CAIRO - In a strong show of dissatisfaction Monday, thousands of members of the police force staged nationwide demonstrations to demand higher salaries and shorter work hours, taking their protests to the Ministry of the Interior in the centre of the Egyptian capital and Cairo International Airport. The lower-ranking members called for ending trials of the police in military tribunals and purging the Interior Ministry of former regime officials. "No food, no sleep and unstoppable service everyday," the protesting police chanted outside the Ministry of the Interior before blocking the street leading to the ministry and causing major problems to traffic in the capital's busy centre. Minister of the Interior Mansour el- Eissawi had earlier agreed to some of the police's demands, but this did not prevent them from staging demonstrations in more than eight governorates, including Sharqia in the Nile Delta, where they prevented their bosses from getting out of their offices. These actions by lower-ranking policemen are just one episode in an endless series of labour strikes that have come to haunt Egypt, a short time after a popular uprising ousted the country's long-time ruler from power. Egypt should hold its first post-revolution vote late next month amid efforts by the ruling military council to contain rampant violence before the elections. The lower-ranking officers form a sizeable portion of the Interior Ministry's personnel and their absence is widely felt, as experienced Monday, when the thousands who staged the nationwide protests left their posts to protest outside the Ministry of the Interior offices in their respective governorates. Some prisoners unsuccessfully tried to escape in the Governorate of Menoufiya, taking advantage of the lack of police officers in prisons. At Cairo Airport, the policemen threatened to break into the Arrivals Hall and stop incoming travellers from entering Egypt, provoking Airport Security Chief Salah Ziada to strongly lash out at them, accusing them of causing disruption to work inside the nation's main airport. "The Minister of the Interior had agreed to more than 90 per cent of the demands of the police," Ziada said. "What else do they need?" he asked. What they say they need is a 200 per cent raise in their monthly performance allowance as well as limiting their work hours. They say they work all day and night, while their seniors (officers and higher-ranking policemen) work only eight hours a day.
