Crimes against humanity

* This clip is upsetting- there is no sexual content, however some images are upsetting. This clip is BANNED in Egypt because of its scandalous nature.

I never thought I'd ever write this...
Crimes against humanity at "my home"

Reflecting on the SYMPOSIUM - Revolution in North Africa: Dynamics and Prospects

17^th March 2011, organised by the School of Law & Politics, University of Liverpool

1-3pm at Moot Room

After the recent events, the Middle East has become one of the hot spots. In the Symposium organised by the School of Law to take place on the 17^th March 2011, three speakers traced back the recent events and discussed their implications and consequences on the future of the Arab world and equally the Western world. 

There were many comparisons of events between the Tunisian revolution and the Egyptian revolution. One thing that was noted by one speaker is that the Tunisians do not call their revolution, like many people do the jasmine revolution. This title was assumed and freely used by the Western world but not by Tunisians. The Tunisian revolution is rather a revolution of “dignity”. The revolution of dignity shows the peoples' humbleness and plea for a democratic parliament whilst the Egyptian revolution called for the fall of Mubarak and his regime having ruled for over 30 years in tyranny. Whether Egyptians are asking for a democratic parliament or a new authority figure/ruler is unclear. The change of the constitution as many would say would put various regulations on those who are going to be eligible to stand for the post and also regulations on their activity, period of ruling and the amount of sovereign power they would have over the country as a whole. Unfortunately, the idea of one authoritative ruler is well rooted in the minds of many Egyptians and apparent throughout the country’s history. It is a shame that this chain seems difficult to be broken- even at the light of the 25^th January 2011 revolution and continuing up rise in various areas.

The reason of the sudden up rise in Egypt has long been predicted- some say “it was boiling under the service”. Egyptian people have accepted a lot of humiliation and deliberate killing and quick response to oppress all demonstration deeming them as “terrorism”. One major incident that fuelled the anger of the Egyptian people is the case of Khaled Saeed/Said. The story starts when a 28 years old young man from Alexandria got hold of a video clip exposing a few police men on their shifts in their police station one night exchanging information and discussing how to sell the amount of drugs- on the desk- which they seized whilst on their duties. The clip is of a low quality, possibly recorded using a phone camera. The origins of the clip, how he found it or managed to record this incident are still unknown, but it is clear from the clip and the statements said in Arabic that there was a deal happening as there was a lot of money being exchanged and haggling. This clip was put on the Internet by Khaled who was totally unaware of its implication especially living in an area where there are a lot of pity crimes (Sidi Gaber area of Alexandria where my Dad is from and where I used to go on regular basis to see some family). No one really imagined from those close to Khaled that this will be the cause for his death. June the 6^th 2010 is the day he was in an Internet café at 11 am suddenly arrested by two police members- said to be ironically from the security forces- for no apparent reason at the time, dragged Khaled outside the café in the buildings hallway and beaten him to death. The graphic descriptions by many eye witnesses who were warned at the time not to get involved or say a word or their fate will be the same, are horrific to listen to and see from the pictures exchanged all over the Internet. A few people from the opposite side of the building managed to record on their phones the incident, yet fearing for their lives are unable to speak out and tell more about this crime. A prominent Facebook group, "We are all Khaled Said", moderated by Wael Ghonim, brought attention to his death and contributed to growing discontent in the weeks leading up to the Egyptian Revolution of 25^th January 2011.

This incident is one of many stories that Egyptians hear of besides house arrests, kidnapping and disappearing members of the public and others targeted. This all was Mubarak’s making under his tyrant state of emergency laws which gave him and others the right to deny any Egyptian his/her dignity and humanity.

The aftermath of the 25^th January revolution in Egypt meant that there will be change in the economy, the politics of running the country and the social structure. I remember various campaigns during my undergraduate years in the university trying to recruit us, students, to join governmental parties- mostly the one that was chaired by Jamal Mubarak, possibly because he thought he was going to be the next president. Thankfully, this is not going to happen as he was the first to leave the country fearing for his safety and his family’s.

Q.Why give one man the power when you can form a Parliament of excellent men?

Above are the nominees who will be running for presidency in the current elections. It is worth mentioning that two of them are Nobel prize winners, Ahmed Zewail-Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry in 1999  and Mohamed Al Baradei who was the of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an inter-governmental organisation under the auspices of the United Nations, from December 1997 to November 2009. El Baradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
 

Others are influential people who people started repeating their names either as important figures who hold a political status of business men who called for change and expressed their anger against the government. Thankfully- or not- none of those running for election seem to have the strong charisma so far to sway all Egyptians' votes.

The two paths that I see Egypt taking today are either throwing the past constitution away, avoiding the same mistakes within the single authoritative regime or forming a democratic ruling parliament of the best Egyptian men and women equally to collectively rule the country and allow decisions to happen. 

There is no need for Western intervention at this stage, I believe that the Egyptian people have proven themselves worthy of everyone’s respect and admiration and worthy of living in this beautiful place called Egypt.

Bibliography
http://www.travellerwithin.com/2010/07/khaled-said-will-not-be-egypts-neda.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Khaled_Mohamed_Saeed

http://www.demotix.com/news/396462/trial-against-khalid-saeed-killers