Revolutie in Egypte #189: Waar een Israëlier is opgepakt.

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El Sokhna port at the mouth of the Suez Canal won't be operating today, protesters say

El Sokhna port has stopped operations today as the dock’s workers have cut the Qattamiya Ain Sokhna highway and joined the sit-in blocking the road to the port, say Suez protesters.

Eye-wittnesses told Ahram Online many workers from both the El Sokhna port and factories and companies in the area have joined the protesters blockading the highway in solidarity with the people of Suez..

El Sokhna port is controlled by the Red Sea Ports Authority and the ministry of transporation.

No less than 150 companies have reportedly stopped work today at Ain Sokhna because of the road block.

"Many of the workers in these companies have organized strikes and sit-ins in the past few months, demanding fair wages," says Mohamed Mahmoud, a member of the Suez Youth block. "Now is a perfect chance for them all to join forces and call for social justice in addition to swift trial of corruption. It makes sense that they sympathize with our sit-in," says Mahmoud.

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Egypt's military council to respond to protesters within hours, say Ahram Online sources

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is considering releasing a new communique within hours in response to sit-ins in Tahrir Square and across the country, an informed source has told Ahram Online. It is not clear yet whether the statement will be published on the military council's Facebook page or will be read out by one of its members on state TV.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf gave a short statement yesterday evening that intended to ease the tense atmosphere Egypt has been witnessing in the last two weeks. Sharaf's words, however, were ill-received positively by the protesters who have since called for a general strike in the coming days.

The military council are yet to respond to the demands put foward by the protesters and directed the interim rulers, not the government.

The General Freedoms Committee, which is part of the National Consensus Conference sponsored by the government, announced today that it supports the demands of the protesters, confirming that it agreed on the drafting of a new constitution, the formation of a civilian presidential council and an advisory council with civilian and military members.

According to MENA, Egypt's state news agency, Mohamed Fadaly, the head of the committee, announced that General Sami Enan, the Egyptian army's chief of staff, has commissioned the General Freedoms Committee to draft a new constitution.

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Protests spread in Egypt as discontent with military rule grows


Interim leader's speech fails to convince protesters blocking off Cairo bureaucratic headquarters and road to Suez canal

Protests have brought Egypt's administrative and commercial nerve centres to a standstill , as government attempts to stem a growing wave of opposition to military rule succeeded only in galvanising demonstrators further.

The interim prime minister, Essam Sharaf, took to the airwaves late on Saturday pledging to "meet the people's demands", following mass rallies across the country in which Egyptians accused the ruling council of army generals of betraying the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak this year.

In a short and strained address to the nation, Sharaf said all police officers accused of killing protesters would be stopped from working, and promised that the trials of former Mubarak ministers and other regime officials would proceed "as soon as possible". He insisted that social and economic problems would be reviewed by the army-appointed transitional cabinet.

But activists dismissed the announcement as empty rhetoric and claimed it contained nothing substantive. "His speech sounded like one of these tricks of the old government," Sherif, an engineer in his late 20s, told local news website Ahram Online. "If this government is unable to take serious steps, it should resign."

Several thousand people flocked to Cairo's Tahrir Square after Sharaf's speech. Anti-government activists have taken control of the roads there and an open-ended sit-in began on Friday. By Sunday morning, access to the Mugamma – a giant concrete building on one side of the square that serves as the bureaucratic heart of the Egyptian state – had been blocked off, with some employees reportedly joining the protests.

In Suez, another focal point for political unrest, the families of some of those killed in the anti-Mubarak uprising helped protesters cut off the main highway between Cairo and Sokhna port, the main transit point for goods entering and leaving the Suez canal. The canal has also been targeted by strikes and protests in recent days, although officials insisted that international maritime traffic remained unaffected.

Sharaf – a popular choice among revolutionaries when he was first appointed interim prime minister in March – has repeatedly claimed that he draws his legitimacy from Tahrir, and said again on Saturday that "the people" were the only sovereign power in Egypt. But analysts believe that the army generals have given him little control over policy and personnel decisions, and in recent weeks the 59-year-old has cut an increasingly frustrated figure in public.

Egyptian newspapers used their Sunday editions to highlight the widening gap between the supreme council of the armed forces, which assumed power in the aftermath of Mubarak's overthrow and has promised democratic elections before the end of the year, and large sections of the general public who believe that the pace of reform is too slow. "Protesters: Sharaf's decisions are not enough — Calls for hunger strikes and civil disobedience," stated the front-page headline in state-owned al-Ahram, the country's biggest-selling daily. Al-Tahrir, a new Egyptian paper that emerged out of the revolution, splashed with a smiling photo of the country's de facto leader, Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, under the words "The Marshall doesn't respond."

