EGYPTIAN AND INTERNATIONALS PROTEST AT GATEWAY TO SINAI

STATE OF INSECURITY

Cairo 11/12/2004

Two hundred Egyptian activists and fifty from Europe were prevented
from reaching Egyptian Rafah by security forces at Bahlouza, the
entry to North Sinai yesterday. The group was accompanying hundreds
of tons of relief supplies for the people of Rafah collected by the
Egyptian Popular committee in support of the Palestinian Intifada.
While the food and blankets were allowed to reach the border at
Rafah, the solidarity demonstration planed for Rafah was held in the
middle of the desert underneath the welcome arch of North Sinai.

Dozens of men from the Egyptian security police blocked the path of
the demonstrators who attempted to break through and make their way
towards Rafah, on foot if necessary, a distance of 100km. In a heated
struggle with the security forces, one protestor collapsed, one woman
was kicked in the stomach and several were hit with batons. The
demonstrators showed restraint and exclaimed that they were
peacefully protesting and demanding their right to continue to Rafah
to meet Palestinain organisers from the other side of the border.

In addition six activists from the Egyptian Popular Commitee in El-
Arish were detained on their way to meet the main convoy and a camera
was snatched from an Al-Jazera television crew. After a standoff of
several hours, during which the protestors refused to leave and
insisted on the right to continue to Rafah, it became clear that
orders from Cairo would prevent them passing. Demands were made for
the six from El-Arish be released and the camera and film be
returned. These demands were met by the security authorities, with
the exception of the Al-Jazera tape, and the buses returned to Egypt.

The question as to why a peaceful convoy of men and women, young and
old, worker and professional, religious and secular, Egyptian and
foreign should be met with such resistance from the Egyptian
authorities does not have a simple answer. The answer given on the
scene was "security". Whose exactly? Angry protestors asked the ranks
of green clad police before them whay they were performing the same
job as the Israelis and appeals were made in the name of Egyptian and
Arab fraternity. To no avail.

The security at stake is of course the security of the Egyptian state
which is facing ever rumbling discontent that is perhaps growing. The
Egyptian role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is under popular
scrutiny after the recent killing of three Egyptian soldiers at the
border, the release of Israeli spy Azzam Azzam, the Israeli plan for
unilateral disengagement from Gaza with Egypt's likely role as
Israeli security proxy in Gaza and the recent bombings of tourist
resorts in Sinai. Beyond the Palestinian dimension the questions of
reform and transfer of power after current president Hosni Mubarak
leaves the scene are also provoking debate which the regime may not
deem healthily in its interests.

The attacks in Sinai have engendered panic in the security forces,
who have been carrying out mass arrests, detention and torture in
Sinai, particularly El-Arish where thousands of people are in
detention camps, in excesses reminiscent of the worst days of the
Gamaat Al-Islamiyyah.

This week in Cairo sees demonstrations against the inheritance of
power (in reference to the president's son Gamal succeeding his
father) and against the signing of the agreement on Qualified
Industrial Zones with America (these require Israeli inputs to
Egyptian industry to gain priviliged access to the American market).
Will these demonsrations face the full power of the Egyptian security
apparatus in the absence of an international presence?