Yesterdays protest busted up by police
0 Comments Published by Tom Gara on Wednesday, November 15 at Wednesday, November 15, 2006.
I was working and couldnt get the time off, but from what I hear, the police busted the protest up pretty forcefully, arrested a few people, and generally threw their weight around.
My Aussie housemate went along and found the location for the protest totally surrounded by riot police, a pretty clear signal that the protest was not going to be allowed. After hanging around and watching the situation deteriorate for a while, the police started paying attention to him, telling him to move on etc, until at one point he was surrounded by a group of police and dragged towards a waiting van - obviously he freaked out at this point, but luckily nothing too bad happened. After getting a dressing down (in Arabic) from a bunch of the more senior security guys there, he ended up getting pushed away in the other direction, away from the protest....and he kept walking.
And this anonymous commenter on my blog gave a pretty vivid description of what went down...
Hossam over at 3arabawy has a good article and photos, Sandmonkey has a big run through, and it even got some mainstream media attention from the Daily Star Egypt.
Also, check out this article in the New York Times covering the general tension and discontent among Egyptian activists that has been brewing up since the Eid incidents.
My Aussie housemate went along and found the location for the protest totally surrounded by riot police, a pretty clear signal that the protest was not going to be allowed. After hanging around and watching the situation deteriorate for a while, the police started paying attention to him, telling him to move on etc, until at one point he was surrounded by a group of police and dragged towards a waiting van - obviously he freaked out at this point, but luckily nothing too bad happened. After getting a dressing down (in Arabic) from a bunch of the more senior security guys there, he ended up getting pushed away in the other direction, away from the protest....and he kept walking.
And this anonymous commenter on my blog gave a pretty vivid description of what went down...
"I was there 2day it was awful. Hundreds of plain clothed officers prevented demonstrations in front of the cinema. Ppl tried 2 enter the cafe next door where every1 was gatherin but were stopped by the police. Some ppl had 2 climb through the window to get in. Itwas clear it was going 2 get violent and it did. The police watched and laughed verbally harassing women inside the cafe as they watched horrified at a woman being surrounded by 5 or 6 plain clothed police officers who dived on her and started to beat her up she was arrested along with another girl and a boy. I heard another person was arrested but I am not sure. And all of that 4 what? I won't go in to details but this just proves the point Egypt is not safe for women its not safe for any1. Wen will women get their rights? Wen the prime commiters of violence and harassment r the police and cental intelligence?Yikes.
Hossam over at 3arabawy has a good article and photos, Sandmonkey has a big run through, and it even got some mainstream media attention from the Daily Star Egypt.
Also, check out this article in the New York Times covering the general tension and discontent among Egyptian activists that has been brewing up since the Eid incidents.
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