In Cairo it’s once again the season of police batons and political rumours. On 6 April security forces rounded up about 100 young activists who had left cyberspace for the streets to protest the heavy-handed repression of democratic opposition. They were hustled off to security headquarters to face the brutality of their interrogators. A month later, members of the April 6th Youth Movement – originally formed on Facebook to demand political reform – were still in prison.
A draconian state of emergency has been in effect for 29 years in Egypt, and the already tense atmosphere was poisoned further in April when a ruling National Democratic Party legislator, Nachaat El Kassas, called for police to shoot demonstrators, reportedly saying: ‘There are 80 million Egyptians. We can tolerate losing a few rotten ones!’
