Egypt Torturing Anti-War Activists
uploaded 25 Mar 2003
Egypt Torturing Anti-War Activists, Group says
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Anti-war activists and protesters detained by Egyptian
authorities in recent days are being tortured by police, Human Rights
Watch (HRW) charged Monday in a detailed release that includes accounts
by eyewitnesses and activists.
The New York-based rights group added that hundreds more people have been
injured by brutal police actions to contain and suppress the protests
against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and Israeli actions in the Occupied
Territories, which have reportedly shaken the 21-year-old government of
President Hosni Mubarak.
The security forces have used water cannons, clubs, dogs, and even stones
against thousands of demonstrators at Tharir Square, Al-Azhar Mosque,
Talaat Harb Square, Ramses Street, and the State Broadcasting Corporation
beginning March 20.
Among those beaten or arrested are university professors, students,
journalists, and even opposition members of parliament. In some cases,
children as young as 15 years old were taken to jail with their parents,
according to HRW.
Some detainees reported hearing others being threatened and then tortured
with electroshocks at one detention facility controlled by State Security
Intelligence.
"The crackdown many feared has come," said Hanny Megally,
executive director of HRW's Middle East and North Africa division.
"Fundamental freedoms in Egypt are now under serious threat,"
he added.
The protests in Cairo, whose size and spontaneity have reportedly
surprised authorities and diplomatic observers, are part of a series that
have taken place throughout much of the Arab world in the wake of the
U.S.-led invasion that began last week.
In Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, at least three people were killed and
scores more injured during a violent clash involving tens of thousands of
people over the weekend, while thousands of protestors fought with riot
police in Amman, the capital of Jordan.
If the protests become more violent Arab leaders friendly to the United
States could face "a serious threat", a prominent political
analyst in Cairo, Diaa Rashwan of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and
Strategic Studies, told Sunday's Washington Post.
"Arab leaders, especially in Egypt and in the Persian Gulf, are in a
very, very, very dangerous situation," he said. "We could all
feel this danger coming."
Indeed, both Mubarak and King Abdullah of Jordan repeatedly warned the
administration of U.S. President George W. Bush since last summer that an
invasion of Iraq risked destabilizing the region.
In the last couple of weeks, influential moderate Muslim scholars,
including many at Cairo's Al-Azhar Al-Sharif Islamic Research Academy,
perhaps the most prestigious center of Islamic learning in the world,
have become increasingly outspoken against an invasion, even calling for
Muslim rulers not to cooperate in any way with U.S. war plans.
Megally said that what began as isolated detentions of Egyptian anti-war
activists in December and January has now become a sweeping repression of
dissent.
Arrests followed a massive but generally peaceful demonstration in Tahrir
Square, which was closed for some 10 hours by tens of thousands of
protestors Thursday. While the police violently restrained demonstrators
from marching from the square to the U.S. and British embassies, the
protest was permitted to go on unhindered.
But on Friday smaller demonstrations throughout Cairo met a violent
response by the authorities, who alleged that clashes broke out after a
car was torched near Tahrir Square. At that point, police began subduing,
beating and arresting large numbers of demonstrators with excessive
force, said HRW.
On Saturday morning, arrests continued. At least three female students
who have been prominent anti-war activists were arrested on their way to
a demonstration on the Cairo University campus. One of them, who was
pregnant, was reportedly beaten, bound and blindfolded, and her
whereabouts have still not been established.
Most of the detainees were reportedly taken to al-Darrassa, a Central
Security barracks in Cairo.
Source: Common Dreams
