Today is the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday of Derry North Ireland of 1972… where 26 unarmed civil rights protesters were massacred by the British Army.
Egypt today seems eerily similar to the Bloody Sunday troubles of more than thirty years ago.
Because today it is known that more than one hundred unarmed people have been killed by the security forces firing indiscriminately amongst the peaceful demonstrators seeking human rights.
Bloody Sunday was a real bloodbath on the 30th of January 1972 the likes of which even long suffering Ireland hadn’t seen before. It took place in the bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, in which twenty-six unarmed civil rights protesters and bystanders were shot by the British Army over their hasty decision to divide the country.
Somehow this anniversary is clearly meant for Egypt’s dead too. Only this time it is their own security forces killing their own people instead of a colonial army doing their dirty deed.
The conflict known as the Troubles began in Derry in 1968-1969, with confrontations between nationalist demonstrators and the Royal Ulster Constabulary [RUC being the British led, armed and militarized Police]. The Police [RUC] broke up several legal marches of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, who were demonstrating against discrimination towards Catholics in electoral boundaries, voting rights and allocation of public housing.
The rioting escalated beyond the control of the RUC police in August 1969, in the Battle of the Bogside. This was a huge riot in which, after disturbances broke after an Apprentice Boys march, the residents of the nationalist Bogside erected barricades around the area to resist police incursions. After three days of rioting, when the RUC had proved unable to restore order, the government of Northern Ireland requested the deployment of the British Army. Initially they were welcomed by the Catholics as a neutral force compared to the RUC.
However, relations between the nationalists and the British Army soon deteriorated in Derry too.
Same as Egypt now goes through it’s own process of decolonization, back on the 8th of July 1971 in Derry’s Bogside people rioted wildly. It was then that two rioters, Seamus Cusack and Desmond Beattie, were shot dead by soldiers in disputed circumstances. Soldiers claimed the pair were armed, which was denied by local people, and moderate nationalists including John Hume and Gerry Fitt walked out of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in protest. A British Army memorandum states that as a result of this the situation “changed overnight”, with the Provisional IRA’s campaign in the city beginning at that time after previously being regarded as “quiescent”.
In response to escalating levels of violence across Northern Ireland, internment without trial was introduced on 9 August 1971. Same as it is now in Egypt where up to fifty thousand people have been arrested at will of the dictator. Same as it was back in 1972 in Derry where in a gesture to nationalists, all marches and parades were banned, including the flashpoint march by the Protestant Apprentice Boys of Derry which was due to take place on 12 August. This sparked further mass riots and lively demonstrations.
Much like the curfews of Mubarak in Egypt and the special laws and the Military law prohibiting all public gatherings in Egypt has sparked these massive protests of today, the Derry demos of 1972 were human rights struggles by unarmed civilians. And there was mass disorder across Northern Ireland following the introduction of internment without trial, with 21 people being killed in three days of rioting. And then this was followed with the death of the 26 unarmed civilians shot by the army… on the 30th of January 1972.
Mahatma Gandhi once said that: ”There is enough for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed.” And this is why most of Egypt’s troubles are still brewing.
All this chain of events from 1972 Bloody Sunday, is sadly similar to the events unfolding in Egypt’s walk towards freedom.
Yours,
Pano
PS:
But the tree of Freedom is thirsty for blood and watering it otherwise doesn’t make it strong… enough.
Let’s hope this real bloody Sunday is the last one in the Egyptian struggles for Freedom.
Hope this serves as a small eulogy and remembrance for the unarmed civilians killed and wounded in the streets of Alexandria, Cairo, Port Side and Suez…
