THE Egyptian military authorities expansion of the emergency law is the greatest erosion of human rights since the revolution forced the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year, Amnesty International said today.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) broadened the application of the Mubarak-era emergency law early this week following clashes between demonstrators and security forces at the Israeli embassy on Friday September 9. The confrontation resulted in three reported deaths and some 130 arrests.
Restricted in 2010 to terrorism and drug crimes, the emergency law has now reverted to its original scope and been expanded to cover offences that include disturbing traffic, blocking roads, broadcasting rumours, possessing and trading in weapons, and assault on freedom to work according to official statements.
‘These changes are a major threat to the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, and the right to strike,’ says Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. ‘We are looking at the most serious erosion of human rights in Egypt since Mubarak stepped down.
‘The military authorities have essentially taken Egypt’s laws back to the bad old days. Even President Mubarak limited the scope of the emergency law to terrorism and drug offences in May last year,’ said Philip Luther.
The amendments have triggered calls for mass protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and other cities to demand the lifting of the three-decade long state of emergency before the November parliamentary elections.
‘We are urging the Egyptian authorities to respect the rights of demonstrators to protest peacefully tomorrow,’ said Philip Luther.
‘We fear that the security forces will interpret these amendments as a sign that they have been let off the leash.’
Under Hosni Mubarak, the emergency law was used to suppress opposition and dissent, and became a byword for government abuses of power and human rights violations by state security forces.
Those arrested under the emergency law are tried before special courts known as (Emergency) Supreme State Security Courts, which, like military courts, violate the right to a fair trial and deny defendants the right to appeal. The law also gives security forces virtually unrestrained powers of search, arrest and detention.
‘It is disturbing to see that the security forces are being given yet again the same powers that they abused with such impunity before,’ said Philip Luther. ‘These sweeping powers have been the cause of Egypt’s worst human rights abuses over the last 30 years.
‘Not only must the SCAF repeal these amendments, they need to end the state of emergency altogether, as they promised upon taking power in February.’
l Meanwhile, student and worker protesters at the American University in Cairo (AUC) further escalated their demonstration on Thursday by taking down the American flag on campus, as they continued protesting at the policies of the university administration and university President Lisa Anderson.
The protesters issued a statement on Friday that harshly criticised the way the university has negotiated, and denied rumors that a protesting student had assaulted the university president. The protesters have decided to continue their open-ended sit-in before they discuss further steps for escalation.
The students and workers tore down the American flag, which had been raised beside the Egyptian one, in protest against a campus security officer who allegedly assaulted Ahmed Ezzat, vice president of the university student union, following a protester meeting with Anderson.
The demonstrators demanded Anderson apologise for ignoring their demands or else leave the university, claiming that Anderson did not respect them. They said she described their meeting as ‘ridiculous,’ and told them she did not have time to listen to ‘such absurdities’.
Student Khaled Zekry said protesters did not burn or rip the flag after taking it down, adding that Ahmed Alaa, president of student union, handed over the flag intact to the director of the services and facilities department.
The Guardian newspaper described the protest as an extension of the education protest movements which started in Egypt this week.
The newspaper also mentioned that the AUC students pay tuition fees eight times the average Egyptian annual income, adding that they belong to the country’s elite and are raised to be its future economic and political leaders.
This reputation has begun to collapse since last Sunday, though, after the students began protesting the increased cost of university parking and directing criticism at the university administration, the newspaper added.
Teacher Moataz Shawky commented, ‘We cannot let the administration treat the Egyptians like dogs.’
Shawky demanded that the university administration respond to the students, also accusing it of allowing snipers to shoot at Tahrir demonstrators from university buildings during the revolution.
Earlier, the AUC administration threatened to fire some of its employees if they continued their strike that began last Sunday along with more than 1,000 students.
Walid Shebl, a housekeeping worker at AUC and a leader in the university workers’ syndicate, said that human resources manager Samir Riad met with a group of the workers’ representatives and threatened that if they did not get back to work, in five days they would receive a letter of warning, and then after another five days, be fired.
Meanwhile, AUC President Lisa Anderson and other university leaders met with students’ and workers’ representatives and agreed to have a series of meetings over the next two days with all groups in order to discuss their demands.
More than 1,000 AUC students and employees coordinated to launch an open-ended strike last Sunday, demanding cuts to soaring tuition fees and an increase in workers’ wages.
While some hundred students camped out on campus on Sunday (September 11), more students joined the strike on Monday.
‘We refused the warning and told them that we don’t care and we will continue the strike until we take all of our rights,’ said Shebl. ‘We are willing to take this risk for the sake of our families to live a better life.’
On the second day of the strike, students along with workers marched down the university campus chanting ‘thieves’ – a reference to their belief that they are being charged too high tuition fees.
AUC workers had suspended a three-day strike last October after the administration promised to meet their demands – among them higher wages, job contracts, payment for extra working hours and the replacement of meals with money.
However, the administration fell short of meeting its promises, which led to the current strike, Shebl said.
The current strike’s demands include a day off on Saturday, just like the rest of the university staff, and replacing the meal provided to them by the university with some amount of money.
‘We are the only staff that works on Saturdays at the university, however, we take the least wages,’ said Shebl.
The meal given to workers by the administration is very poor and sometimes contains rotten food, from which some workers have suffered food poisoning, Shebl added.
