Following are two reports from two separate direct actions taken by Egytian civilians recently.
The first, is a testimony of the treatment received by the military by one of the demonstrators that was arrested after they had organized a sit-in in front of the ministerial cabinet in Cairo in the evening of the 25th of February and into the morning of the 26th.
The second, reports on the results of the storming of the security offices in Alexandria and Cairo on Saturday, March 5.
Personal Testimony of Military Brutality on Demonstrators
(Unedited)
This is a translation of the testimony written by Muhammad Mosa originally published here
The person in this picture - that is myself – is the same person in this video, at 1:25 minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5GSfSRY2PQ
Due thanks..
I
will start with reference to the kind treatment we received from the
unit 28 military prosecution, as well as the respect and grace with
which we were treated on the morning of the 26th of
February when we were transferred to the military police
administration. To be honest the Major General running the military
police administration, and fellow officers and individuals were all very
generous, and treated us like guests and not criminals.
And
an extra thanks to the Major General for paying special attention to
our cases – those who were beaten and assaulted the dawn of that very
day – and taking me and a friend to Kobry El Qubba hospital in the
company of an Officer to help with the ex-rays and check-ups and ensure
our safety himself. They sent the rest back to Tahrir in a microbus at the same time.
Right before the Sit-in was dispersed…
We were a little less than 150 people that night. At around 11:30 in the evening of the 25th of
February, army soldiers formed a cordon around us without violations;
one of my friends thinks this might have been their way of kettling us
and making sure our numbers don’t grow around the ministerial cabinet. They dismantled their human cordon at 15 minutes past midnight of the 26th of
February. At around that time we started hearing news of the sit-in in
Tahrir being violently dispersed. And at around 1:30 am that very night,
the army started using electric batons to disperse the sit-in and
of-course we ran. They continued to push, beat and kick at us, until
they managed to disperse us.
And then I was arrested…
As
I ran, I came across a fallen protestor, and stopped to check on him.
An officer grabbed me and started to push and beat at me and I said to
him “Don’t hit! Just arrest me!” And he replied “Come here ya ruh ummak”[1] , and they pulled me into a garage in the ministerial cabinet; and this is where the physical and moral torture began.
In the ministerial cabinet’s garage…
I
was shocked at the numbers of army personnel beating up protesters in
the garage. At first I thought these must have been thugs, but before I
had a chance to finish the thought, I was pulled very roughly and
ordered to squat on the ground. With that they started to kick at every
part of my body; I tried to cover my face to protect it, but one of the
officers pulled my arm away and stepped on my face pushing it to the
ground, while they tied my hands behind my back. They – Lieutenants,
First Lieutenants and a row of officers and soldiers - then proceeded to kick at my face as if my head were a soccer-ball.
Others
around me were much worse off. One was stripped bare in the cold and
sprayed with water and beaten, while another was beaten until his
shoulder was dislocated, while others were electrocuted with the
electric batons. One protester called out to declare he had a heart
condition; and they shouted back at him to ask what he was doing in a
protest if he had such a condition, as they proceeded to pull his hand
away from his heart, and kick him where it was.
Twice
we heard what sounded like a high-ranking officer giving an order to
end the beating “No one hit any of them anymore!”. But as soon as he
would leave, the beating would start again; it was difficult to tell if
they really weren’t following orders, or if the whole thing was just
theatrical. For the beating never ceased.
What was said in the Garage…
What
was worse than the beating and the insults, were the accusations that
the officers and military personnel were throwing at us while we were in
there. When I first got in they played the old reel of accusations
related to treachery and our being spies; I could even hear an officer
shout as he beat a protester “And you’re getting 50 Euros to insult
president Mubarak ya ruh ummak?!”. And
while we were all hearing variations of this, each of us was
specifically asked to say “Long live Hosni Mubarak”, and those who
refused got a fresh course of beating. It
was clear to us that they didn’t think they were dealing with thugs,
but believed they were dealing with paid security threats.
And
one of the personal violations that I could note is their occasional
calling out that “We’re in Abu Ghareeb here” , as they piled protestors
un-top of each other and beat them.
There
was one officer amongst the lot however that was kind to me, and often
rough to my perpetrators; all thanks to my mothers’ prayers! He answered
my phone when it rang (though never gave any useful information) and
ensured that I got all my things back as I was leaving – thankfully I
didn’t loose anything.
Who was in the Ministerial Cabinet’s Garage..
We
were a little more than ten people beaten and tortured in the garage.
There was one person I was sure was a thug, but he was being treated
like a spy. And one seemed to be someone who ran away from the army, but
he was only insulted. The rest were all, truly protesters
(revolutionaries).
