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A letter to the president of the republic The story of farmers who have no more way to go !! What are they going to do in front of imprisonment, poverty, and lack of security?!!
LCHR received tragedies and stories, of farmers fro different villages, which talk about loneliness, and running away from the homeland, and ruined homes. Fearing the terrorism of the police, and the arbitrariness of the authorities; suffering from rights discrimination; suffering fro the hard life, that we and our children live; felling sorry for the existence of two different kinds of life’s in the same homeland, as some people are wealthy and live in luxury, while millions of other people live in poverty looking for a chance to get money to feed their children, and enduring bad work conditions.
The following are the most important letters, which the framers have requested that we deliver them to the president of the republic:
Dear Mr. President,
In the beginning of your reign, we were renting several acres of land, and were living on cultivating them,…
suddenly your men and the landlords, came and evicted us from the land, they leased the land for higher rents,
depriving us from our security…
So why is all this happening against us?
In the beginning of your tem we received subsidized fertilizers and agriculture requirements from the agriculture associations,..
but now your men deprived us from production requirements, and from the services of our associations, they expelled us out of the markets,…
we tried to wake up the consciousness, in the hearts of traders, so that they may just, and make a balance between the markets, the prices, and the continuance of our live, but it became clear that they have no hears, that they only seek money and profit..
So life became dark in front of our eyes, and we neglected our children and our health…
We became sick, poor, ignorant people…
So why is all this happening against us?
They left the agriculture cycle, the seeds, and the crops, to be sold and purchased in the market, but your men monopolized the markets, in absence of supervision and agriculture guidance, and the spreading of corruption,…
and in consequence we produced unclean and polluted food, became sick with all kinds of diseases, …
and we purchase their polluted treatment for them, so that we and our children couldn’t find something to eat in the rest of the months, while merchants and traders are dancing over our carcasses, congratulating themselves o the free market, in which we, our women, and our children are the only cheap goods in it…
So why is all this happening against us?
In the beginning of your reign, we had a ministry, called the ministry of irrigation, that used to clean canals, and excavate waterways…
It’s engineers and employees responsible for providing clean irrigation water for our land, and organizing for the water to reach our land …
They used to walk on the shores of the canals and waterways searching with us for a new meaning for the virginity of trees and seeds…
Searching with us, and rewarding us for the best fruit from our trees, that we can give to the best of our boys …
Meaning that he gives me all his life, so that our live may became better…
But now the tractors of the ministry are sitting in the warehouses, incapable of moving ..
We don’t see it’s employees anymore…
And nothing in it’s plans includes excavating a new canal..
We were forced to dig wells, so that we may be able to cultivate our land..
Our small pieces of land mean everything for us …
We inherited from our fathers and grandfathers, we have to take care of it, and deliver it to the next generation …
And so we beard the expenses of purchasing polluted irrigation water for our land, so that we may be able to cultivate it …
So why is all this happening against us?
In the beginning of your reign, as was the custom for thousands of years, we didn’t care about the government, and the government didn’t care about us …
We did not fight with you, or with any of your men, on the authorities in your hands…
Your men respected that in us, and did not practice any kind of violence against us, or apply any emergency laws against us, except in very rare cases…
We did not even join forces with the politicians and political groups, whom your men detained, and tortured, and executed some of their individuals by firing squads, despite the fact that they are our sons …
Exactly like your men, which the police stations and prisons are filled wit them ..
But we heard that you amended the constitution, so that you could apply the law of terrorism on us …
On the every day quarrels that happen in the countryside, regarding irrigation water turns, and work opportunities, despite the fact that we don’t need the interference of your men in settling these small disputes fights that will happen every day …
You dropped the citizens from your account, despite gaining citizenship in the last constitutional amendments..
So why is all this happening against us?
In the beginning of your reign, our livelihood was better ….
The schools, small health units, hospitals, water stations, trains, and consumption associations, ..all of them fulfilled their role in providing care for us and our families ..
But now you can not afford to pay the huge amounts of money necessary for obtaining these services …
Which wastes our lives, increases our poverty, and causes our illness and the loss of our children…
So why is all this happening against us?
Lately we heard about an initiative from the president of the Central Bank, for pardoning governmental bank clients, who have problems in repaying back their debts, by canceling 75% of their debts…
The sum of cancelled debts amounted to 26 billon dollars..
In addition to canceling other debts that will exceed this sum, for 13 thousand clients only…
Despite this, we were happy for those who your men were going to pardon…
We assumed that we were among those who were going to be pardoned…
But we were surprised to find that we were discarded by your men …
They refused to include us in the initiative …
So why is this discrimination against us?
