THUGS ATTACKS DURING THE 2011 EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION
Rana Kamaly
25.May.2011
Lead-In: Thugs attacks during the police disappearance in the 2011 Egyptian
revolution. Many thugs have taken the police absence as an opportunity to terrorize,
harm and kill citizens.
Amar El-sheriy, Raafat El-Hagan music fades in.
NARRATOR: Hello ladies and gentle men.
Today we are going to talk about something that nearly every Egyptian in these past
few days, have had a horrifying experience with, and I am really sorry if our talk will
bring some bad memories back to life, but yet I think its important that everyone
knows what’s happening around us and what can we do about it. Assuming that there
is something that we can do of course.
So today we are going to talk about the thugs attacks during the absence of police in
the 2011 Egyptian revolution, and that is still quite absent.
First, I would like to express my deep sorrow to the people who suffered or were hurt
during this disturbing and confusing time that Egypt is going through.
In light of the ongoing 2011 Egyptian revolution, many thugs have taken the lack of
security and police absence as an opportunity to satisfy their criminal needs, terrorize
the general public, threaten people’s lives and attack many national belonging’s.
And this goes back to that, after several confrontations between protesters and the
police forces from January 25 until January 28 or may be due to higher governmental
orders; the police forces completely disappeared from the Egyptian streets. Also some
prisons were opened and so thugs and looters went loose do what ever they want and
citizens and national properties were the ones to suffer and pay the price.
While many Egyptians spent and are still spending their time in Tahrir and in other
places protesting against the government, others are terrorizing their families at home.
I remember a friend of mine once told me “there are many stupid people in this
community, personally I have a job, I have money and I have a car, but I am fighting
and protesting for the less fortunate ones. So how come I am requesting their rights
while many of them are attacking my house and family?” well I have to admit it’s a
very valid question, but I guess that’s how it is.
Some people say it’s the National Democratic Party, the previous ruling party and
known as N-D-P, was the one that opened the prisons and let the looters out to prove
that they have the power to secure and protect Egypt and that without them Egypt will
be in chaos. And recently everyone has an opinion about why the looters went loose,
some even say that it’s just an exaggerated rumor to frighten the public and slow
down the revolution.
Regardless of the reason why and how the thugs went out, the fact is people were hurt
and other died, as a result of the looters illegal freedom.
In mid February 2011, a school in Dar el Salam district was attacked and we have
Amina Hassan, a 15 years old student from the attacked school tell us her experience
during the day of the attack.
(Amina’s interview is in Arabic, so this translation will be recorded and put as a voice
over)
HASSAN: “One day we were in my school, Gamal Abdel Nasser, we were
playing and having fun then suddenly I found my friends being thrown with
fire water, so every one started screaming and running and we didn’t know
what’s happening. Their faces became scary and burnt and their bodies too.
So I hid in a corner until my mom picked me up.” (:25)
(Nat sound: children screaming)
NARRATOR: (translation) Amina just explained that in a normal day in Gamal
Abdel Nasser school, she and her friends were playing and having fun, and suddenly
she found her friends faces and bodies all burnt from a firewater attack; and so out of
fear, she hid in a corner until her mom picked her up.
Amina’s mother; Badawia Ahmed explained that it all goes back to suppressed thugs
in El-Salam neighborhood. She says there was a fight between two gangs in their
neighborhood over a building, and prior to the school incident they exchanged fire
and almost 20 people died (Nat sound: gun shots). She wasn’t sure if the firewater
incident was a coincident or if one gang did it to get back at the other by hurting their
kids at school. Either way, the incident was brutal and innocent kids were hurt and
frightened. She says they called the military a couple of times, but they only
responded two or tree days after what happened at the school.
Either way, the incident was brutal and innocent kids were hurt and frightened.
In other Egyptian districts civilians found no other choice except to take their safety
into their own hands and to protect them selves and family. So they organized groups
from men, youth and some times children to protect their families and properties,
which they called citizens patrols. The groups carried around sticks, knives and rarely
if available personal guns and the military tried to secure the main roads yet thugs
more often succeeded to break in and to harm innocent citizens.
And we have Ali El-Ghamrey, an A-U-C student, that took his turn to protect his
district and he has a very touching story that he wants to share with us.
EL-GHAMREY: “The night watch was really hard because we didn’t have
weapons like guns and riffles we only had knives and sticks and we had many
attacks on our neighborhood we tried to call the army a couple of times, some
times the army comes and sometimes not. Someone was killed because they
were tying to steel his car so he tried to defend his self but they shoot him with
a gun.” (:22)
NARRATOR: El-Ghamrey also explained that due to the lake of self-defense
weapons in the citizen patrols, they sometimes had to use kitchen knifes; broomsticks
and they also made homemade weapons like Molotov or handmade bombs.
These patrols were everywhere and nearly everyone had a role to play. For example in
my district, Nasr city, me and my female neighbors were in charge of making head
bands to roughly 200 people in all the surrounding streets, so if any attack happened
they would know each other and wont confuse them selves with thugs. Also I was
personally in charge of making tea, sandwiches and sometimes cake for my neighbor
guards. And thank God we only had one attack on a near super market then the local
people actually defended the supermarket.
But life wasn’t so shine and bright in all districts, I recall my friend from AUC
Yousra El-Ghor went through a lot. Ohh she is actually joining us on the phone.
Hi Yousra. How are you?
El-Ghor: “Good, How are you?” (:02)
NARRATOR: so what happened?
