25
A letter to the President of the Republic The farmers have the right to live in dignity, freedom and safety in their villages Who stops the imprisonment, humiliation, pursuit and discrimination against farmers? Releasing imprisoned farmers and stopping the implementation of sentences against delinquent debtors because of their debts to the bank, and equaling them with businessmen... is the responsibility of whom?
In spite of the LCHR welcoming the initiative and interest of the Secretary of the policy committee of the National Democratic Party and the Minister of Agriculture, which they announced in a party meeting held last week in Sharqia on the issues of delinquent farmers with The Bank of Development and Agrarian Trust, and in which they affirmed that there will be reconciliation with 104 imprisoned farmers who will then be released. And the legal action taken by the Public Prosecutor against the delinquent farmers will be stopped and that there will be reconciling with those farmers, with distinction between farmers who borrowed less than 10 thousand pounds, where they will be exempted from interest and their loans rescheduled over ten years with a small interest, and as for the loans which exceed ten thousand pounds they will be rescheduled over twelve years!!
The LCHR is surprised by the initiative announced by the government to solve the problems of delinquent farmers in contrary with the truth, as the current problem of the delinquent farmers is to stop the discrimination against them and equal them with delinquent businessmen, who are benefiting from the initiative of the President of the Central Bank, which drops 75% of businessmen debts and borrowers of governmental banks, which amount to 26 billion pounds, for no more than 13 thousand citizen!!
In spite of this, the initiative does not provide anything new, as it is an initiative for rescheduling depts., which consequently leads to the doubling of the loan and shackling the farmers once again with a system of rotating accounts that leads once more to an increase in their debts and an increase the value of their installments and to signing new papers and blank checks for the bank that lead to their imprisonment once again.
The LCHR asserts that the initiative is meant for propaganda and not for solving the problems of delinquent farmers, because the bank's branches nationwide have not received any instructions to implement from the main branch of the bank or from the Minister of Agriculture. Also, the Attorney General has yet issued any decisions to stop the legal actions against the delinquent farmers and to release the imprisoned farmers and stop the execution of the sentences against them, because of their delinquency in repaying the bank debts. The sad thing is that the initiative did not address the problems of farmers who have been subjected to fraud, and deception, by some of the bank's branches after they forced them to sign blank checks and checks, and borrowed millions of pounds in their names, and then left them to face imprisonment and police pursuits in the different Governorates of Egypt.
The LCHR asserts for the officials, that the farmers is a group more worthy than that of businessmen, and deserves that their debts be dropped. The strange thing is that there are allegations which claim that the money of the Bank of Development is composed of Egyptian depositors and poor people’s money. As if the government banks, which dropped businessmen debts, are composed of non-Egyptians money or that their depositors are rich depositors, and thus can endure the dropping of 26 billion pounds, but the money of the Bank of Development [money of widows] does not allow the drooping of no more than 1 billion pounds!!
Such allegations ignore that most of the debts of the farmers are due to the corruption of some branches of the bank and the accumulation of interests, which amounted in some years to 19%. Such allegations also ignored that most of these amounts are due to rotating loans and adhesion contracts signed by the farmers with the bank branches, which lead to the doubling of debt several times, if one installment was not paid. These allegations also ignored the investment and monitoring sectors of the bank, are the reason behind the failure of the farmers to repay back their debts, as these sections work without supervision or seriousness and there are tens of thousands of farmer stories that demonstrate the failure of the bank in the support and development of the farmers or the agriculture sector.
such allegations also ignores that more than half of the assets of the Bank of Development are constituted from the money of cooperatives and the farmer’s shares in the cooperative associates and the service charges paid by farmers, which have accumulated over the years after taking it from the cooperatives in the mid-1970s, and which now amount to about 15 billion pounds.
As the LCHR presents the complaints of the farmers once more to the . President of the Republic, it asks him to intervene quickly to stop the imprisonment, humiliation, pursuit and discrimination against delinquent farmers, and implementing the initiative of the Central Bank on them, especially those who had borrowed an amount of more than ten thousand pounds, which was applied to 13 thousand citizen, and their debts amounting to 26 billion pounds were dropped, especially on the 85 thousand delinquent farmers, whom their debts do not exceed one billion pounds.
The LCHR also demands a general amnesty for farmers who can not repay their debts to the Bank of Development, which does not exceed ten thousand pounds, especially as they were evicted from their agricultural lands by the 96 law, and who their living education and health conditions were wasted, because of the implementation of the free market policies. It also asks him give urgent instructions to the Attorney General for the release of imprisoned farmers and to stop the execution of judgments against them and stop legal action by the police and public prosecution against them, because they can not repay their debts to The Bank of Development and Agrarian Trust for the sake of the families and the lives of more than half a million citizens in Egypt, who dream of safety, freedom and a decent life.
For more information, please contact the Center.