Revealing the Newly Re-Erected Colossal Statue of Amenhotep III via the Luxor Times
click through for more photos
Egypt's police fire tear gas at protesters
Clashes erupted in the Egyptian capital on Thursday between protesters and police, as the government scrambled to contain mounting anger over post-football match violence that killed 74 people.
Black-clad riot police fired tear gas at protesters trying to reach the interior ministry, furious at the lack of police intervention in Wednesday’s violence in the northern city of Port Said.
Injured protesters were ferried away by motorbike with medics saying around 20 people were suffering from tear gas inhalation.
Ambulances whizzed through the nearby Tahrir Square, epicenter of last year’s uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, towards the site of the clashes.
Wednesday’s deadly violence between fans of home team Al-Masry and Cairo’s Al-Ahly marked one of the deadliest incidents in football history and sent shares on the Cairo stock exchange plunging in Thursday trade.
Hundreds of Al-Ahly fans, wearing their team T-shirts and waving flags, were joined by other team supporters, activists and ordinary Egyptians on the march from their club headquarters towards the interior ministry via Tahrir Square.
“This was not a sports accident, this was a military massacre!” the crowds chanted, blaming the ruling military council for the violence.
As recently as July 2011, the U.S. government authorized the sale of tear gas to the Egyptian military government - despite the fact that since February 2011, the armed forces in Egypt have repeatedly used tear gas and other weapons to forcibly disperse protesters.
Urge the U.S. State Department to stop authorizing the shipment of weapons, ammunition, and equipment that Egypt’s government could use to violently suppress human rights.
Prosecutor Mustafa Khater
Hosni Mubarak Trial: Former President Responsible For Killings, Prosecutor Says
That call for restraint on “all sides,” in the face of days of excessive use of force by police and soldiers, was met with incredulity in Cairo. Security forces have shot not only tear gas and rubber bullets, but bird shot and live ammunition at protesters throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails. “Should we stop dying? Is that how we should show restraint?” scoffed protester Salma Ahmed as heavy gunfire echoed through Tahrir Square.
US response to Tahrir Square crackdown angers Egyptians (VIDEO)
Indeed, the SCAF has committed to respect and uphold freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, but many demonstrations have been violently dispersed, with the armed forces using excessive and lethal force, while riot police resumed their reckless use of rubber bullets, shotguns and tear gas. Protesters have been arrested, detained incommunicado and tortured before being tried unfairly before military courts and convicted. Some 12,000 civilians have been tried before military courts since January. In October, the SCAF announced they would end trials of civilians before military courts, except in cases involving attacks on the armed forces but no timescale was given and no steps have yet been taken to this end.
While the SCAF has been paying lip service to respecting freedom of expression, it has placed arbitrary restrictions on the media and others. Criticism of the authorities has been suppressed, and journalists, bloggers and others taken to court for their criticism of the SCAF’s policies and the slow pace of reform. Newspapers have had some of their editions confiscated. TV stations, including Al Jazeera’s Mubasher Egypt (Al Jazeera Live Egypt), were raided and ordered to close and licenses for satellite TV stations were frozen. In October, newspapers protested the increasing military censorship by publishing blank columns.” Broken Promises: Egypt’s Military Rulers Erode Human Rights (PDF) from Amnesty International
The 10 pledges in Amnesty International’s Human Rights Manifesto for Egypt are:
1. End the state of emergency and reform the security forces
Repeal the Emergency Law. Fundamentally reform the security forces in line with international law and standards. Their structure and chain of command must be made public, and an oversight body established to independently and impartially investigate reports of abuse.
2. End incommunicado detention and combat torture
Detainees must have access in law and practice to the outside world, regularly and without delay, including to their families, lawyers of their own choosing and independent medical care. Torture and other ill-treatment must not be tolerated, and must be criminalized in line with international law. Reports of torture and other ill-treatment must be investigated. Places of detention must be publicly listed and subject to regular, unannounced, unrestricted and independent inspection.
3. Ensure fair trials
Everyone charged with an offence must have a fair trial by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law. Military trials of civilians and trials before emergency courts must end; those convicted must be retried before civilian courts or released.
4. Uphold the rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression
Laws criminalizing the peaceful exercise of these rights must be repealed or brought in line with international law and standards. These include several articles of the Penal Code, the Law on Associations and Law No. 34 of 2011, which criminalizes demonstrations and strikes.
5. Investigate past abuses
There must be an independent, thorough and impartial inquiry into human rights violations under the rule of President Hosni Mubarak. It must make recommendations to prevent future abuses and to provide truth, justice and reparation to the victims.
