SOLIDARITY   PEASANT    COMMITTEE – EGYPT

                                        P.S.C  

 Statement 

 The government compels peasants whom rent or

guard or managed lands to pay delayed  Taxes

Instead of  land owners

Egyptian police arrest 1230 peasants 

 Land owners are left alone while peasants are targeted 

On Sunday morning 24 may 2008, without

 previous warning or court notification, police forces of  BEHAIRA  governorate (in the westNile Delta) started an aggression against many villages of ABOLMATAMEER city – including in JANAKLISSE, THE TEN THOUSAND, and ABOLMATAMEER suburbs.  Many thousands of policemen occupied these villages, and in two days arrested about 1230 peasants. These peasants are now being kept at the police station. At the police station the peasants were left without legal protection. They discovered that the court made a decision against them in abstentia, preventing the accused from securing their legal defense in court.
The court ordered their arrest because of a delay in tax payments. The Egyptian government colluded with the land taxes association and the BEHAIRA governorate police to collect delayed taxes from peasants before issuing the new  l. tx. Law. This was an arbitrary application of the law:

 a) land owners who must pay l.tx. were ignored and those who rent land were targeted;

and b) tax forgiveness within the law for small land owners (with less than 3 feddans) was denied. Among those who were arrested a majority are tenants and others fall within the small landholder category, owning less than 3 feddans. The situation was made worse when the police seized the peasants’ agricultural crops and animals. This police aggression has come at the time of the wheat harvest, and has led to grave losses for the peasant communities involved. What happened to the ABOLMATAMEER villagers on 24 may 2008 is an indictment of the Mubarak administration, the land taxes association and the local police. And the aggression is expected to continue. The assistant police manager in BEHAIRA governorate announced that they will continue to arrest villagers through May 31^st.

 Egyptian peasants have no independent syndicates to represent them, and live under constant threat of emergency law and an arbitrary political system that violates international human rights standards.  To repeat our, the peasant solidarity committee’s,  announcement at the Nyeleni 2007 Forum for Food Sovereignty in Mali:

small farmers in the global South and North stand together in solidarity against agro-businesses and their agents around the world. 

     Tuesday 26 may 2008  

: our committee  email

egyptianpeasantsolidarity@gawab.com 

 our committee website:

tadamon.katib.org