Are we not citizens?
Why weren’t our debts cancelled? Or at least 75% of them, like the rest of the governmental bank clients…
The interesting thing about our story, is that the number of clients of the Bank of Development and Agrarian Trust, who have problems in repaying back their debts, amount to 435 thousand clients,….
They represent 15% of the bank clients…
Their debts amount to 2 billon pounds …
Which means that about 5 million farmers are threatened to be imprisoned, because of their debts to the bank…
Some of them or their wife’s, are already imprisoned..
They were forced to sell a piece of land, or their houses, and their sons were forced to work, as hired workers…
We ask once again, why aren’t farmers debts cancelled? Specially before privatizing the bank, and transforming it into a joint-stock company!! Despite the fact, that farmers money, which amount to 15 billon pounds, constitute the bank’s capital, which the bank seized, after it was established in 1976, in addition to the money of the agriculture cooperatives…
Which means that farmers are being imprisoned for their money…
Can you believe this!!
We don’t know where the money of the international bank went (134 million dollars), or the money of other international institutions(100 million dollars)..
Which means money that amount to 2.5 billon in Egyptian pounds..
So why can’t your men cancel our debts, that amount to 2 billon, when the banks capital money is constituted from the farmers money?
Don’t the 435 thousand farmers, which their debts amount to 2 billon pounds, equal the 13 thousand citizens, which their debts, that amounted to 26 billon pounds, were cancelled?..
LCHR received tragedies and stories, of farmers from different villages and governorates:
From Suhag: “one thousand and five hundred farmers, are being pursued by the police, because they could not pay their debts to the Bank of Development and Agrarian Trust”
From Menoufia: “hundreds of farmers and their women, are going to be imprisoned, because of the rulings against them, as the did not pay their debts to the Bank of Development and Agrarian Trust”
From Menia: “farmers are pursuing an employee of the Bank of Development and Agrarian Trust, who tricked them, and took money from the bank under their names, letting the bank file lawsuits against them, so that entire villages are no threatened to be imprisoned”
From Quena: “more than one thousand farmers have runaway from their homes and villages, to hide in the mountains, after the Bank of Development and Agrarian Trust tricked them, and issued rulings against them”
From Kafr El-Sheikh: “hundreds of farmers and women, go to the police station to file complaints, as their homes are being searched every few days by the police, who are looking for the fugitives, whom the Bank of Development and Agrarian Trust has issued rulings against”
From Alexandria: “thousands of young farmers, who have left the valley, being unable to earn a living, went to receive their land in the new graduate villages, were surprised by the high interest rates of the bank. They could not bay back their debts, and turned into fugitives. Offering their land in return for living in peace, and being pursuit by the police”
From Kalyoubia: “hundreds of farmers, are being pursued by the police, and facing imprisonment, because they could not pay their debts to the Bank of Development and Agrarian Trust, which issued rulings against them”
From Giza: “the screams of spinsters and women’s of farmers, are calling for the government officials to intervene, and stop the police from arresting them in the middle of the night, because of illusive debts to the Bank of Development and Agrarian Trust, which has filed lawsuits against, and which lead to the imprisonment of women in villages”
From Damietta: “farmers can not face the arbitrariness of the different authorities, especially the employees of the Bank of Development and Agrarian Trust, who played tricks on them, which lead to the issuing of imprisonment rulings against them, and demanding to repay back money they did not receive”
These stories recount similar events of corruption, exploiting the work of farmers, and their trust in the bank employees, tricking them, and investigations, that have been going on for years, against the bank branches. But the rulings against farmers, pursuing them, and the demands of the bank, are still continuing, despite the continuous statements of different officials, that the farmers debts to the Bank of Development and Agrarian Trust will be cancelled. Trickery, corruption, ignorance, and discrimination, are the reasons behind not implementing these decisions.
All the stories include demands, and calls the immediate intervention of every government official, especially the president of the republic, to save the farmers and cancel their debts, like the 13 thousand citizens, which the government has cancelled their debts of 26 billon pounds.
In all the complaints, newspaper scraps, and the demands of help from farmers, we did not find any governmental official who responded, and tried to stop the discrimination against farmers, or cancel their debts, or prevent their imprisonment.
In light of this the LCHR, presents the complaints and demands of farmers, to the president of the republic, hoping that they may find a response, that fulfils their demands in citizenship, security, equality, and good livelihood.
For more information please contact the LCHR