Ayoon Wa Azan (Settling Scores)

74 Egyptian youths were killed in football riots unprecedented in Egypt’s history; so how did the youths of the revolution express solidarity with the victims? They demanded the military council to hand over power. But I ask, hand it to whom? A day before the disaster in Port Said, there were armed robberies in Cairo and Qalyubia, and on the day of the riots, banks in Alexandria and Suez were also robbed. Thugs loot stores day and night, yet there are those who want to rid the country of the last remaining forms of law enforcement. I am defending law enforcement here mind you, not the military council and its mistakes. The revolutionaries also called for the resignation of Interior Minister Major General Mohammed Ibrahim. But did they think the Interior Minister had a crystal ball that should have enabled him to predict football riots before they actually took place? The disaster of Port Said is unprecedented in the entire history of Egyptian football; so how could the minister have predicted an event like this, let alone send battalions armed to the teeth to prevent an explosion? Meanwhile, a fact-finding committee was set up by Parliament. A member of the committee who spoke to Al-Ahram said that the members do not rely on impressions and deductions, but only on physical evidence. Yet, he said right after this that what happened in Port Said was a celebration of the first anniversary of the “Battle of the Camel” amid a security vacuum and infiltration by thugs, claiming that the committee had obtained irrefutable evidence that the incident was premeditated. The disaster took place last Thursday, the papers published the details on Friday, and the Committee was established on Saturday. In other words, the Committee member in question managed to obtain irrefutable evidence in just 24 hours. Another member of the Committee spoke to Al-Ahram on Saturday about criminal elements that took advantage of the tensions between the two teams, enabling the subsequent actions of those languishing behind the walls of the Tora prison, and said that the Committee would issue a report containing proof that there was a conspiracy at play. Compelling or established evidence of a conspiracy found in 24 hours? Then on Monday, the Committee claimed that “the events of Port Said were orchestrated with great skill”. While I do not dismiss this, I shall only accept it if it were to be issued by an Egyptian judge, following a public trial. Amid all this, the Defense and Youth Committee demanded the resignation of the minister, while the Proposals Committee called for a vote of no confidence against him. Once again here, I want to ask how a minister is condemned for an unprecedented incident in the history of Egyptian football. So if an earthquake is to hit tomorrow (this at least is not unprecedented), will the youths of the revolution and its parliament then ask for the impeachment of the Health Minister, because he failed to cancel the leaves of absence for doctors and nurses, and did not declare a state of emergency in the hospitals in anticipation of an earthquake? Just two days before the disaster of Port Said, the Parliament was mounting an attack against the military council, which was accused by MPs of passing the laws on elections and Al-Azhar in the shadows. So did the Parliament find the football disaster an opportunity to continue its campaign against the council? In other words, it is exploiting the blood of the victims instead of seeking justice for them against the perpetrators, be they those officials who failed to discharge their duties or criminals for hire. To date, the response to the disaster of Port Said has been to settle scores and make unsubstantiated accusations, with allegations about a ‘third party’ or ‘them’, and even ‘remnants of the NDP’ – echoing allegations about ‘remnants of the Baath’ in Iraq for the same reasons. And as if the death of 74 innocent youths is not enough, the mobs in Cairo caused the death of 12 others, in addition to dozens injured, including many from the security services and the army, while a building belonging to the tax authority was set on fire. Justice for the victims can only take place through finding the truth and punishing those responsible for the crime, and I do not see that the youths of the revolution, its parliament and MPs are going in that direction today. I have been following Egyptian football since before I was a teenager, and I remember from that bygone time players like ElZazawi and ElFanajili, and Fikri Abaza Pasha the President of the Press Syndicate and the Al-Ahli Club. Competition from that time to our day remains between Al-Ahli and Zamalek, while the competition between Al-Ahli and Al-Masri emerged not more than two or three years ago. While I never imagined in my life to see such a football disaster in Egypt, I did not imagine either the sheer magnitude of mistakes that surfaced in reaction to the incident, so much so that I fear the assailants may well escape punishment. I tackle Egypt’s issues to escape the misery of Arab politics and the obnoxiousness of the nation […], but all is left for us to do is cry over the martyrs.