Salon.com > Port Said

Tensions boil over in Egyptian port city

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:55:00 +0000

PORT SAID, Egypt (AP) — Clashes between protesters and police have broken out in this restive Egyptian port city despite efforts by the military to separate the two sides.

Military police deployed Wednesday around a government complex where demonstrators have been camped out for weeks. The military removed protester tents to try to prevent renewed violence after three days of clashes that left six people dead, including three policemen.

Protesters angry about what they say is the excessive use of force by police have also torched three government buildings in the recent unrest.

Despite the military's efforts Wednesday, protesters hurled stones at police, prompting the police to respond with tear gas.

Brutal Egyptian police video heightens tensions

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:39:00 +0000

On Friday, Salon drew attention to a graphic video gaining traction online in Egypt, which shows a group of about eight riot police strip, beat and drag a middle-aged man across the street and into a police van near President Mohammed Morsi's palace in Cairo. Over the weekend, the footage, aired first on the liberal, privately owned On TV network, has garnered widespread attention and heightened already soaring tensions after a week of intense anti-government protests.

As the Guardian's Patrick Kingsley noted from Egypt:

The video shows Hamada Saber, reportedly a 50-year-old unemployed laborer, lying on the ground outside the presidential palace in north-east Cairo, with his trousers around his ankles, being beaten with batons and fists before being dragged into a police van.

The scene is reminiscent of the "woman in the blue bra" – a protester stripped and beaten by soldiers during protests against military rule in December 2011, whose plight became a lightning rod for opposition dissent.

Can the Egyptian army keep the peace?

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 12:36:00 +0000

CAIRO, Egypt — A warning from Egypt’s defense minister this week that the Egyptian state was near collapse raised a lot of eyebrows.

Were the country’s secretive generals readying for another coup?

With their economic and political interests now safeguarded under the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government, however, the army may prefer to steer the current political crisis from the sidelines, analysts say, rather than upend its status quo.

“Our role is to protect the property of the state and maintain security,” a high-ranking military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told GlobalPost. He dismissed claims the army aims to seize power. “We’re doing what the government recommends.”

More than 50 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in a week of violent protests against the government of President Mohamed Morsi. Law and order have broken down in the Suez Canal town of Port Said, and armed gangs have looted an international hotel chain in the heart of Cairo.

Egyptian army to make civilian arrests

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:29:00 +0000

CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi approved a draft law on Monday, allowing the military to arrest civilians and assist police after at least 50 people died in anti-government protests.

The news broke when an anonymous source told Reuters the army would "behave like a police force." The wire service said that means "detainees would go to a civilian and not military court."

The news follows Morsi's state of emergency and curfew declaration in three Egyptian cities — Suez, Ismailia and Port Said. It's unclear if the army will operate in the three cities under emergency law or all of Egypt.

The army's restoration as an internal policing force is likely to spark significant controversy.

GlobalPost's senior correspondent in Egypt, Erin Cunningham, reports: