Mubarak regime abused street children

Egypt: Egyptian police officers paid homeless children to throw stones at pro-democracy protesters seeking the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

Many of the more than 300 people killed during the protest rallies were street children, drawn by the lure of a few Egyptian pounds, Press TV correspondent in Cairo Ramin Mazaheri reported.

However, a number of demonstrators said that they tried their best to keep children off the protest scenes by offering gifts of food, water and a tent to sleep in. Mubarak’s regime took a hard stance against homeless children as police were authorized to detain them without solid proofs against them.

Experts say the homeless children were subjected to beatings, sexual abuse and theft at the hands of the police. It is estimated that there are 50,000 homeless children in Cairo. Figures also show nearly three million children are forced into labor across the country and their situations are highly vulnerable.

Meanwhile, reports say at least 500 people were arrested in the recent popular protests that toppled the ruling regime.

But an estimated 17,000 political prisoners were already locked up in Egyptian prisons, which are notorious for the use of torture. Human rights groups say hundreds of Egyptian people have gone missing in the recent popular revolution that toppled Mubarak. A leading human rights group said on Tuesday that some people were being held by the armed forces. “There are hundreds of detained, but information on their numbers is still not complete ... The army was holding detainees,” AFP quoted Gamal Eid, a lawyer who heads the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, as saying.

Activists are demanding a clear timetable for the transfer of power to a civilian government.

They have demanded the release of political prisoners, the lifting of a 30-year-old state of emergency and the disbandment of military court. They say demonstrations will continue until the army accepts the reforms.

Thursday, PressTV