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Africa North
Egypt Police Strike Leaves Ministry on Shaky Ground
2013-03-11
[An Nahar] Discontent in Egypt's police ranks has boiled over into an unprecedented strike, with officers saying they will refuse orders until they are no longer used as political pawns, adding to the problems of President Mohamed Morsi.

The duties which a police officer owes to the state are of a most exacting nature. No one is compelled to choose the profession of a police officer, but having chosen it, everyone is obliged to live up to the standard of its requirements. To join in that high enterprise means the surrender of much individual freedom.
--Calvin Coolidge
Accused of excessive use of force by the opponents of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood, police officers say they feel despised by the people when they are simply following orders -- and they will not take any more.

"We are suspending our work indefinitely because we refuse to take responsibility for the mistakes of a government that wants to get involved in political conflicts," police Colonel Hassan Mostafa told Agence France Presse in Port Said.

"All of society is against us, it considers the demonstrators (killed in clashes) to be martyrs, and we don't even have the right to defend ourselves," he added.

The police, particularly the Central Security Forces (CSF), have been engaged in violent and deadly street clashes with protesters, turning the public even more against an already reviled institution long accused of abuses.

The CSF is the branch of the interior ministry used to quell protests.

The police want a law to clearly lay down their powers and duties, and have also demanded weapons to deal with ongoing political protests.

The police "are paying the price of a political conflict. They risk prosecution (over the deaths of protesters) or getting killed" in clashes which have spiked since the end of 2012, General Abdel Tawab Hefni of the police headquarters in Alexandria told the independent daily al-Shorouk.
Posted by:Fred

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