Unrest in Egypt

Thick plumes of smoke have been surrounding the entrance to the luxury Semiramis hotel in Cairo, located directly on the Nile near Cairo’s Tahrir Square. For days now, the typical business crowd near the hotel has been joined by clashing demonstrators and paramilitary police.

The demonstrators threw rocks and fireworks. The police fired back with tear gas, and even live ammunition. Every few minutes, the sound of gunfire could be heard.

Most of the demonstrators are poor, including a man named Anwar. "We demonstrated today and the police attacked us," he said. "They started shooting and killed two of us. I saw the dead people with my own eyes. One was about 13 years old, the other was older. One was shot in the head."

The unrest in Egypt has been growing for weeks. It is mainly directed against the brutal police force, but also against the Muslim Brotherhood. A court decision on Saturday (09.13.2013) added fuel to the fire.

Sentences confirmed

About a year ago, 70 fans of the Cairo soccer club Al-Ahly were killed during a riot at a match against the home team, Port Said’s Al-Masry. Some indicators suggest that police deliberately allowed the violence to take place.

In the decision, the court confirmed 21 death sentences that had already been issued against fans of the Port Said soccer club. But among the nine police accused of crimes, only two high-ranking officers were sentenced - both got 15 years in jail. That, some say, is the main reason for the intensity of the most recent protests.

"The decision is unfair," said 17-year-old Mohamed, another demonstrator. "It is good that the 21 will be put to death, because they killed people. But it’s also unfair - the interior ministry perpetrated this massacre, and most of the accused from the ministry have been cleared."

Police on strike

Starting Saturday, police in many Egyptian cities have gone on strike. They are calling for the interior minister to be sacked, and also seek better arms. Many police want to stop being instrumentalized for playing out political conflicts on the streets.

The backstory to this is that the Muslim Brotherhood has resisted any compromise with the opposition for some time, and appears to be trying to gain a monopoly on power in Egypt.

The recent protests reflect opposition to this, while at the same time, the police are becoming ever less willing to violently enforce Muslim Brotherhood policies.

Reforms to the security forces yet to be implemented are part of the violence problem, as many police continue to beat and torture people without being held accountable.

"The Interior Ministry needs to be rebuilt," said Mohamed. "The ministry is only protecting the regime, not the people. Two days ago, some people were just praying and they came and shot at them and arrested the prayer leader!"

Soccer fans storm police club

The violence of the Al-Ahly ultras - as the hardcore fans of the Cairo team are known - indicates a similar line of thinking. After the court decision, fans - numbering in the hundreds, according to one witness - attacked a police club near their stadium. They destroyed the building and set it on fire.

In a statement, the Al-Ahly fans said that was only the beginning as long as the Interior Ministry isn’t held accountable for the stadium massacre.

Mohamed shared this sentiment, saying he was there to send a message to the Interior Ministry. "They keep murdering, not just here in Cairo, but in Port Said or in Alexandria. There is unrest in many cities. We’ve come here because many officers of the interior ministry live here."

In the meantime, police are being unusually open on the matter. In an article for the local Ahram-Online newspaper, one Port Said police officer - who was quoted by name - said the court’s ruling is very problematic, noting that during the 2012 unrest, police arbitrarily detained hundreds of people because they didn’t know whom to arrest.

This means there could be innocent people among those sentenced to death. Another officer complained that the interior ministry encouraged the police were to use violence.

That police behavior is a central part of the current protests is reflected in the current situation in Port Said. That’s where the biggest protests were expected, but it was precisely there, of all places, where things remained quiet - after the police went on strike.

How to maintain public order in cities without an active police force remains an open question. In certain cities, vigilantism is starting to take hold - in some cases, carried out by radical Islamists.