This scenario is now closed to them as Egypt has provided a safe haven for them, for some time. They can work, have financial assistance from the UN and the Christian churches etc. Please understand that Egypt is a poor country and has enough to do providing for its own indigenous population without the extra responsibility of the Southern Sudanese.
> Your "demands" are arrogant and serve no useful purpose. As a long-term resident of Egypt I can testify to the Egyptian tolerance of "colour blindness" and religious indifference.
> I speak as a supporter of "genuine" refugees.

I have written elsewhere against the casual discrimination that says that it is legitimate for white English people to travel abroad in search of work but profoundly wrong when black Africans attempt to follow. What I have not been able to show before is the connection between that economic discrimination, and the next step: the acceptance that it is fair for economic migrants to suffer any privation, even death.

People will recall that in order to clear a square filled with Sudanese refugees, the Egyptian government murdered a number of people - according to the Al-Jazeera report cited above even the Egyptian government claimed to have killed 10 people, while other contemporary eyewitness accounts put the number as far higher.

Anyone who believes that economic migrants should be banned from traveling is in my book wrong. Anyone who believes that economic migrants can be killed in their tents, or stampeded to death as they flee the police, has stepped into a category of something worse.

Since the UNHCR office in Egypt believes that the demands of the Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt aiming to reach fair and just solutions, are unrealistic and that most of them do not lie within its mandate, it was only reasonable to reduce the 20 demands, despite their legitimacy and importance. We have agreed to reduce our demands to the following, in the hope to reach a point of understanding and consensus so that UNHCR can respond to those demands of the Sudanese refugees according to the principles and rights of the refugees:

A reconsideration of the closed files of Sudanese asylum seekers and a revision of the reasons for their closure taking into consideration the time of this closure and finding a fair solution according to international principles concerning the rights of the refugees.

A settlement of the asylum situation of all refugees, especially the homeless elderly, children with no caretakers, widows and family caretakers and providing them with the necessary aid and support.

That interview procedures be resumed on an individual basis for Sudanese asylum seekers since the reason for asylum seeking is different from one to the other.

Removal of the block of aid and services to those acknowledged as refugees and those who have received permanent or collective protection. The block aimed to force Sudanese refugees to accept “voluntary return” at a time where Sudan suffers security instability and lack of commitment on part of national assembly branch of the regime, to a transparent implementation of provisions of the peace treaty.

We refuse the offer of local integration in view of the lack of any legislations or regulations in the host country that grant citizenship rights to the refuges starting from the right to the nationality, freedom of expression, political participation etc. in addition to the lack of working opportunities and social services which are barely sufficient for the local population either because of the large size of the population which is inversely proportional to the available economic resources or as a result fo the state policy towards foreign citizens. Also the ethnic, cultural and sometimes religious differences of the refugees from the local population have created a rejection by the population of the host country to the refuges amounting sometimes to racial discrimination which further weakens the possibility of local integration in the host country.

We refuse the arbitrary detention of Sudanese refugees in the absence of any crime and further their deprivation of a fair and just trial.

We demand that newcomers be registered as soon as they arrive in the host country to prevent their deportation or their forced return to the country from which they have fled for fear of their lives and in search for protection.

We demand a search for the Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers who have disappeared in the host country to avoid an accusations of elements of the Sudanese National Congress in Cairo who have persistently persecuted Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers or any other parties of their disappearance.

We refuse that Sudanese social or ethnic alliances of organizations be taken to speak on behalf of the Sudanese refugees since they do not adequately represent them.

We demand the implementation of international principles to determine the situation of refugees in full clarity and transparency.

We demand a radical solution to the problems of the Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers and the newcomers or their transfer to another country where their situation as refugees is defined with greater clarity and transparency.