There
was another group of around (or a little less than) 17 people arrested
from the sit-in in Tahrir square; and I can say that 5 of them were
really thugs. This group didn’t seem to have been beaten or tortured
(not even the thugs) but they had been electrocuted with the electric
batons.
Questions that continue to haunt me…
Was
what happened truly on account of ‘irresponsible elements’ in the army
as it claimed in the official apology? Or was it intended to get a
message across? Or are they the infiltrated minority in the army?
Was this on account of orders from higher army ranks? If so, will they be held accountable?
Breaking
the curfew shouldn’t warrant any torture of beating; which there is
never any justification for anyway… then why did this happen? Does
what happened mean there’s some sort of split within the army ranks?
That there are some that have stakes in the old regime and want it to
survive through Mubarak or someone else? Why
is the army so keen on the 6-month transitional period; when there is a
call for the development of a presidential council with civilian
representatives to lead the state through a year-long transitional
period?
----------------------
Torture Chamber Discovered After Storming of State Security Building
After hundreds of protesters barging in Egypt’s state security offices in both Cairo and Alexandria, locked up prisoners were found and freed.
Protesters started hearing calls for help from under the ground when they stormed the state security office in Alexandria. The protestors reportedly released from one of the office’s tunnel cells a prisoner that has been there for 20 years. Yet, this has not so far been confirmed.
It has been said that the death of the young Egyptian activist Khaled Said in Alexandria’s state security branch was a major catalyst in sparking the January 25 revolution that ousted the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak.
In the state security headquarters in
eastern Cairo, protestors also heard voices and managed to release 14
women and 25 men from secret cells, said Zakaria Abdul-Aziz, former head
of the Judges Club.
“I called the Prosecutor General and asked him to look for the designer of the state security office so we can find others detained in the secret cells,” he said in an interview with an Egyptian satellite channel.
Abdul-Aziz also aims to get the documents that were taken from the Cairo State Security headquarters to hand the classified to the army to allow the military police to take the building over until it is entrusted to the general prosecution.
According to Abdul-Aziz, secret underground cells are not only exclusive to State Security offices, but there are many others at the Ministry of Interior, prison facilities, and Central Security camps.
“We demand that the truth about secret underground cells be known now to everybody.”
The size of one of these cells does not exceed a meter and a half. They are usually pitch dark, very poorly ventilated, extremely damp, and smelly, said a reporter from the Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Sabea, one of the five given permission by the army to take a tour in the State Security building in Lazoghli in downtown Cairo.
Like the interior minister’s office at the eastern Cairo headquarters, the offices of State Security officers are luxurious with adjacent bedrooms and fancy bathrooms.
“I called the Prosecutor General and asked him to look for the designer of the state security office so we can find others detained in the secret cells,” he said in an interview with an Egyptian satellite channel.
Abdul-Aziz also aims to get the documents that were taken from the Cairo State Security headquarters to hand the classified to the army to allow the military police to take the building over until it is entrusted to the general prosecution.
According to Abdul-Aziz, secret underground cells are not only exclusive to State Security offices, but there are many others at the Ministry of Interior, prison facilities, and Central Security camps.
“We demand that the truth about secret underground cells be known now to everybody.”
The size of one of these cells does not exceed a meter and a half. They are usually pitch dark, very poorly ventilated, extremely damp, and smelly, said a reporter from the Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Sabea, one of the five given permission by the army to take a tour in the State Security building in Lazoghli in downtown Cairo.
Like the interior minister’s office at the eastern Cairo headquarters, the offices of State Security officers are luxurious with adjacent bedrooms and fancy bathrooms.
Hell Room
Protestors stormed eastern Cairo headquarters looking for documents and prisoners
This room, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly said, houses evidence of the violations committed by all senior officials in the country and supported by audio and video.
In the interrogation, Adly said that both Safwat al-Sharif, former speaker of the Consultative Assembly, Egypt’s higher house of parliament, and Gamal Mubarak, Hosni Mubarak’s son, were aware of the existence of this room.
Hell Room brings to mind the Capital of Hell, a book written by political activist Mohamed al-Derini. The title denotes a place in which the activist was detained for 40 days and which he cannot identify since he was blindfolded throughout this whole time.
Derini who speculates that he have been detained at the state security headquarters in eastern Cairo, said that he spent his detention time with bare feet and chained hands.
He added that he was exposed to several forms of torture like laying him down on a wet long chair then connecting his limbs to electricity and sitting him on an electrocuted chair.
By Farrag Ismail
(Translated from the Arabic by Sonia Farid)
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