/ 17 May 2005

Egyptian police ‘too forceful’

Egyptian police have made a large number of arrests following a rise in street demonstrations during the past fortnight and have used excessive force against protesters, a human rights group said on Monday.

The report came as Ahmed Nazif, the Prime Minister, was visiting the United States to persuade Washington that Egypt is serious about political reform.

The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights — Egypt’s main independent human rights group — said in a report that it has the names of 498 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood detained during what it said were peaceful demonstrations this month.

”Security forces … prevented the demonstrators from expressing their opinions,” the report said. ”The police used excessive force … hitting them with sticks and using tear gas and rubber bullets.”

Though officially banned, the Brotherhood is tolerated but the police’s response to its protests has been more severe than against the secular Kifaya (Enough) movement, whose demonstrations have been smaller.

One Brotherhood member, Tarek Ghannam, died during a protest near the Nile delta town of Mansoura on May 6. Police said he was crushed to death, but the Brotherhood said police hit him on the head.

In its report on Monday, the human rights group said the police’s methods threaten the right of freedom of opinion, guaranteed in the Constitution.

On his arrival in the US, Nazif said demonstrators are arrested ”only if they turn violent”. Egypt has said it must be allowed to reform at its own pace, in response to US pressure to speed up the pace of change. — Guardian Unlimited Â