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When all limits have been crossed How will protect the Mahalla people against the oppression of the police and the savagery of authorities?
Events started on the 6th of April in Egypt, streets were exceptionally calm as if it was the a national holiday, a large majority have responded to the call for strike, people closed their shops and stayed home, and most of the children didn’t go to school.
The strike of Mahalla laborers began on 6th of April with support from several political and social forces, where Mahalla laborers are considered as a symbol of resistance where they always claimed their rights and resisted the government’s savage policies, but this time the police have surrounded the mean streets and squares, and more than 1000 activists were arrested to put an end to the strike.
The call for strike was meant as an attempt to turn the laborers’ strikes witnessed recently into a political protest against the government’s policies that impoverished people and increased dramatically the prices of basic commodities. Despite the fact that a majority of citizens responded, the dissipation of thousands of special police forces, and the arrestment of hundreds of protestants indicates that the government is in a state of panic and also denounces its negative attitude during crises, as well as the citizens’ daily suffering to get their basic needs.
Spreading security forces to that extent and the percentage of people who have responded to the call for strike are indications on the depth of citizens’ anger towards the government and their willingness to move in order to change their miserable living conditions.
Meanwhile the situation is a little different in El Mahalla city where the security forces started earlier their attempts to discourage and terrorize the laborers who intended to strike, security forces surrounded the Mahalla textile company and the whole city, and there were tens of thousands of central security forces distributed in surrounding cities and nearby villages terrorizing citizens, the company management had sealed the main gates and left only small ones controlled by the security, they had as well changed the ways in and out of the company in an attempt to prevent the laborers from striking, also driving licenses were withdrawn from bus drivers to prevent laborers from arriving to the city on that day.
On the evening of the 6th of April the laborers of the night shift were forbidden from entering the company so as not to meet those of the morning shift. Things stayed calm until 4 pm when a number of citizens assembled nearby the factory waiting for the laborers to leave, people gathered in the Shoon square had reached 5 thousand, and they were faced by tear gas bombs and rubber pullets to disperse them and some mentioned that live pullets were used as well, some of the reports and eye witnesses mention two people killed and more than 150 wounded a part from those who didn’t go to the public hospital at Mahallah and have chosen to go to private clinics or stayed without medical assistance for fear of being arrested, in addition 171 persons from Mahalla were arrested and they are being prosecuted for charges of demonstration and damaging public and private properties, resistance to authorities and causing a number of casualties among police forces case number 5498 Tanta criminal court, and 3012 Administrative court.
Until this press release was issued no decision had been yet declared but there are speculations that the detainees will be kept at least for four days for investigation, despite the fact that charges of robbery were not coupled with any seizures, and in addition the officer who received the claims is the main support for charges against the detainees and his name is Reda Tabeilla, moreover the places and details mentioned in the investigation reports are so different that it’s impossible that one person had done them all.
Some of the detainees mentioned that they had been arrested before the 6th of April, finally a number of detainees were kept in first and second police station in Mahallah and the rest in a central security camp outside Mahalla.
On the 7th of April the demonstrations were renewed and around 6 thousand people gathered in the streets El Bahar and Abbassy, in the Emam area and in the Station square, and some of them attempted to stop the vehicle carrying the general deputy to ask for their sons and fathers to be release, but the security forces interfered with rubber pullets and tear gas bombs to disperse the demonstrators, and they chased them throughout squares and side streets to end their demonstration.
Other groups of demonstrators gathered in front of the first police station claiming the release of the detainees inside and their numbers increased extraordinarily with school students going in and they repeated anti government slogans condemning the increase in prices and claiming the release of the detainees.
Security forces have arrested around 120 citizens on the 7th of April and they were kept in the first and second police stations, in addition to a security camp and were not presented to the general prosecution until this press release was issued. This afternoon a team sent by the prosecutors have inspected the places mentioned in police reports, where it claims that the detainees have caused damages. The LCHR while following up on the events of Mahalla, the violations, the surrounding and the arbitrary detention is sorry to see those arbitrary procedures against citizens who are using their rights to demonstrate and to pacific gathering guaranteed by the constitution as well as by international conventions ratified by the Egyptian government and therefore became and integrated part of Egypt’s internal legislation, and it stresses on the dangers that could result from such oppressive attitude against the protests and claims of citizens.
The LCHR is sorry to witness that the violence of security forces has reached a state where it fired live pullets killing and wounding hundreds of citizens, what happened is in our opinion a chock for all citizens dreaming of a country where freedom justice and security prevail.
The centre thinks that what happened and what is happening is a generalized punishing and revenge policy directed towards citizens protesting against policies that impoverish them, and an example for the rest to force them into accepting inhuman conditions to say the least, and which lead to confiscation of their legitimate rights.
What happened in Mahalla confirms that people’s anger can not be executed through terrorism, arrestment and violence of security systems and that this will not change the deteriorating socioeconomic conditions and will not help make us believe what the government repeats after every manifestation where it pretends that alien and illegitimate elements have penetrated and moved the events as if the government and decision makers refuse to hear the voice of angry citizens who responded to the call for strike because of their suffering from increased prices for basic commodities and their decreased incomes and their daily struggle to stay alive and to avoid starving along with their children. The LCHR wonders what citizens should do to face market’s ferocity when their government has withdrawn from the field of services? Don not they have the right to use their right to gather, strike and manifest to improve their living conditions.
The LCHR is demanding the Egyptian government to stop its campaign against the citizens and laborers of Mahalla and to release the detainees and to guarantee the citizens’ rights to gather, strike and manifest and the necessity for adopting new socioeconomic policies that can guarantee citizens’ rights to safe and dignified living, fare wages and suitable working chances.
The LCHR calls all civil society organizations to form a national committee to immediately investigate the Mahalla events and to present criminals to justice especially those who ordered firing, in order to insure the stability of social justice and to protect citizens’ rights to security, equality and dignified living in our beloved country.
For further information, please contact the Center