CAIRO: Over 1,230 farmers have been arrested in the past two days in Aboul Matamir in Beheira governorate, accused of failing to pay agricultural land taxes (known as the attyan tax) on time. According to the Solidarity Committee of Egyptian Farmers, arrests began on the morning of May 24 and continued for two days. Owners and renters in the villages around Aboul Matamir, including Janaklisse and El Ashartalaf, were shocked on Sunday morning when they were faced with a massive police presence administered by state security. The police and security services continued to launch mass arrests on the basis that farmers were late in paying their clay taxes. According to local farmers, the arrests were carried out "chaotically and "indiscriminately, without security paying attention to whether those arrested had a ruling against them. The ruling to arrest the 1,230 farmers was taken in their absence. Farmers also claim that no notice was given for their arrest nor of the court ruling against them. "There are many ways for the government to force farmers to give up their land, and this is one of them, Bashir Sakr, journalist and member of the Solidarity Committee for Egyptian Farmers, told Daily News Egypt. "Many of the people who work in this land are either renting or own small patches of land. This does not work in the interest of large, globalized organizations that need to sell hefty farm equipment to large farms. "It is only those who own the farms who pay taxes, said Sakr, "but most of those arrested rent the land. The police did not discriminate who they take when they make their arrests and confiscations. What is more, court rulings take place in farmers' absence. They are given no warnings, and no notice that arrests will happen, nor even that a court has ruled they be arrested. "The government also carries out measures such as confiscating crops and animals until they pay up, but many do not have the money, and will be forced off the land. The agricultural land tax is among those taxes raised in recent years, a result in the rising prices of farming materials and, according to the Solidarity Committee, is a heavy burden on farmers and tenants who also suffer from the rising rent prices, which, from 1996, have risen from LE 500 to over LE 4,000.
