PEASANT SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE –EGYPT.                                                         P.S.C                                                                                                                                                           

Bulldozers break into peasants' land in Borg el-Arab / north west Nile delta

For the second time in three months, the executive body of Borg el-Arab City used bulldozers and tractors to destroy peasants' crops of maize and wheat for the purpose of paving a new road.

Although residents of Borg el-Arab area were taken aback by the event, they resisted the force, which has to retreat after an hour of the beginning of the campaign. Yet a part of peasants' crops was destroyed.

Moreover, peasants formed plies of sand and camped in the cultivated land over the past four days to prevent bulldozers from moving forward.

It is worthy of mentioning that the Alexandria security forced launched a similar campaign three months ago under the pretext of establishing a new road, upon a decision by the former Housing Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Soliman stipulating that peasants' possession of the land should not be registered. A group of peasants were then detained.

Peasants, whose grandparents resisted the French Campaign of 1798, say that they have been cultivating this land for two centuries. They asserted that they had bought the land from the State. On 18 February 2008, they contributed in a meeting discussing their right to the land with government officials, but the executive body of Borg el-Arab seeks to create new facts on the ground via seizing the land. It should be indicated that a group of officials including some working in the city's executive body, stand behind such assault as they want to use the land for their own purposes. 

  Informed legal sources in Alexandria said that establishing a new road is a mere pretext to seize the land whose price is expected to witness a considerable rise in the near future. The sources say that the road could be established far away from peasants' land. It should be indicated that most of the peasants have receipts proving that they paid the land's price but they do not have contracts proving their possession of the land. This situation encourages the executive body of Borg el-Arab to attempt to create new facts on the ground before the peasants get possession contracts. 

24 February 2008

  Solidarity with Land Reform Farmers Committee   Web site :Tadamon.katib.orge.mail   ; egyptianpeasantsolidarity@gawab.com