CAIRO: The 6 of April youth movement met Interior Minister Major General Mansour al-Issawi on Saturday to discuss security issues and evaluate the role of the police in the recent period. The movement proposed the establishment of a police code of honor to regulate the behavior of policemen and ensure the rights of citizens. A code of honor would improve the efficiency of security forces in their fight against theft and crime, they said. It would also guarantee that the rule of law would serve to protect citizens instead of intimidate them, declared 6 of April youth movement spokesman Said Mohamed Adel. The proposed plan involves the institution of a mixed committee of police officers and political activists, as well as representatives of a number of civil society organizations and human rights organizations, under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior. The charter will serve as a new contract between the police and citizens, declared 6 of April movement in an official statement. Egyptian police have been widely considered as “corrupt” and “brutal” and their ranks viewed as composed by under-educated, under-paid employees. As demonstrators outnumbered police ranks, security forces mercilessly fought protesters during the first few days of the uprisings that brought on former President Hosni Mubarak's ouster. Police then mysteriously disappeared from the streets on January 28, giving the green light to thugs, prison escapees and plainclothes policemen to spread chaos and anarchy in the country by killing civilians and invading private properties. Unconfirmed accounts report that police officers returning to Cairo's popular neighborhood of Imbaba were attacked by civilians, who stripped them of their weapons and publicly humiliated them in front of local community members in late February. The meeting between el-Issawi and the 6 of April movement also dealt with the filing of several political prisoners and on the role of the State Security Service. El-Issawi told militants that the Interior Ministry released 95 percent political prisoners detained without any official ruling, and asked the Attorney General to issue a pardon for all political prisoners who already served at least half of their sentence. “The era of constant surveillance over political opponents has come to an end,” el-Issawi told al-Masry al-Youm in an interview, adding that all files relating to the citizens' personal affairs will be destroyed. El-Issawi was nominated Interior Minister by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, and sworn in by the head of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) Field Marshall Hussein Tantawy, beginning of March. In one of his first formal acts, el-Issawi ruled the termination of the State Security Service on March 15. BM
