al-Ghad UPDATE

Today, Hizb al-Ghad went to Sharqiya governate to open a party office in the town of Kafr al-Saqor. There were problems.

I received a text from Wa'el Nawara (Senior al-Ghad Member) who wrote:

Government thugs, supported by police forces, have attacked 3 buses full of al-Ghad members on their way to a conference in Kafr Sakr, Sharkiya as part of a Door knocking campaign. 20 Ghad Members were injured and hospitalized. Buses were damaged and looted. This shows how the system tolerates opposition and its true intentions in having true democracy and free elections

A second text read:

Eyewitnesses said the thugs were paid 50LE each. Buses changed their courses in response to advanced warnings but traffic troopers alerted police, who instructed the thugs to change their position to intercept el-Ghad's buses. Attackers and police climbed the buses looking for Ayman Nor & attacked press photographers and damaged film and cameras. A police officer said in confidence they they were instructed to keep a close eye on the attack but to prevent fatalities.

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If this keeps up, in addition to arrests of MB and Kifaya people, I am guessing the fall scheduled parliamentary elections could be bloody (outside Cairo, at least).

Comments

[Mavenette]

So much for the promises of that constitutional amendment. Next thing the Mubarak cronies will accuse Al-Ghad of associating with the Bush administration as was the case when the State Dept. started discussions with the MB.

[Liam]

"Eyewitnesses said the thugs were paid 50LE each."
How does this work? The eyewitnesses saw cash being handed to thugs for a bit of freelance violence??
This all sounds a bit suspicious maybe a bit overblown as people who were there did not support everything in Wael's texts.

[Josh Stacher]

Liam,
Perhaps Wael's text does not exactly portray the events in Sharqiya yesterday. I was just putting it on the blog to let everyone know.

Nevertheless, we do know that on al-Ghad support from Sharqiya died today in hospital because of injuries he sustained from being run-over by a security truck. Two of al-Ghad's buses were badly damaged according to members I spoke with today.

Al-Ahram is saying that al-Ghad people clashed with citizens in Sharqiya, which does not sound likely. After all, who tries to build support for a new party by clashing with potential members?

Either way what happened yesterday seem very dodgy and I doubt al-Ghad is to blame.

[Liam]

As much as I distrust the government, it does seem, from talking to the CNN and Reuters people that were there, that the Ghad people were aware that something was going to happen and wanted foreign witnesses to be there to give it some authentication.
To me, this sounds like the usual sort of dirty response to dirty politics. I expected Nur not to play this game. The NDP can say he is an "American agent" but he points to Mubarak's annual pilgrimages to Washington, that's sort of intelligent. But, making out that an NDP intimadation effort is an assassination attempt is kind of cack handed. He doesnt need to play the government's game, he can rise above it just by expoliting the obvious discrepencies. (like military aid).

[Wael Nawara]

Hi Liam,
It is true that we received advanced warnings that the road will be blocked with "hundreds of supporters for a local NDP Member of Parliament. But we had 3000 people waiting in a conference and we could not let them down. We did change courses several times. We arrived 3 hours while trying to avoid the blocked roads. NDP or Security forces motivated thugs to attack us in Darb Ahmar, Cairo, in Shohadaa Menoufia, in Pyramisa Hotel, Giza, they virtually want us not to meet the people anywhere in Egypt. I was beaten in Pyramisa and my mobile was stolen and was asked at the end by the attackers "Got the message?" several times before they left.

During the Kafr Sakr attack, the local NDP MP supervised the attack from his white Pajero which has a large poster of the president, few meters away from my bus (that was the first bus, badly damaged). After the stone throwing stopped - I went out of the bus and talked to members of the crowd which was quickly dissolving before the police would come. One guy told me: "I carried not a single stone against you. You are our guests. I refused to take any money too." I asked him, "what money?" He said, they paid 50 pounds to each of the men. Another person told me they paid 150 pounds to some of the attackers.

After I was attacked in Pyramisa, I wrote in Al Masry Al Youm saying I hold no grudge against the attackers, for they were doing a job they are paid to do. I have no doubt in my mind that those who attacked us in Pyramisa were paid to do so. In Kafr Sakr I am sure some were paid and probably some were deceived into thinking that El Ghad is an agent of the US. Traffic Trooper himself asked some of our cars to stay away from the "buses" because they carried a foreign delegation! One of the signs in Kafr Sakr said "No, to interim governing council" ... probably in a reference to Iraq ...

In facing these attacks and associated risks we have a number of choices. Either we stop this door-to-door campaign. Or we continue these campaigns learning safer practices every time. And one of the things which make the police careful not to have casualties is the existence of press and cameras - specially foreign press.