CRIME WAVE GRIPS POST-REVOLUTION EGYPT
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AP
Op-Ed
The Pioneer
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
With security agencies weakened and political uncertainty stalking
the country criminals feel emboldened, says Hamza Hendawi
Gunmen kidnapped a grandniece of Anwar Sadat and demanded a ransom.
In one southern city, robbers didn't bother to wait until dark to
target pedestrians. In another, a brawl between two school children
led to a gunbattle that killed five.
A police state barely three months ago, Egypt has seen crime soar 200
per cent since Mr Hosni Mubarak's ouster from the presidency. Murder,
violent theft and kidnapping are leading the surge, security
officials said.
In many ways, this country of more than 80 million has become a free-
for-all for criminals taking advantage of a weakened police force and
political uncertainty. The spike in crime has made some nostalgic for
Mr Mubarak days, when the mostly corrupt and now discredited police
force used torture, intimidation and blackmail to keep crime in
check.
The uptick in crime is part of a broader climate of anxiety and
uncertainty gripping Egypt in the post-Mubarak era.
The youth groups behind the uprising fear that the Generals who took
charge from Mr Mubarak are reluctant to dismantle the former
President's legacy. They are frustrated over their lack of action
five months ahead of a parliamentary election.
The economy has been hard hit by the uprising. Strikes,
demonstrations and sit-ins for better pay and work conditions are
hurting productivity and, together with the precarious security, are
scaring foreign tourists away. The removal of Mr Mubarak has also
allowed militant Islamist groups to operate openly, feeding tensions
with the country's Christian minority and moderate Muslims.
The persistent security vacuum in Egypt is the product of a chain of
events associated with the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak's
regime on February 11. Three days into the revolt, the police
withdrew from the streets in still-unexplained circumstances
following deadly clashes with protesters in Cairo and across much of
the nation.
On the same day, January 28, the gates of several prisons were
mysteriously flung open and thousands of criminals made a dash for
freedom. Simultaneously, dozens of police stations around the country
were stormed and set ablaze, with hundreds of detained suspects freed
and firearms looted.
Last month, the new Interior Minister Mansour el-Essawy dissolved the
country's hated State Security agency, a key demand of the youth
groups behind the uprising. It was blamed for the worst human rights
abuses during Mr Mubarak's 29-year rule. But the time it will take to
replace the agency gives criminals a window of opportunity.
Egyptian police were hated by the public for their use of excessive
force and they were driven from the streets during the January 25 to
February 11 revolt. Now they are back, but in lesser numbers. And
they are much more timid in enforcing the law, especially traffic
offences, and shy away from confrontations.
With the police laxity, double and triple parking has become common
on Cairo's already congested streets. Motorists recklessly drive the
wrong way on one-way streets. Traffic police vanish after nightfall
in most parts of the city, a sprawling metropolis of some 18 million,
leaving inexperienced volunteers to direct cars.
"The police's morale is very low," Major-General Mohsen Murad,
director of public security at the Interior Ministry, acknowledged at
a news conference on Monday. "The psychological state of many
officers is bad, their firearms have been looted and their stations
have been torched."
The police and state security are under the authority of the Interior
Ministry.
The ineffectiveness of the police force was on display on Saturday
when thousands of football fans invaded the pitch before the end of
an African Champions' game between local club Zamalek and Tunisia's
Club Africain. The hundreds of policemen on duty at Cairo
International Stadium could not stop the violent invasion.
With police hardly visible in Cairo, masked gunmen in two cars
kidnapped a grandniece of Sadat -- Egypt's President until he was
assassinated in 1981 -- while she was driven to school on Sunday
morning at the upscale suburb of Heliopolis. Zeina Effat Sadat's
family car was intercepted by one of the gunmen who forced his way
into the girl's vehicle. The kidnappers later beat the driver and
forced the girl into one of their cars.
The 12-year-old was released on Monday after her father paid ransom.
Police later arrested six men for their alleged role in the
kidnapping and found a briefcase in their possession with two million
pounds (about $340,000), according to security officials who spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to
the media.
They said the kidnappers, who included university graduates, had
demanded five million pounds (about $840,000) in ransom.
Many Cairo parents periodically keep their sons and daughters away
from school because of a rise in the kidnappings of children. Armed
robberies in the capital have also been increasing in Cairo's poor
neighbourhoods, outlaying areas and on highways.
Some of the malls that have been looted and torched have reopened but
attract only a fraction of the shoppers that thronged them before the
uprising. Some have taken off their shelves luxury items, fearing a
repeat of the looting during the uprising.
Murad, the director of public security, called on Egyptians on Monday
to regain their trust in the police and send their children to
school. He acknowledged, however, that crime has increased several
fold in February and March over the same period last year. He did not
have precise figures.
In the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, children are escorted
to school by armed neighbourhood watch volunteers to fend off
kidnappers.
In Sohag, an impoverished Nile-side city south of Cairo, gunmen have
recently taken to robbing pedestrians at the downtown area in broad
daylight, according to residents and security officials.
Officials said a total of 2,000 cases of illegal construction were
recorded in the past two months in Sohag province, with farmland
owners taking advantage of the security vacuum to hurriedly build
apartment blocs they sell at significantly more profit than growing
crops.
On Monday, several thousand protesters angered by the police's
perceived indifference to a gunbattle between two feuding Sohag
families blocked the main railway track to Cairo for nearly two
hours, causing delays to trains linking the capital to southern
Egypt.
Further north in Assiut, a brawl between two schoolboys last week has
turned into a deadly feud when gunmen from al-Quseir, the village of
one of the boys, randomly opened fire on residents of Fazarah, the
village of the other boy.
Fazarah gunmen later laid siege to the school, trapping 25 al-Quseir
boys inside. Armoured Army vehicles went into the school to escort
the boys out past the armed men and back to their home villages.
Al-Quseir villagers frustrated with the police's inability to
maintain order have laid siege to their local police station since
Wednesday to force all security personnel to leave the village.
- AP
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Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
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Democracy on the march: Muslim Brotherhood calls for Egyptian modesty police
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Om Shanti
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