Activists have called for another round of mass demonstrations on Tuesday.

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Interior minister rejects PM’s instructions to dismiss police officers

Interior Minister Mansour al-Essawy on Sunday rejected instructions by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to dismiss police officers accused of killing protesters during the revolution from service.

“It is not in accordance with the law,” Essawy said. “Such a decision is in the hands of the Ministry of Interior.”

The minister also said that he was ready to resign if he felt that certain decisions were being imposed on him.

Responding to police officers alleging corruption within the Ministry of Interior, Essawy said that he has asked those officers to provide proof so that he can take immediate legal action; otherwise, he will sue them for libel.

Police officers staged demonstrations on Sunday, protesting the prime minister’s instructions. They said that the law allows the interior minister to temporarily suspend, not dismiss, the accused before the results of the investigations are announced, and that they should remain innocent until proven guilty.

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Op zondag 10 juli 2011 20:10 schreef rakotto het volgende:

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Street by street, Egypt activists face Old Guard

Associated Press= CAIRO (AP) — After the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, a group of young activists quickly moved to bring the can-do spirit of Egypt's revolution down to the level of their neighborhood.

They began installing electricity poles in Mit Oqba's dim streets. They got gas pipes extended to the area. They did what local officials had long promised but never done, with the aim of showing 300,000 low-income residents the benefits of an uprising meant to end the corruption and stagnation under Mubarak.

Then the activists' parents started getting intimidating warnings: Your children are going to get beaten up by thugs. An official who helped them get papers signed for extending the gas pipes was suddenly transferred to another post.

The activists had run into a collision course with powerful local members of the former ruling party. It was a lesson about the new Egypt: The old regime is still in place and fighting change.

"The regime is not just Mubarak and his ministers. There are thousands still benefiting," said Mohammed Magdy, one of the activists in Mit Oqba.

Mubarak was ousted five months ago, along with top figures from his nearly 30-year regime. But the military generals who now rule have been slow in — or have outright resisted — dismantling the grip that members of his former ruling party hold on every level of the state, from senior government positions down to local administrations. In the meantime, public anger that real change has not come is growing explosive.

The experience in Mit Oqba illustrates the conflict between old and new being waged street by street and neighborhood by neighborhood.

Under Mubarak's regime, more than 1,700 Local Councils nationwide, with more than 50,000 members, were elected in theory to represent their neighborhoods. In practice, they were a cog in the patronage and corruption machine of Mubarak's National Democratic Party. Election rigging ensured nearly all council members belonged to the party.

Often they would push projects that lined their own pockets or those of friends. For example, a street would get a new sidewalk if a firm close to the council or ruling party profited. Council members steered services to residents willing to do them a favor later.

The system helped ensure the regime's hold. Come election time, officials used their patronage to drum out voters for party candidates or to hire thugs to beat up opponents.

Late last month, a court ordered all Local Councils dissolved, potentially a significant step toward reform. But former members retain their connections, backed with cash, giving them a strong tool for regaining seats when new municipal elections are held.

"They have lots of money going around to people. They have ties with big families in the area," said Heba Ghanem, an activist working with Mit Oqba's Popular Committee. "Some who want to run for parliament are already slaughtering cows and distributing (the meat) in the neighborhood" — a common way to curry votes.

The same fear holds for national politics, where many one-time officials in Mubarak's party are gearing up to run for election in September.

The activist neighborhood groups, known as Popular Committees, aim to break not just corruption but also the apathy of Egyptians who have given up trying to make things better. They were born from impromptu neighborhood watch groups that defended homes in a wave of looting during the anti-Mubarak uprising.

The watch groups were widely popular as an example of Egyptians working together on their own initiative, and they won support from the young people who had fueled the anti-Mubarak revolt. There are now nearly 50 "Popular Committees" nationwide, each with volunteers working in their home neighborhoods.

Their self-imposed mandate: Make things better and get things done. Many of them have taken the additional title of "in defense of the Revolution."

That can mean anything — fixing infrastructure and providing literacy classes, working with residents on rooftop gardens or on better water usage, or monitoring officials to keep them accountable. Some conduct "name and shame" campaigns to expose those who take bribes or embezzle — whether policemen or bakers who sell government-subsidized wheat on the black market. They catch perpetrators on mobile phone cameras and publicize the footage.

In Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city, a gas company needed to repair a damaged valve. But it wanted protection, because its team had to work at night.

With a general police pullback from the streets, the Popular Committee volunteered to provide security instead. The gas company feared offending police by cooperating with the activists, so the committee had its patrol just pass by the work site to make it look coincidental.

The company made the repair.

Mit Oqba, Magdy's home district in Cairo, provided a unique challenge and opportunity. Ruling party networks were strong in the crowded district, which was used to provide manpower for pro-Mubarak rallies during the uprising.

Soon after Mubarak's fall, the 24-year-old Magdy and his committee drew up a plan to tackle 12 prominent problems in the long neglected neighborhood. They organized installation of light poles for a dozen streets. Drug dealing was rampant, so they're pressing officials for more police.

The district badly needed a low-fee government medical clinic. One was under way, but workers — paid by the day — were delaying finishing it. So a committee member is camping out at the construction site, doing everything from badgering them to bringing them daily tea to get it done.

Local officials promised two decades ago to extend natural gas pipelines to Mit Oqba homes. It never happened. So the committee followed the paper trail and got a few approvals signed. Now the main pipeline has been laid, and the committee is helping residents register for connections to their homes.

With the successes, the harassment began, according to the activists. Local Council supporters hacked into the committee's Facebook group and sent e-mails to its members that caused fights among them, Magdy said. They transferred the official who cooperated with Magdy to sign papers. They pressured a principal into barring the committee's literacy class from his school.

To scare the volunteers' families, they spread word that armed thugs were waiting to attack them, Magdy said.

When that didn't work, the Local Council tried to take credit. In its newsletter, it proclaimed that it "promised and delivered" on the gas lines. Former ruling party members posed in photos by the new streetlights.

Magdy's group countered with its own newsletter, "The People Want," reporting on their activities and on former regime members trying to buy off loyalties. They also praised officials who helped them bring services.

In a last-ditch attempt, a local bigwig who once sat in parliament for the ruling party met with volunteers. He told them bluntly they would fail.

"Who lied to you and told you this party is dead and buried?" he shouted, according to Magdy. "We are still here and we will win again, with your help."

Zaghloul Rashad, a member of Mit Oqba's local district council, denied that the council had harassed the young activists, and called them "arrogant" young meddlers. He said the influence of the activists was limited to a few streets. He also denied the activists were responsible for the new gas pipeline, saying it had been approved earlier.

"Does the Popular Committee have a magic wand to say 'extend gas pipelines' and it happens?" asked Rashad, who plans to run for election again and expressed confidence he would win.

At the same time, Rashad complained that the activists can in fact march into a local administrator's office and press him into action, and he'll comply for fear of seeming anti-revolutionary.

"They couldn't even enter his office before," he said. "It is chaos!"

The activists are unfazed. In a snub to Mit Oqba's Local Council, Magdy's group hung a banner on Al-Gharib Street, where several council members own homes. One side proclaims "Goals We Achieved" and the other "Goals We Want to Achieve." So far, they've checked off nearly half the original list of 12.

"These kids are good. They're cleaning up the streets," said Howeida Mohammed, a 40-year-old woman attending one of the committee's literacy classes this week. "I don't want anything to do with the local council."

The Popular Committees may not survive because of the sheer strength of the old system Mubarak set up, said Alia Mossallam, a doctorate student documenting the Popular Committees and helping them network. But they'll be a breeding ground for a new generation of politicians, experienced in actually serving a community.

"We have never had governance from below," she said. "(The experience) may die down...but everything they have learned will stick with them."

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Op zondag 10 juli 2011 23:02 schreef Drifter__ het volgende:
Vandaag is er een zeer onsmakelijke video voor het eerst verschenen. Gefilmd op 28jan in Alexandrië. CSF truck walst over een demonstrant......inclusief aftermath......zeker niet voor de zwakke maag.

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Op zondag 10 juli 2011 23:21 schreef Drifter__ het volgende:
Komt ie:

Schokkende video, niet voor de zwakke maag!
http://amrellissy.com/vb/t26307.html#post57920

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Op maandag 11 juli 2011 00:20 schreef Drifter__ het volgende:
Er zijn een aantal agenten op borgtocht vrijgelaten ja.

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Op maandag 11 juli 2011 00:30 schreef Drifter__ het volgende:

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Het bewijs is moeilijk rond te krijgen. Was het nou zelfverdediging of niet? Denk aan demonstranten die politiebureau's en overheidsgebouwen bestormden.