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On the Rab'a Massacre
In a 188-page report entitled
"All According to Plan: The Rab'a Massacre and Mass Killings of Protesters
in Egypt", Human Rights Watch has accused the Egyptian police and army of
crimes against humanity committed during at least 6 demonstrations between July
5 and August 17, 2014. The report is the result of interviews to more than two
hundred witnesses, visits to the protest sites right after the attacks, and
reviews of physical evidence, video footages, and statements by public
officials. In particular, Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights
Watch, has declared that the Rab'a massacre of August 14, 2013, "was a violent crackdown
planned at the highest level of the Egyptian government." Egyptian
officials have tried to justify the massacre by claiming that the civilians
were armed. Human Rights Watch documented the throwing of rocks and Molotov
cocktails against the army forces, but it affirmed that the killing was disproportionate. In about 12 hours, 817 people were
killed in what is considered "the biggest mass killing of civilians in
modern Egyptian history." Moreover, the Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim
declared that his forces found only 15 guns in the square. This massacre was not "the result of poor
training or unexpected circumstances", but it had been premeditated because
"the violent dispersal of the sit-in was thoroughly planned in
advance".
The main question surrounding the events in Rab'a is: "How
do we explain the behavior of the Egyptian military on Tahrir in January 2011
and in Rab'a in 2013?" On one hand, in January 2011, the military at first
stood by Mubarak, killing hundreds of people during the uprising. Then, a week
into the rebellion, the army declared its refusal to raise its weapons against
civilian protesters. On the other end, during the Rab'a massacre, the army
coordinated closely with the Ministry of Defense, locking any possible way out
of the Rab'a's square where people were gathered, using snipers to shoot on the
crowd and bulldozers to clear the path for the gunmen. The operation was
overseen by President al-Sisi, at the time "minister of defense, general
commander of the armed forces, chair of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
(SCAF) and deputy prime minister for security affairs".
Scholars have been
studying and developing theories to explain these two different behaviors of
the military forces, but it is hard to reach a conclusion examining one single
regime crisis. "Future research [...] would do well to account for both"
events. Finally, since those
events took place, Egyptian authorities have engaged in several other measures
to deprive citizens and political opponents of their basic human rights. No one
has been held responsible for the massacres, although the government has
created a committee to investigate the human right abuses since June 30, 2014.
Human Rights Watch has asked the government to provide its perspective
on the events, but it has not received any response yet. One year after the Rab'a
massacre, not one of the officials who perpetrated the
massacre has been held accountable for it.
Other issues regarding democratization
On a different note, in July 2014 the Egypt's
regime announced the reduction of fuel subsidies. Although the announcement
generated waves of anger among the poor, many of whom are still suffering from the turmoil
undergoing in the nation since January 2011, the next day the lines at the gas
station across the country seemed as normal as ever. After several weeks, gas
stations recorded a shift in the preference of private drivers from the 92
unleaded gasoline to the 80 gasoline, the cheap one, and to natural gas. One
reason for the lack of uprisings was the deployment of riot police at several
gas stations and around main arteries of Cairo. Another reason is that many
decided not to protest because they estimated the cost of an uprising to be
higher than heeding the government's decisions, while wealthier citizens
consider inflation a natural phenomenon, and thus see no reason to protest
against it. A third reason is the intervention operated by the military to open
three main traffic intersections, relieving the traffic jams suffered by the
eastern part of Cairo. This operation had two main consequences: it increased
the value of real estate in those areas, and it had positive effects on public
transportation and taxi services, since the drivers don't have to take massive
detours anymore, increasing their income. Finally, according to Hatem Zayed, an
economic researcher, people accepted the recent economic measures because of
the fear generated by the outcomes of recent protests, and because of how
gradually inflation is happening. However, although President al-Sisi keeps
promising mitigation policies, he is just maneuvering around the economy.
Therefore, '"it's only a matter of time before people start protesting the
economic distress; it is inevitable"'.
Additionally, the Ministry of Interior has
launched a government project aimed to relocate street vendors from downtown
Cairo to Al-Torgoman. The project has the purpose of enforcing the sovereignty
of the law in Egyptian streets, as well as to deal with traffic congestion,
electicity theft, and violation of public property, as declared by Major
General Abdel-Tawab. Street vendors have been protesting against the measure,
stating that Al-Torgoman is a non-commercial area, and that they foresee huge
material losses. Hussien, head of the street vendors syndicate, affirmed that
the measure took them by surprise, and that they are willing to prove that the
new location is non-commercial. They will sell their products in Al-Torgoman for five days, and decide to
stay if satisfied, or return downtown if not.
Finally, prosecutor-General Hisham
Barakat is leading an investigation into the administrators of the Facebook
page "Popular Resistance Movement" because it allegedly "incites
against state institutions and calls for assaulting army and police
personnel". The police has arrested the page's administrator, a teacher
living in Qalioubiya, for posting slogans of the Muslim Brotherhood, and they
have confiscated his laptop. His brother has been arrested too. This
investigation follows restrictive measures enforced by the Egyptian police
after the Muslim Brotherhood was declared a terrorist organization after
Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted last summer. Since then, hundreds
of his supporters and members of the Brotherhood have been killed and thousands
have been put into jail. In January, the Interior ministry has declared the
beginning of arrests of users and administrators of social media websites that
incite violence against the police or citizens; dozens of Brotherhood members
have been accused and arrested after the announcement.
Good news: Karima El-Serify, detained in
Qanater prison since mid-April, has been released by the Cairo Criminal Court
under "probation measures". Karima has been on hunger strike for 68
days, and this may be the main reason behind her release, according to one of
her friends. Karima was arrested and charged in espionage cases along with
other members of Morsy's presidential team. Moreover, as her mother has declared,
her arrest has been a way "to put pressure on her father, Ayman
Al-Serify" close associate of Morsy. Karima began her hunger strike after
"prison guards ordered cellmates to beat her and her colleagues and steal
their belongings". Hunger strike has been used as a protest tactic by
several prisoners currently detained in Egypt.
~WMB
Many thanks to my Graduate Research Assistant, Paola Cavallari
