Year: 2009

Al-Masry Al-Youm reports on the Minya 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, Ahmad 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 Minya Governor is the we-torture-only-five-in-a-thousand dude.

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