The global climate assembly called COP27 (the 27th Conference of the Parties) will be held at the remote Egyptian desert hotel of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from November 6 to 18. Given the incredibly repressive nature of the Egyptian government, this demonstration is most likely different from others, where there have been large, noisy protests led by civil society groups.
As tens of thousands of delegates, from world leaders to climate activists to news buffs, arrive in Sharm el-Sheikh from around the world, we asked Egyptian journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous about his perspectives on the state of Egypt today, adding those of political prisoners, and how he expects the Egyptian government to act with the eyes of the global on him.
MB: For those who don’t know or have forgotten, can you give us a quick review of the nature of the existing government in Egypt today?
The 2011 revolution opposed to Hosni Mubarak, an uprising that is a component of the so-called Arab Spring, very inspiring and had repercussions around the world, from the Occupy motion in the United States to the Indignados in Spain. But this revolution crushed in a very brutal way in 2013 through the military, led by General Abdel Fattah al Sisi, who later became president.
At present, Egypt is ruled by a very narrow and closed clique of army and intelligence officers, an absolutely opaque circle. Its decision-making procedure does not allow for political participation and does not tolerate any form of dissent or opposition. It turns out that the government’s reaction to any challenge to its citizens is to put them in jail.
There are literally tens of thousands of political prisoners in Egypt right now. We don’t know the exact number because there are no official statistics and this forces heavily harassed lawyers and human rights teams to check to thoroughly identify the thousands of other people who are stuck in bars.
In recent years, we have noticed that Egypt is building several new criminals. Last year, Sisi oversaw the opening of the Wadi al-Natrun criminal complex. It’s called a criminal complex, it’s called a “rehabilitation center. “He is one of seven or 8 new criminals that Sisi himself has dubbed “American-style criminals. “
These criminal complexes come with courthouses and court buildings, making the conveyor belt from courthouse to prison more efficient.
MB: What is the essence of this great organization of political prisoners?
Most political prisoners in Egypt are held in what is known as “pre-trial detention. “According to Egypt’s penal code, he can be imprisoned for two years without being convicted of any crime. Almost all pretrial detainees face two charges: one of dissemination of false information and another of belonging to a terrorist or illegal organization.
Prisons are very hard. If you get sick, you have big problems. There have been many deaths from medical malpractice, prisoners dying in custody. Torture and other abuses by security forces are widespread.
We have also noticed that the number of death sentences and executions skyrocketed. Under former President Mubarak, his last decade in power, there was a de facto moratorium on executions. Death sentences were handed down, but others were not executed. Today, Egypt ranks third in the world for the number of executions.
MB: What about freedoms, like freedom of assembly and freedom of the press?
Basically, the regime perceives its citizens as a nuisance or a threat. Any bureaucracy of protest or public assembly is prohibited.
Alleged violations are punishable by very severe criminal sentences. We have noticed mass arrest raids every time there is a public demonstration, and we have also noticed an unprecedented crackdown on civil society, with human rights and economic justice organizations forced to scale back their operations. or more commonly operate clandestinely. Those who paint for them face intimidation and harassment, bans and arrests.
We have also noticed a major crackdown on press freedom, an almost total takeover of the media landscape. Under Mubarak’s rule, there was at least one opposition press, adding opposition newspapers and TV channels. But now the government controls the press very strictly through censorship. and also through acquisitions. The General Intelligence Services, which is the military intelligence apparatus, has the largest media owner in the country. They own newspapers and television channels. Independent media, like the one I paint for Mada Masr, work on the margins. in a very, very hostile environment.
Egypt is the third largest bloodhound jailer in the world and imprisons more bloodhounds accused of spreading news than any other country in the world.
MB: Can you tell us about the case of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who is Egypt’s most prominent political prisoner?
Alaa has been in bars for much of the last decade. He is imprisoned apparently for the crime of “spreading false news”, but he is really imprisoned for those ideas, for being an icon and symbol of the 2011 revolution. For the regime, incriminating him was a way of setting an example for everyone else. That’s why there have been so many campaigns to get him out.
He has been in prison in very, very delicate conditions. For two years, he was not allowed to leave his mobile and did not even have a bed to sleep in. I was absolutely at a disadvantage of everything, adding books or reading fabrics of any kind. The first time, he began to have explicit suicidal thoughts.
But on April 2, he declared the hunger strike a sign of resistance against his imprisonment. He has been on hunger strike for seven months. It started with only water and salt, a kind of hunger strike Egyptians learned from the Palestinians. Then, in May, he should go on a Gandhi-style strike and eat a hundred calories a day, or a spoonful of honey in tea. The average adult wants 2,000 calories a day, so it’s very lean.
But he has just sent a letter to his circle of relatives saying that he is returning to the hunger strike and on November 6, on the eve of the COP meeting, he will stop drinking water. This is incredibly serious because the framework cannot live. without water for more than a few days.
So he calls us all outside to organize, because either he will die in a crime or he will be released. What he’s doing is incredibly brave. He uses his body, the only thing over which he has authority, to organize us and push us to do more.
How do civil society leaders see Egypt’s COP27 repressed?
It was very discouraging for many other people in Egypt who paint for human rights, justice and democracy when Egypt won the right to host the conference. But Egyptian civil society did not call on foreign netpaintings to boycott the COP meeting; They called for the plight of political prisoners and the lack of human rights to be connected to climate discussions and not ignored.
Of particular note are the thousands of political prisoners such as Alaa, Abdel Moneim Aboul Foitouh, former presidential candidate, Mohamed Oxygen, a blogger, and Marwa Arafa, an activist from Alexandria.
Unfortunately, this assembly gave the government a great opportunity to rebuild its image. This has allowed the government to try to position itself as the voice of the Global South and the negotiator trying to unlock billions of dollars a year in climate finance from the global North. .
