'Broken promises'

Thousands of protesters have gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand an end to military rule in Egypt, heightening tension after days of clashes which threaten to derail next week's polls. Deutsche Welle spoke to Mohamed Lofty, researcher at Amnesty International, which published a report on the human rights situation on Tuesday. The report is titled Broken Promises: Egypt's Military Rulers Erode Human Rights.

Deutsche Welle: In what sense have promises been broken in Egypt since the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) assumed power following the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February?

Mohamed Lofty: The military council has made many announcements and statements over TV, online, on Facebook, saying that they are going to respect people's right to peaceful protest, and to realize and respect the legislative demands of those who participated in the protest against Mubarak, including the right to freedom of speech, assembly and to peacefully protest. What we have seen this weekend reflects also what we have seen during the last nine months, i.e. a crackdown violently against the protesters.

With Coptic protesters last month, we've seen how military vehicles were running over and crushing those protesters asking to end discrimination against Copts. We have also seen many protests, even in late February, protesters being attacked, dispersed by force, taken into military custody, tortured by the military police itself and referred to military trials. So there is a sequence of protests and crackdown on protests violently and with excessive use of force that basically shows that the rhetoric of the military council is false.

How have the Egyptian people responded to the way the SCAF is ruling?

Expectations were of course very high when Mubarak left, and people were looking forward to a drastic change, and to bringing justice, freedom and dignity to the Egyptian people. Those were the slogans that were raised by the protesters. And there was some faith in the military council that the interim period would witness a drastic change in policies. But what we have noticed over the last nine months is that pretty much nothing has changed in terms of the human rights record.

Military trials have been used against civilians extensively, even more than in the Mubarak era. One of the numbers we mention is 12,000 persons presented before military trials, civilians, during the last period. Also the practice of torture by the military police, the crackdown on the protests, the restrictions on the freedom of the media and the press - a number of bloggers have been summoned to military prosecution. One of them is actually still in detention, and another one received a sentence of three years for merely writing on his blog criticism of the military rulers.

Why has the SCAF acted in this way?

I think the action of the officers and the military police, the army and the riot police have been exactly the same as before, with the same abuses. No punishment has been made, no justice has been made to the victims of the Mubarak era. It's actually because those policemen who have killed and tortured in the past under Mubarak have continued to live above the law. And the security apparatus has not been reformed to basically change that tradition of abuse against detainees or against protesters. So the SCAF has not introduced immediate change in the culture of impunity among its security apparatus.

Add to this that the powers given to the security forces have remained the same, if not expanded, because the military kept the state of emergency as it is. One of the long-standing calls for Mubarak was to lift the state of emergency. And the military has continued to apply the state of emergency; they have continued to act with this mentality of justifying human rights violations because of a security situation, invoking security concerns and national security, yet again, to basically crackdown on dissent.

The civilian cabinet has offered its resignation following the unrest of recent days. What do you think will happen next in Egypt? What hopes to you have for forthcoming elections?

I think it's anybody's guess at the moment. I understand people expect a speech by the head of the military council at the moment. And there is some discussion among political figures to form a new government. The elections - will they happen or not? It's anybody's guess. In a way, the demands on the streets have gone beyond the question of elections or not. The thousands who have gathered in Cairo in Tahrir Square, in Alexandria, in Suez and other cities are making calls to hand over power to civilian rule, and making slogans against the military council itself.

We have to remember that the atmosphere for conducting elections - free elections - was not there. The emergency law continued to be applied, the media continued to face restrictions and threats. If you can't demonstrate as a Coptic community or a political group in the street and call for an end to discrimination, there's obviously a very narrow space for people to express their needs.

Interview: Joanna Impey / acb
Editor: Michael Lawton