Furious miners, dead police

Al-Masry Al-Youm reports on the Menya miners’ clashes…

Fifty-three protesters were detained in the city of Al Minya, Upper Egypt, when quarry workers and owners clashed with police, leading to the death of a policeman and thousands of workers and security injured.
The southern city is almost quiet again, except for the intense security measures. Now, most of the main roads are blocked, especially a bridge spanning the Nile, where the clashes took place.
The prosecutor has charged detainees with rioting, murder, blocking the main road, and disruption of the traffic, and has called on the forensic team to decide on the autopsy of the dead policeman.
The protesters marched into Al Minya, 210 kilometers south of Cairo, last Thursday, to protest against a decision by the authorities to impose new duties on quarried rock.
The government had imposed duties of LE 40 per ton of quarried stone, leading some quarries to shut down and lay off their laborers.
Protesters told Al Masry Al Youm that they held the demonstration because petitions to officials had been ignored and some quarries had been shut for more than two weeks.
However, in an interview to Al Masry Al Youm, Ahmed Diaa El Din, governor of Al Minya, said, “The new accounting system for these quarries was decided upon by the local council in the presence of 10 representatives from quarry owners and no one objected; now we are surprised to see them protesting.”
A health official in Al Minya said there are over twenty policemen and workers still hospitalized, while others recovered and were released yesterday.

Yes, for those of you who are asking, the Menya Governor is the we-torture-only-five-in-a-thousand dude…

UPDATE: Prosecutor has ordered the detention of 43 miners pending investigation…

No Responses

1. Ed

   July 20, 2009 - 11:51 AM

   Hey, I was just reading this when the opening line caught my eye saying that “quarry workers and owners clashed with police”.. is that true? The rest of the article doesn’t mention anything else about bosses but I was wondering to what extent are the workers fighting for themselves and how much (if at all) quarry owners are involved in the struggle for their own (contradictory) ends.

   Cheers for any clarification..

2. Hossam el-Hamalawy

   July 21, 2009 - 1:43 AM

   I admit I need to clarify more. The situation overthere is complicated, as both the bosses and the workers were involved in the mobilization. The bosses were quick to reach a compromise with the NDP following the riots immediately.
   But still, as I said above, the situation is complicated, and sometimes the bosses/workers divide is fuzzy, coz some of those quarries r (relatively) small family businesses, where u can find self-employed family members both owning and working in the quarry..
   I promise I’ll write a longer posting as soon as I can to clarify the class dynamics behind the events, but honestly it won’t be before next week coz I’m tied up with work now.