Of course, the factor of climate reparations for the countries of the South is very important. It will have to be discussed and taken seriously. But how can climate reparations be given to a country like Egypt when it is known that the money will basically be spent on strengthening this repressive and polluting state?As Naomi Klein said in her correct article Greenwashing to Police State, the summit goes beyond greenwashing a polluting state to a greenwashing of a police state.
So what do you think we can expect to see in Sharm el-Sheikh?Will the same old protests that occur at every COP, inside and outside the official halls, be allowed?
I think what we are going to see in Sharm el-Sheikh is a conscientiously controlled theatre. We all know the messes of the UN climate summits. There are many negotiations and climate diplomacy, but they rarely lead to anything concrete and binding. They are a vital networking and convergence position for other teams in the climate justice movement, an opportunity for them to come together to organize. It is also a time for those teams to show their opposition to the government’s inaction, with artistic and energetic protests. Inside and outside the conference.
That’s how it will be this year. Sharm El-Sheikh is a beach hotel in Sinai literally surrounded by a wall. It can be and will be very strictly controlled. From what we understand, there is a special area that has been designated for demonstrations that has been built near a road. , away from the center of the convention and any sign of life. So how effective will it be to organize demonstrations there?
That’s why other people like Greta Thunberg don’t go. Many activists have problems with the design of the COP itself, but it is even worse in Egypt, where the possibility of using it as a focal point for dissent is closed.
But more importantly, members of Egyptian civil society, as well as allies and environmental teams critical of the government, will not be able to attend. In derogation from UN standards, the teams that manage to participate will have been reviewed and approved by the government and much attention will have to be paid to their functioning. Other Egyptians who deserve to be there are unfortunately in a criminal situation or are subject to bureaucracy repression and harassment.
Should foreigners also worry that Egyptians are watching them?
The total convention will be closely monitored. The government has created this app that you can download to use as a convention consultant. But to do this, you need to provide your full name, phone number, email address, passport number, and nationality, and you want to activate location tracking. Amnesty International’s generation experts reviewed the app and pointed out all the considerations about surveillance and how the app can use the camera, handset, location awareness and Bluetooth.
What environmental problems similar to Egypt’s will the government allow to discuss and which will be banned?
The environmental challenges that will be allowed are challenges such as garbage collection, recycling, renewable energy and climate finance, which is a major challenge for Egypt and for the Global South.
Environmental problems involving the government and the military will not be tolerated. Take the coal factor, which is very critical of the environmental community. This will be banned as coal imports, many of which come from the United States, have increased in recent years. driven by strong demand from the cement sector. Egypt’s largest coal importer is also the largest cement producer, and is the El-Arish cement company that was built in 2016 by none other than the Egyptian military.
We have noticed large amounts of cement poured into the herbal surroundings of Egypt in recent years. The government has built around 1,000 bridges and tunnels, destroying acres and acres of green space and cutting down thousands of trees. They embarked on a mad construction frenzy, building a multitude of new neighborhoods and cities, adding a new administrative capital in the desert just outside Cairo. But no complaints about these projects have been tolerated and will not be tolerated.
Then there is the production of dirty energy. Egypt, Africa’s second-largest fuel producer, is expanding its production and export of oil and fuel, which will result in greater benefits for the military and intelligence sectors involved. These destructive projects for the environment but for the army will no longer be on the agenda. .
The Egyptian army is implanted in all parts of the Egyptian state. Military corporations produce everything from fertilizer to baby food to cement. They function as hotels; They are the largest landowner in Egypt. Therefore, any kind of commercial pollution or environmental damage from areas such as construction, tourism, growth and agribusiness will be tolerated at the COP.
We have heard that the repression against Egyptians in anticipation of this harvest has already begun. Is that true?
Yes, we have already noticed an intensification of repression and a wave of mass arrests in the run-up to the climate summit. There are arbitrary stops and searches and random security checks. They open their facebook and whatsapp and browse it. problematic content, they arrest you.
Hundreds of others were arrested, on some 500-600 charges. They were arrested at home, on the street, at their workplace.
And those searches and arrests are not limited to Egyptians. The other day, an Indian weather activist, Ajit Rajagopal, was arrested shortly after embarking on an 8-day march from Cairo to Sharm el-Sheikh as part of a global crusade to raise awareness of the climate crisis.
He was arrested in Cairo, interrogated for hours and held overnight. He called an Egyptian lawyer friend, who came to the police station to help him. They also detained the lawyer and detained him overnight.
There have been calls to demonstrate on November 11 or 11/11. Will you Egyptians take to the streets?
It’s not known where those protest calls began, but I think they were made through other people outside of Egypt. I would be surprised if other people took to the streets given the point of repression we are experiencing these days, but you never know.
The security apparatus raised eyebrows in September 2019 when a former army contractor became a whistleblower and exposed videos showing army corruption. These videos went viral. The whistleblower called for protests, but left Egypt in voluntary exile in Spain.
There have been some protests, not very large but significant. Mass arrests, the largest raid since Sisi forced his way with more than 4,000 more people detained. They arrested all kinds of people, all those who had been arrested before and many others. With this kind of repression, it’s hard to say whether mobilizing other people to take to the streets is the right thing to do.
The government is also paranoid because the economic scenario is very bad. Egypt’s currency has lost 30% of its price since the beginning of the year, caused by factors, adding the war in Ukraine, as Egypt received much of its wheat from Ukraine. Inflation is out of control. People are getting poorer. Meanwhile, combined with those calls to demonstrate, it provoked a pre-emptive repression.
So I don’t know if other people will challenge the government and take to the streets. But I stopped making predictions in Egypt a long time ago. You never know what’s going to happen.