By
Sophia Jones
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Egyptian policemen use a water
canon to disperse protesters during a demonstration organized by the human
rights group "No Military Trials for Civilians" in front of the Shura
Council in downtown Cairo on Nov. 26, 2013. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images) |
KHALED DESOUKI via Getty Images
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CAIRO,
Egypt -- Protesters poured through deadlocked traffic on downtown Cairo's Qasr
Al-Ainy Street on Tuesday evening, demonstrating against a new constitutional article that allows military courts to try
civlians. Policemen, one of whom was smiling, sprinted after them, beating and
arresting those they could catch. After being detained inside the parliament's
Shura Council, protesters reported that they were dragged, beaten and
sexually harassed by security forces. It's a story Egypt has heard before.
Egypt's
military-backed government -- an unelected body that has led the country since
the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi earlier this year -- issued a law on Sunday that makes it illegal for more
than 10 people to gather in a public place unless a police station approves the
meeting three days prior. The law, slammed by many as repressive and ironic,
has fueled an already growing opposition to Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi,
commander in chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces.
Many
political activists and critics fear the law -- and the interim government that
passed it -- will bring back repression reminiscent of former President Hosni
Mubarak's rule, or worse.
"The
new protest law is basically being used to kill off the revolution," tweeted
prominent Egyptian activist Gigi Ibrahim. "We must keep protesting and
protect our right to demonstrate. People died for this right.”
The
law imposes prison sentences and steep fines on those who don't get permission
for their demonstrations -- like Tuesday afternoon’s protest outside the Shura
Council and a morning protest commemorating 16-year-old Gaber Salah, nicknamed
Jika, who was shot in the chest and head during clashes last year.
Anyone
accused of violence at a protest can be slapped with a $44,000 fine -- a sum of
money that many Egyptians won't make in decades of work. Deadly attacks on
security forces and police across Egypt have only helped fuel the government’s
crackdown on both Muslim Brotherhood supporters and non-Islamist opposition
groups critical of the interim government -- all in the name of security.
Sisi
proclaimed that the adoption of the protest law, and other government moves,
will "correct the democratic path and establish a regime that pleases all
Egyptians," the Associated Press reported.
In
one police station in Maadi, a Cairo neighborhood where Muslim Brotherhood
supporters have held frequent demonstrations since Morsi's removal from office,
a smiling Maj. Hassan Darwish told The Huffington Post that the registration
process for a planned protest is simple. When asked why the law was implemented,
he replied: "It's for organization reasons. Every country has laws like
this."
While
demonstrators are legally required to give a reason on paper for their
protests, Darwish insisted that police can only reject a protest for
"security reasons." According to the Daily News Egypt, the Ministry
of Interior has so far already approved two protests under the new law, though that
hardly appeases many critics in the wake of Tuesday's crackdown.
Human
Rights Watch, for one, said the law risks reversing freedoms gained after
the 2011 revolution. Amnesty International released a statement describing the
law as a "grave threat to freedom of assembly," commenting on the
sweeping powers that security forces now have over protesters.
Political
scientist Amr Hamzawy, who previously served in Egypt's parliament, warned in a
fiery article published by the Atlantic Council that
Egyptians may soon wake up and realize they have become "mere supporting
masses to be conjured."
On
Monday, the April 6 Youth Movement, a prominent activist group in the 2011
revolution, submitted a request to protest the new law under the banner
"Eat popcorn!" -- a sarcastic slap in the face to the interim
government. And the group Kefaya (meaning "enough" in Arabic), which
played a key role in carrying out mass protests against Mubarak, slammed the
law as sheer thuggery and said that the government "has not yet
learnt its lesson."
Steven
A. Cook, a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, told
HuffPost that the "people in Egypt are not going to accept what they
believe to be unjust laws," pointing to the revolution and the years of
protests that have followed. He equated the law’s logic to the way the Supreme
Council of the Armed Forces, the military body that ruled between Mubarak and
Morsi, viewed protests.
"They
kept relying on average Egyptians for support,” he said. "They did get
that support at certain times, but it was hardly a risk-free strategy. One
overreaction from the Ministry of Interior or the military police can turn
people against the government."
But
Sisi and the interim government still maintain strong support among Egyptians
who are sick and tired of protests -- especially ones by the Muslim
Brotherhood. On Qasr Al-Ainy Street, as protesters screamed and swerved between
cars, Ibrahim, a taxi driver who used to manage a fleet of 200 cars before
tourists largely stopped coming to the country, shook his head and pointed at
the chaos. "This is why I support the protest law," he said.
Like
many Egyptians, Ibrahim took part in the revolution that toppled Mubarak and
the mass protests that followed. He has scars from when he was shot with a cartouche.
But now, Ibrahim said the protests must stop for the sake of the country's
security and economy. "Egypt needs a strong ruler right now," he
said, praising Sisi's politics. "The protests now are bad."
Still,
if Tuesday's events foreshadow Egypt's days to come, the current government,
just like its predecessors, might soon find itself in the doghouse, cast away
by the very people who took to the streets in support of Sisi as military
planes drew hearts in the sky.
On
Tuesday night, ONtv -- a popular privately owned television station that has
recently unabashedly broadcasted pro-government news -- aired footage from the
protests. And then a woman, her voice broken by tears, appeared on screen
saying, "The police state that all these young guys and girls revolted
against on January 25 is back."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
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