Friday, March 4, 2011

Protesting Against State Security in Cairo. Demonstrations & Celebrations in Tahrir Square

In Cairo and Alexandria, thousands took part in Friday protests calling for the dissolution of the infamous State Security apparatus.

In Cairo, over 500 protesters marched from Tahrir Square to Lazoghli Square, where State Security headquarters are located. Along the way they chanted slogans calling for the elimination of this brutal and inhuman police apparatus.


Marching around Lazoghli Square protesters chanted "State Security are the state's dogs!" and "the people demand the dissolution of State Security!" along with "State Security, Oh State Security! We are the security, and we are the state."


Army soldiers formed a cordon preventing protesters from approaching State Security HQs. Soldiers, officers and their tanks guarded this infamous torture center, keeping protesters a safe distance away.


This protest stand outside the State Security HQs last under 30 minutes. After conferring with junior army officers, elder leaders of this march urged protesters to depart, announcing: "this is only a symbolic stand. Our voice has been heard today."

A group of dissatisfied protesters announced that they would march on to the State Security Bureau in the district of Doqqi.


Protesters in Tahrir Square pounded on drums and chanted against the State Security Apparatus, and its systematic use of torture.

This police apparatus functioned to crush, silence and intimidate Egypt's political opposition, parties, unions and labor movement, students, and NGOs; in brief - all sectors of civil society.

Mubarak's State Security Apparatus is also an integral part of the illegal international campaign of extraordinary renditions. An untold number of "terror suspects" kidnapped by CIA agents from around the world, were flown-into Cairo's State Security prisons to be tortured, to disappear and/or die.


Expressing solidarity with the Libyan Uprising, numerous activists carried the revolutionary flag in Tahrir Square.


Hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million, passed through Tahrir Square this Friday. Thousands remain encamped in, and around, the square until demands of the revolution are met;

Including:

Arrest and trial of the Mubarak Family
The dissolution of the State Security Apparatus
The lifting/end of Emergency Law
Ending the referral of civilians to military courts
Immediate release of all remaining political prisoners
Monthly minimum wage of LE 1,200

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