BREAKING INTELLIGENCE ON THE SUEZ SITUATION
An angry Egyptian crowd of about 1,000 people gather Wednesday, Jan.26, 2011, outside the Suez city's morgue greet a vehicle carrying the body of one of three protesters who died in clashes on Tuesday. Later, about 300 protesters laid siege to a police station in the city's downtown, throwing rocks. Police responded by firing live ammunition in the air.
27 January 2011:
I have finally managed to get a translation / transcript in English of a very important video from last night, so I am posting it up now and I ask that you make this go viral.
The video is in Egyptian Arabic but the transcript is worth reading.
Translation / Transcript:
The anchor: Secretariat of the national assembly for change Ahmad … Mister Ahmad: Can you describe what is happening in Suez now?
Mr Ahmad: What is happening now in Suez goes beyond the imagination of logic and mind. What is happening in Suez now is a real streets war with all what it means. Now on the ground, there are tens of rallies in the streets of Suez. Now there are tens of people on the ground some injured and some killed. There is burning of the headquarters of Arbaeen neighborhood, and the police station of Muthallath .. There is burning of the headquarter of the national party in Arbaeen. There is an unprecedented kind of violence. The police is hitting by live and rubber bullets since yesterday.
We counted today morning 4 victims, but now the number exceeds this a lot, a lot more .
Egyptian anti-riot policemen arrest a protestor in Suez, Egypt, Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011. Egyptian activists protested for a third day as social networking sites called for a mass rally in the capital Cairo after Friday prayers, keeping up the momentum of the country's largest anti-government protests in years.
The anchor: Did you observe these numbers or you have numbers from hospitals or more trusted sources?
Mr Ahmad: There is a lot of chaos that doesn’t allow you to get the exact numbers. The situation is out of control and can’t be measured by logic. There is unprecedented violence on the ground done by the security forces in Suez. Yesterday, the rallies continued from 12 till 6:25.
Tens of thousands of Suez citizens went out on one of the finest peaceful demonstrations. The demonstrations went on for 6 hours and not a single stone was thrown. Not even a single glass board was broken. Till 6:25 we were leading a peaceful rallies in Suez.
We were calling for the departure of Moubarak and the necessity of political amendments. At 6:25 the security started to clash with the citizens in a very dangerous way. The politics was out and the issue turned into mutual violence.
In this mutual violence live and rubber bullets were used. The police haven’t used live bullets in any of the governorates except in Suez. We appeal to the whole world, we appeal to the conscience, what is happening in Suez is a crime.
The anchor: OK time ran out, Mr Ahmad, the head of the Secretariat of the national assembly for change, thank you.
Please disseminate this video with the text translation / transcript far and wide and let's blow the Suez Massacre wide open. The translator is trustworthy as a personal friend of mine, and I will vouch for the veracity of the above translation / transcript personally.
Everything stops for prayers.
BOOMING CITY OF SUEZ MICROCOSM OF EGYPT'S ANGER
SUEZ, Egypt January 27, 2011, 10:53 am ET
Orderly blocks of factory workers' apartments rose along wide, well-maintained roads over the last decade as Egypt's growing economy boosted the fortunes of this flourishing port city.
People migrated to Suez from poor, rural areas to participate in the type of prosperity cited by the country's longtime ruling party as evidence of its success.
But even in a city known for its growing middle class, people say improvements have benefited only a small and well-connected elite, leaving the majority struggling to find money for food and housing. Anger over that imbalance has erupted on the streets more violently in Suez than virtually anywhere else in Egypt, leaving at least three people dead and dozens injured.
About 1000 people gathered in front of the morgue Wednesday night chanting anti-government slogans and calling "God is Great" as they waited for the release of Gharib Abdelaziz, a 45-year-old baker who became the third person killed by police here when he was shot in the stomach during a protest.
His sister, Wafaa Abdelaziz, paced through the crowd, her arms held by female family members, moaning "You traitors! You killed my brother!"
Elsewhere in the crowd, Mostafa Khaled, 21, said he wasn't looking forward to graduating from school this year, even in a city where 100 factories produce everything from steel to fabrics, generating $5 billion a year in tax revenue for the national government.
"Suez brings in the highest profit of all the cities in Egypt to the country and yet look at us ~ we are close to begging. We have no jobs, we scrounge to feed our families," Khaled said. "We don't want Mubarak, we don't want this government, and we want our basic human rights."
As the sky darkened, a shower of rocks rained over the protesters heads and into the morgue and at riot police, and within minutes tear gas filled the air, flaming Molotov cocktails flew through the sky and smashed against armored vehicles. Police shot rubber bullets into the crowd and men vomited in the street.
Egyptians pass a burned car following clashes between protestors and anti-riot police officers in Suez, Egypt, Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011. Egyptian activists protested for a third day as social networking sites called for a mass rally in the capital Cairo after Friday prayers, keeping up the momentum of the country's largest anti-government protests in years.
Women shrieked from their balconies and doorsteps for their sons and husbands to make it back home.
In the one shabby bedroom of her two-room home in front of the Suez morgue, Karima Thabet said she didn't want to be the next mother lining up at the morgue.
"My kids are good children, they just want to find work so they can support their families," she said.
She said none of her five sons were able to find employment and she had to bake bread in an outdoor oven and sell it to her relatives to supplement the rationed loaves she bought as well as selling it to her family members.
For three Egyptian pounds (50 US cents) a month she can buy a membership card that allows her to buy 20 rationed loaves of government-supplied bread. The subsidization of bread in Egypt has been for decades one of the many unwritten "understandings" between the government and the country's poor majority, even though food subsidies cost the country $3 billion per year.
"We eat whatever we can for that day ~ some cheese, lentils. We only see red meat once a year," Thabet said.
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