Crash and row on the West Bank - Part I

People feel a sense of fear in Ramlah

What happened in February/March 2004 looked like the exertion of state authority and violence. But at the same time scenes were seen when people behaved like human beings - impossible under circumstances like this in Europe. What happened - that means the demolishing with brute force of houses on the banks of the river Nile. This happened in Ramlah (picture above taken from a boat in March 2004), a newly built part of the village of El Gezira on the West Bank of Luxor. There the people feel a sense of fear. The fear to loose all investments. Every punch of the scoop to pull down buildings made the people more alarmed. And they became more mad at the government.

There was a decree from the Prime Minister Dr. Atef Ebeid. Briefly it meant: All houses in Ramlah are built in a illegal way they have to be demolished. There was a plan including three steps. First to demolish the inhabited buildings under construction without public utilities as water and electricity, then the .in inhabited houses without public utilities and at least the inhabited houses with access to the public utilities. So the people are afraid, afraid to loose all their money.

On 14th of March it seems that there perhaps will be a solution of the problem. "We had a long discussion with members of the Peoples Assembly (the Egyptian parliament) in Cairo. Now the demolishing is stopped," told Sayed Farag, member of the municipal parliament of Luxor. The first success. However, there is no final solution. Over the next days a commission of members of the Peoples Assembly will visit Luxor to get an overview and then to put forward some advices to the Prime Minister. But the people in Ramlah are still afraid even obviously a breather was given. We looked some times at the demolishing.

The excavators are rolling up ...

It is Sunday, 29th of February, 2004. Early in the afternoon they are approaching again. The blue painted police vans, the gigantic bulldozers, the excavator. And of course many very important persons, equipped with mobiles and important paper lists and of course much more superior expression show up. Again some houses have to be demolished, some buildings structurally complete. "Today some ten houses will be pulled down," a friend of us tells us. But nobody knows what will go on. However, it is too late to demolish ten houses this day. It is 3 p.m., sunset not far. What ever, the staff of the government starts the work. Even they are late. Because for three times the excavator is stopped by technical problems, has to be repaired in the street. But the first building is easy work for the bulldozers. The excavator is late, turns around in the middle of a growing crowd of people on the small sandy alley.

Now we are on the way to the next house. The men with the mobile phones, the important listings in their hands and the superior expression are directing the police vans and demolition cars. They reach their goal. A one-floor-house, built on land, which nearly one year ago was offered without any building. At that time the owner asked for some LE 100,000 for one Grad (around 175 sqms).

The important casual dressed men send some policemen inside the house, also some with four stars on their shoulders. The crowd is watching silently. Seldom in this normally noisy Luxor. Then the move begins. Doors, a cooker, kitchen items are get out. The policemen and the demolition workers are waiting. Only the mobiles belonging to the important men are ringing without a letup.

At least the house seems to be cleared out. One policeman (four stars on his shoulder) gives the order for the demolition. The bulldozers are rolling up, also the excavator with its squeaking tank tracks. Only some 15 minutes later the house looks like a field of rubble. But this doesn't satisfy the important casual dressed men. They discover some rests, rests of a wall before surrounding a door. So the excavator has to work again.

Even so there are still matters of politeness

It's only some meters way to the next house mentioned on this ominous listing. Again people start to take furniture out. Meanwhile policemen with helmets and batons cordon off the area. The armed battalion is still waiting in the police vans. And still there is the ghostly silence within the crowd that is still watching what is going on like before. Three women only are fighting for their way back to the ruins of the house demolished before. They are successful - but not before the procedure of a long palaver with the uniformed men. Then they pour their heart out like professional mourners.

Some people take gas cylinders out of the second house seeming to be new und full because the carrier is groaning, just in front of the house he leaves the cylinders. Policemen tell him to bring it far away, but it is impossible for him, too heavy. Some other policemen pass by, they help him to carry the dangerous cylinders out of the danger zone. Then they give each other a pat on the back. A scene thatl never will happen in Europe.

Now the driver of the excavator is starting his work. Meanwhile the sun is burning, it is one of the first really hot days of the year in Luxor. From the neighbourhood boys are carrying some chairs. So the most important men of the group of important men can sit down. So they can watch the spectacle of the demolition from a comfortable shady place and give their orders as well. They are served with Cola. And they take it majestically.

A young policeman, he is very thirsty, is walking out of the cordon. He is signalising a boy, shows him a cup made by plastic: "Maya?" (water?) he asks. The boy starts running to bring some water from the neighbourhood for this policeman. And the crowd still apathetically is silent.

This time the house is been proved that it is built much more solid than the other ones demolished before. The red brick walls are no problem. One punch of the the excavator and the whole wall breaks as if it was built by paper mache. Only the concrete pillars are a problem. This time it needs around half an hour, but then again the building is only a big heap of rubble.

Meanwhile it is teatime, nearly 5 p.m. The next house in this area partly was demolished before. Now the excavator and the bulldozers start to give it the final stroke. Again some chairs are placed in the shadow of the trees for the most important men, again Cola is served. And until now the wandering crowd is watching silently.

However, now it's all of today. Some people heave a sigh of relief. But they feel still the dread. When they will roll up again, the bulldozers and the excavators, the police vans? Who's name is written on the important listings done by the important men equipped with mobile phones and the most superior expression? Nobody knows. (Text and Fotos Wolfgang Sliwka)

Here you can continue.