EL-Ghor: “So I live in Tagamoo, the first settlement, and I was once driving
home and my friend was sitting next to me and then this white mini van, or
what ever stopped us horizontally, in our street, then they came towards my
window and as we were putting the car in reverse I saw one of us held us at
gun point out side of the car, so we made sure that the car was locked and kept
knocking on the window and pulled out a knife and he was trying to break into
the car and he actually opened all the doors and thank God we actually got
away. (Nat sound: people screaming)Till this day that white bus stops every
single night in front of our house by like a few streets at 10:30 P.M. exactly.
till this day my dad has his gun loaded at his bedside table and if we hear any
thing, my dad loads the gun goes to the balcony and check if everything is
okay. you feel unsafe under your own roof and like during the revolution we
actually had to leave our house and we went to rehab city to stay with my
uncle because there was a lot more men that could keep us secure and
safe.”(:58)
NARRATOR: Thank you Yousra and hope things will get better soon.
El-Ghor: “ya I hope so, let us all keep it in our prayers. Bye.” (:05)
NARRATOR: Bye.
Thank you Yousra for joining us and sharing your experience with us. Many people
just like Yousra, who live in remote places had to leave their homes and go live with
their family or friends in more crowded places, just to feel safe and have a good night
sleep.
At that time of uncertainty and fear, the army recommended that the general public be
violent and take brutal measures against any attacker. Some people were even killed
because they were suspected thugs. My maid lives in Helwan, they had more than one
incident in which patrol station members killed one of their own people, just because
he didn’t have an ID card and drove a micro bus, so the people in the patrol station
thought he was a thug and so they shot him.
People went a bit too far in the patrols, A-U-C professor Omair Barkatulla thinks.
BARAKATULLA: “they were very passionate getting young kids involved and
teenager were carrying knives and weapons and fine this was kind of
necessary to be safe but you hear incidents of people beating so called thugs
when they are not sure if they are even thugs or criminals because everyone
was so nervous, and that is not good and I don’t know if innocent until proven
guilty is the key here.” (00:30)
NARRATOR: since the time of these violent attacks no one seems to know who is
behind it, and there have been a lot of rumors going on and Barkatulla is having
doubts too.
BARAKATULLA: “Well firstly it’s hard to know who they are and what they
are motivated by. At the beginning we were told that these were just thugs or
people who are poor or opportunists that are trying to steel as much as they
can because the police was not around, Some people are saying that there is
remains of Mubarak’s time or the intelligence or the Amn el dawla or state
security who are in charge of this. But we need to verify this; we need to find
away to catch the people responsible. Surly sometimes its not hired thugs and
they are people who are with a criminal mind.” (00:45)
NARRATOR: sometimes people with criminal minds could cause Egypt damages
that on one can repair or take back. As thugs also attacked other places too including
museums and historical sites, which contains valuable treasures that if lost, would be
very unlikely to come back. A-U-C Egyptology Professor Salima Ikram fears loosing
valuable parts of the Egyptian heritage due to the robberies and lake of security and
she was kind enough to share with us her opinion.
IKRAM: “When they go in and break into a place, a store room or even a
tomb and remove blocks that have decorations on them and they try to sell
them in the antiquities market the site is not only destroyed but objects are decontextualized. i.e. they take objects from where they belong so you cant
understand them properly and in doing so you are also destroying the object
and once they are sold to private collectors they are lost for ever. So this is an
irreplaceable lose to the state the Egyptian people and world heritage.”(:35)
NARRATOR: Recently the ministry of antiquities is trying to count the stolen
antiquities as earlier they couldn’t because the robberies were continues. They are
also trying to publish lists and make people aware of all the different objects that have
gone missing, so if they appear on the art international market in any country, people
know to give it back to Egypt.
Some Egyptians are only concerned about who is behind all these chaotic incidences,
and who is going to pay the price, which is of course important, but others like A-U-C
professor Mohammed Selim are more concerned about the future and what can
Egyptians do now.
SELIM: “I think that we as 85 million may be more may be less, if we can get
our hands together just like we have topped the government and the regime,
we can put our safety and security back in no time. Lets put the conspiracy
theorist and the conspiracy collaborators behind”. (00:11)
NARRATOR: Selim also has a message to every Egyptian.
SELIM: “Lets put Egypt ahead of anything else. Egypt will last, you wont
last, I wont last, but what will happen for our pedigree for our ancestors, for
our children for our offspring. Put our own ideas before hand and then lets
capitalize on that. We can start our communal projects that talk about Egypt
come first. We can start using the art of communication; lets use the social
media again not to divide but to unite. Lets get into the streets.” (00:27)
Amar El-sheriy, Raafat El-Hagan 2 music starts.
NARRATOR: Recently the police forces have been trying to take their places back,
but due their bad reputation and misusage of power through out the past years, people
are having a hard time accepting them and there have been many clashes were
citizens have been violent with the police.
An anonymous source have reported that 50,000 army men are to join the police
forces as of next month to try to cool down the citizens anger towards the police and
gain their trust back and secure Egypt.
I personally hope that everyone who frightened, hurt or killed another human being
will be caught and punished. May God help us all turn Egypt to a safer place and help
us develop our Egypt for a better and more secured future.
Thank you for tuning in.
This was Rana Kamaly, reporting to the American university in Cairo radio station.
Music fades out.
Music credits:
Amar El-sheriy - Raafat El-Hagan series music