Does the emergency law really help prevent terrorism? Serene Assir gets the opinion of experts and activists Perhaps in response to the intensification of calls for reform in late 2004 and 2005, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak spent a good part of his campaign leading up to September's presidential elections promising a long-awaited review of the emergency law, in place since the assassination of Anwar El-Sadat in October 1981. Although there is no evidence so far to suggest just when such a review will take place -- especially considering that this has not been the first time such a promise has been made -- the president has made clear his intention to replace the state of emergency with the integration of a series of anti-terror laws into the civil code. Such a step, one assumes, would be taken following what is expected to be the government's justification of continued martial law in light of deadly attacks on Taba in October 2004, Al-Azhar in April 2005, Tahrir Square and Sayida Zeinab later that same month, and Sharm El-Sheikh in July. The anti-terror laws, whose full content has not yet been revealed, are reported to include an article directly lifted from the emergency code, which would continue to grant the executive exceptional powers. "The new laws," Hafez Abu Seada of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights told Al-Ahram Weekly, "would be an exact replica of certain key articles in the emergency law." Sounds familiar? The list of similar integration of emergency measures into the penal code of countries is endless, but we need to look no further than the infamous Patriot Act, introduced shortly after the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001. Justified by the US government as providing security for a nation still under threat, but criticised by human rights activists for infringing on civil rights and for being outright ineffective in combating terror, the Patriot Act has provided blueprints for governments across the world on how to stay in control. "Ever since the attack on Taba," Abu Seada said, "thousands of people have been arrested without charge, put in prison, and very likely tortured. The whereabouts of several hundred people are still unknown." And yet, as pointed out by Ahmed Seif El-Islam, the director of the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, "the attacks did not stop there. If the government had managed to capture all those who had any connection with terrorist networks, then surely there would have been no successive attacks." The lawyer and activist added: "In fact, the state of emergency does not, as the government claims, protect the country from terrorism. The law has been in place since 1981 -- far earlier than any attacks of the kind we have seen this year, or even in the 1990s." For some, the emergency law is a means to secure the interests of certain parties within the government. "The law gives the police unlimited powers," Seif El-Islam said. "What this means in practice is that the procedures involved in implementing the law are far simpler and more straight-forward than they would be under a civil state. Under emergency law, it is the police decisions that count, regardless of proof, accountability, transparency or justice." After the attacks on Cairo and Sinai, voices have steadily emerged even from within the ranks of the National Democratic Party and the government urging for -- and even promising -- the abolition of emergency law. Among them was Hossam Badrawi, a charismatic NDP member whose growing prominence received a severe blow when he was defeated in the recent parliamentary elections. Perhaps one reason why the debate has become so widespread is that ever since the attacks, "security measures have increased to an annoying degree," Abu Seada said. "Everyone is affected now." Other reasons exist too, among them the fact that an entire generation has grown up under emergency law -- many of whom, surprisingly, cannot remember or do not know why it was introduced in the first place. "Sadly, the fact remains that in Egypt the majority of the population is still excluded from the political process," Abu Seada said. "Take the recent parliamentary elections as an example. If the police prevent you -- by force -- from voting, then surely you will feel entitled to use force in retaliation. And bear in mind that we now live in an age where violence has taken on a religious hue, and when violence is perceived across the Arab world as constituting the only route to change." "There is no question about it," Amin Mohamed Amin, the managing editor of Al-Ahram 's regional edition, told the Weekly. "The emergency law does nothing to prevent terrorist attacks from occurring in Egypt. The solution to terrorism is a comprehensive one, dealing with issues as wide-ranging as education, society, culture and economics. There is no reason why we should be living under a state of emergency, when in fact all this does is create emergencies rather than minimise them." Pointing to factors such as increasing poverty, poor education and a reaching out by the government to Egypt's most underprivileged classes, experts blame the state for failing to direct its resources towards raising the morale of the country's neediest, thereby rendering them prone to taking illegitimate, destructive routes when wanting to make their voices heard. "We are a people who understand," Amin said. "And we know that the security route is not the answer." "In fact," Seif El-Islam said, "such are the weak points of the emergency law that in all likelihood it is far less efficient in its methods of investigation than its civil counterpart in capturing the real perpetrators of terrorist acts. The emergency law has provided the real terrorists behind the recent attacks with an indirect shield. The government would do well to review its policy in its formulation of a more long-term strategy of leadership" in its efforts to root out terror for good. The attacks On the night of 6 October 2004, three car bomb attacks on the Taba Hilton hotel and a tourist camp in neighbouring Ras Sheitan left 34 people dead, most of them Israeli. Ten thousand tourists evacuated the town within 24 hours of the bombings. However, reports suggest that tourism in Taba has since recovered well. On 7 April 2005, a small home-made bomb thrown from a motorcycle onto a busy street near Al-Azhar mosque in the heart of Cairo killed four people and injured tens of others. Among the victims were two French and British tourists. A few weeks later, on 30 April 2005, two attacks also took place in Cairo -- one in Abdel-Moneim Riad Square in the downtown area, the other near Sayyida Aisha just 15 minutes afterwards. In Abdel-Moneim Riad, a man -- who was, according to some reports, related to one of the Al-Azhar bombing suspects who died in custody -- threw a small bomb off the bridge overlooking the square, and subsequently died from the blast. In Sayyida Aisha, two women wearing niqab were reported to have opened fire on a tourist bus, before shooting each other in a suicide pact. On 23 July 2005, a triple bombing struck the tourist city of Sharm El-Sheikh in the southernmost tip of the Sinai Peninsula, killing 88 people and wounding at least 150. This constituted the bloodiest terrorist attack in Egypt's history. While the previous attacks had targeted mostly foreigners, most of those who died in Sharm El-Sheikh were Egyptian. Mass arrests and deportation According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, just a week after the attacks in Taba, the Egyptian government initiated a broad campaign focussing on Sinai, resulting in the arrest, within just a few weeks, of 2,500 to 3,000 people. "These arrests continued well after a 25 October government announcement that identified by name nine persons alleged to be responsible for the attacks, of whom two remained at large," according to HRW. To date, hundreds remain in detention, and there have been reports of ill treatment and torture of suspects. "The mass arrests have a very negative effect of the ground," according to Ahmed Sef El-Islam of the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre. "The way the security forces have consistently behaved in the Bedouin villages of Sinai since Taba was attacked through to the present day is causing intense polarisation. In one village, the police entered with the intention of arresting all the men. But because they found that most of them were away in hiding, they took all the women instead. The Bedouin men folk subsequently attacked the police in order to free their wives. There was much violence." In addition, many Palestinian residents of Al-Arish in North Sinai -- whose families have been residing in Egypt ever since Gaza was under Egyptian control -- faced deportation by the government. "I was picked up one day by the police," Hamdan, a Palestinian 25- year-old former resident of Al-Arish told Al-Ahram Weekly, "and taken to the border with Gaza, and ordered never to return. My cousins were all arrested." For many weeks, his family feared making contact with anyone, in case their situation grew even worse. "The arrests have undeniably created an atmosphere of paranoia in Sinai," Hafez Abu Saeda of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights said.