6. Realize economic, social and cultural rights for all
People must have access to essential public services, including water, sanitation and health care, regardless of their place of residence or income. Workers’ rights, including the right to strike and the right to a fair minimum wage, must be upheld.
7. Uphold the rights of people living in slums
People living in informal settlements must be meaningfully consulted and able to actively participate in decisions affecting their future. They must have legal security of tenure. Forced evictions, which are dangerous, humiliating and illegal under international law, must end. There must be a comprehensive plan to address inadequate housing conditions that threaten lives and health.
8. End discrimination
Legal provisions discriminating against individuals on the basis of race, colour, religion, ethnicity, birth, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, or other status, must be brought in line with international law and standards or abolished. This includes Presidential Decree 291/2005 on Christian places of worship. Sectarian attacks must be prevented and fully investigated and perpetrators brought to trial.
9. Protect women’s rights
Women must be full partners in the process of political and human rights reform. Women and men must be accorded equal rights in law to marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. Women must have legal protection from domestic violence, including marital rape, and sexual harassment. Penal Code articles 260-263 must be amended to allow abortion for women and girl survivors of rape and incest – or when a pregnancy poses a grave risk to health. Law No.126 of 2008 must be amended to prohibit female genital mutilation in all cases.
10. Abolish the death penalty
A moratorium on executions must be imposed pending abolition of the death penalty.
Egyptian military institutes new media restrictions
…”For months now, the ruling Supreme Military Council of the Armed Forces [SCAF] has been going to great lengths to hamstring the media and snuff out critical reporting,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “As the self-proclaimed guardian of the revolution, the military council ought to facilitate the work of long-silenced voices in the media instead of shutting them down and threatening them with repressive state security proceedings.”
On Saturday, the SCAF announced that it will enforce the Emergency Law, which allows civilians, including journalists, to be tried in state security courts and detained indefinitely, the independent daily Al-Masry al-Youm reported. The announcement came despite the military’s commitment to annul the law by September—a core demand of the revolution. Under the law, security officials would be allowed to take “legal procedures” to crack down on acts of “thuggery” and could use “all legal powers to safeguard the country’s security,” Al-Masry al-Youm said.
On Sunday, Egyptian police raided the Al-Agouza District offices of Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr (Al-Jazeera Live-Egypt), an affiliate of the Qatar-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera-Mubasher, shutting down their live, around-the-clock broadcasts from Cairo, Al-Jazeera reported. Uniformed security personnel raided the bureau, seizing live broadcasting equipment and detaining engineer Islam al-Banna, Station Director Ayman Gaballah told CPJ. Al-Banna was released on Monday, the station’s Cairo bureau chief, Ahmad Zein, said in an interview with broadcaster ONTV. Gaballah said that the channel continued to broadcast live from Doha. Egyptian authorities on Sunday also stopped the station’s live broadcasts from another location at the Media Production City outside Cairo.
Gaballah told CPJ that Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr began broadcasting shortly after the former regime’s fall in February and that they had applied for a license six months ago but were repeatedly told by the ministry that they could go on broadcasting without a problem since their license would be issued “within days.” Although the SCAF said the shutdown was the result of the channel operating without a license, CPJ research indicates that this was merely a pretext to silence the critical broadcaster. CPJ interviews also indicate that at least a handful of other stations were given similar instructions regarding their licenses and have operated in this manner since February.
Egypt 'Virginity Tests' Acknowledged By Army: Amnesty International
Amnesty International said Monday that Egypt’s military rulers have acknowledged carrying out so-called “virginity tests” on female protesters – the first time the army has admitted to the much-criticized practice.
Maj. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a member of the military council ruling Egypt since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, justified the tests as a way to protect the army from rape allegations, Amnesty said.
But the rights watchdog said al-Sisi vowed the military would not conduct such tests in the future.
The “virginity test” allegations first surfaced after a March 9 rally in Cairo’s Tahrir Square that turned violent when men in plainclothes attacked protesters and the army intervened forcefully to clear the square.
Amnesty has found 18 female detainees were forced to undergo the tests.
“Subjecting women to such degrading procedures hoping to show that they were not raped in detention makes no sense, and was nothing less than torture,” the Amnesty International secretary general, Salil Shetty, who met with the military council, said in a statement issued by the group.
“The government should now provide reparation to the victims, including medical and psychological support, and apologize to them for their treatment,” he said.
The youth movement that led the anti-Mubarak uprising is sharply critical of the generals now in charge, upset at the pace of efforts to lead Egypt to democracy. Since Mubarak’s fall on Feb. 11, the military has cracked down on peaceful protests, and critics say it has failed to restore security in the streets and to initiate a serious national political dialogue.
