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Aid convoy attacked in Egypt pictures news part 2

January 6, 2010
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Ovenden reported that the official they were negotiating with left, and the convoy was confronted with more than 2,000 riot police. “[We] are determined to defend our vehicles and aid,” read Ovenden’s alert. “The Egyptian authorities have, by their stubbornness and hostility towards the convoy, brought us to a crisis point.”

After the alert appeared on the Viva Palestina Web site, reports started emerging via Twitter and Facebook of police violence, rock throwing and injuries to convoy members.
The cause of the confrontation is still unclear. Numerous initial reports from convoy members posting on Twitter said that men in civilian clothes carried out the attack. One convoy participant wrote, “ppl were attacked by outsiders who came with stick and stones and entered compound, this was a set up.” Another reported, “Instigators started moving in from within the police lines and moved on the inside of the police side of the barricades. Convoy members were sitting on the ground when shouts from police lines started and then wham, hell. Just helped bandage a friend’s head.”

Various reports put the injured at between 10 and 55, with five convoy members arrested. There were no reports of severe injuries, but convoy members say they are reluctant to get treatment without guarantees of safe passage.

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EGYPTIAN OFFICIALS have thrown numerous roadblocks in the way of Viva Palestina.

The convoy set off from London on December 6, with hundreds of participants and vehicles. After driving through Europe, Turkey, Syria and Jordan, convoy participant were told they wouldn’t be able to cross into Egypt according to their planned route to get to the Rafah crossing into Gaza. Instead, the government told Viva it could enter the country from the port of El Arish on the Mediterranean Sea. This necessitated a drive back through Syria to the port of Latakia, and chartering a car ferry to reach El Arish, but Viva members managed to make the journey.

Their were more conflicts with Egyptian officials in El Arish, but as of Monday, it appeared that the government would allow Viva members to go as a group to Rafah and cross into Gaza. The next day, negotiations were apparently broken off, and the swarms of riot police arrived.

Accounts of the melee sent over Twitter painted a disturbing picture. One participant reported:

I was coming back from dinner with 8 brothers and sisters. approximately 30 riot police approached us & started harassing pushing and hitting us. the situation escalated. we tried to lock arms and hold each other and get to the gate. there were too many of them.

two meters from the gate they separated us and beat the shit out of us. i got dragged under and into a group of the riot police and was being beaten. managed to get to the wall.

as i was being beaten one of the brothers grabbed me from across the wall and put me into the compound. of the nine of us, four are missing. i dont know what has happened to them. there are other stories like this.

So far, media coverage has been sparse, but Viva Palestina convoy participants are asking for protests where possible at Egyptian consulates and other government institutions to call for a halt to the violence and safe passage for convoy members and aid into Gaza.

source http://socialistworker.org/2010/01/06/aid-convoy-attacked-in-egypt

Pictures are free for pro Palestinian Purposes

Filistin Konvoyu Ariş limanının kapısını kırdı
Mısır’ın konvoyda bulunan Amerikalılara ait 57 araca el koymak istemesi üzerine konvoydaki 500 kişi Ariş limanında protesto eylemi başlattı. Sloganlarla Mısır’ı telin eden grup daha sonra limanın kapısına yöneldi. Limanın iki demir kapısı yerinden söküldü. Konvoydakiler sabahtan beri bekledikleri limandan dışarı çıktılar. Mısır çevik kuvvet polisleri gruba müdahale edilmek üzere dış kapının önüne koşullandırıldı. Mısır çevik kuvvet polislerine sürekli takviyeler yaparak eylemcilere göz dağı vermek istedi. Polis ve panzerlere ek olarak itfaiye ekibi de geldi.
17 ülkeden 500 insan, Mısır’ı protesto eylemine saatlerce devam etti. Mısır sabrımızı taşırma, İsrail’in suçuna ortak olma şeklinde sloganlar atıldı.
Konvoydakiler daha sonra limanın kapısına iki TIRı getirerek barikat kurdular.
Grupta bulunan İHH Başkanı Bülent Yıldırım, İngiliz Parlamenter George Galloway, Türk milletvekilleri Hüsnü Tuna, Cemal Yılmaz Demir, Mehmet Nil Hıdır, Secarettin Karayağız ve Hasan Murat Mercan Mısırlı yetkililerle sorunu çözmek için görüşmelerini sürdürüyor. Sorunun çözülmesi için Türkiye Dış İşleri Bakanlığının da devrede olduğu bildirildi. Türkiye’deki Mısır büyükelçiliği Dış İşleri Bakanlığı’na çağrıldı.

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