I went to a lecture, a few weeks ago, put on by the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies program at AUC about the Sudanese Sit-In last December, and the forced violent removal by Egyptian riot police. It was a very sobering lecture. I feel that it gave me a more realistic perspective on the Egyptian government and the systems of things here. The lecture was just the preliminary findings, as the FMRS program has been talking to people trying to piece together the puzzles of what really happened. There are many Sudanses in Cairo, thousands. For three months about 300 Sudanese living in Cairo moved to a park across the street from the UNHCR offices in Mohandiseen (a neighborhood where many students rent flats) to protest. They were very organized and peaceful with spokespeople and list of greivances they wanted addressed. The egyptian government provided them with security to maintain the peace. Most of their greivances had to do with their treatment by UNHCR, the Egyptian government, as well as their treatment in Cairo. I’m learning that the Sudanese people here face extreme racism and prejudice by many egyptian people. They were in the process of talks with UNHCR, the Sudanese embassy and the Egyptian government. However, someone gave the word (there is still research being done on who exactly made the call) for riot police to go in and forcefully remove the people. Around 2000 riot police showed up in the middle of the night and told the people to get on buses. The people refused saying they wished first to be told where they were going. The negotiations went on for quite a while until around 3am the riot police forced their way into the park, beating their way in. Children, adults, women, elderly were killed. It was violent and shocking. Surprisingly, most of the Sudanese people living in the park protesting were legal residents of Cairo. Between 25 and 50 were killed, infants and toddlers were seperated from their mothers and many still haven’t been reunited, some who lost their paperwork in the chaos are still in jail. I was sitting in the lecture hall with Sudanese women crying around me, with a Sudanese man who kept hogging the microphone during the question and answer session weeping because the Egpytian government would not release the body of his “beloved” so that he could return her to their home in South Sudan… I’m presenting a fairly biased opinion here, but the FMRS really avoided pointing fingers just yet, and the Sudanese people protesting were indeed at fault for many things. I’m not quite sure why I’m including this on this blog, but it’s definitely something I’m thinking about and trying to understand. The violence of the riot police as they beat whatever they could come into contact with was absolutely uncalled for, and there were murmurs that this violence was a result of prejudice and racism by the riot police against Sudanese…it was not said openly, and is perhaps untrue. But the murmurs are upsetting enough.