Category: History

Dr.Cherif Bassiouni,The Man Who Wants Justice To Our 1956 POWs

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Dr. Cherif Bassiouni is a well known name in the war crimes investigations after all  he was the man who headed the Chairman, of the Security Council’s Commission to Investigate Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Former Yugoslavia still it is unknown to most people that this man was behind the first Israeli confession of its kind : The murder of our POWs in the Suez war by the IDF.

Dr.Bassiouni
Dr.Bassiouni

In 1995 Maariv made an interview with Aryeh Biro , the former general and the so-called special force hero..etc in his house in Tel Aviv where he confessed that he killed Egyptian POWs in 1956 with no regret and this was just the surface for much deeper and darker war crimes as we all know

It turned out that Dr.Cherif had a very important role in this case , in fact the most important if I may say. The 1956 POWs case is a life case for Bassiouni who fought in the Suez War and when he knew about the POWs in 1967 he began to study our wars with Israel more and more. He chose the Suez war because he knew it well plus of course he lived it. For 20 years he began to search till he found out that the IDF had killed 41 military at the Metla path and 39 laborers 6 kilometers away from the path.

Dr.Cherif went to our minister of Foreign affairs then in 1995 Amr Moussa with huge file that could be the basis of a strong war crimes case , Moussa immediately took the file and Bassioui and met with President Mubarak who demanded an immediate action. Mubarak demanded late Rabin to investigate these claims ((as if Rabin would have done it)) but Rabin refused claiming that if Egypt officially opened its POWs rights, Israel would go and claim its POWs’ rights in 1973 ((nothing happened actually to their POWs in 1973 War)) and Clinton too had interfered in the matter causing it to be closed officially forever leaving for the citizens in front of the state’s courts as we all know.

This is Dr.Cherif’s testimony and I believe if we can contact the man again now , he will not refuse to help us as citizens to restore back our POWs rights even if we try and fail , trial is enough

Source : Al Masry Al Youm

The Black Zone

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Dostor weekly today published their big report about the mass graves of our POWs in Sinai today and from here I would like to thank  journalist  Wael Mamdouh for his time and effort in  doing such great report alone , Mamdouh has already done something I always wanted to do and still want to , to take my camera and record by word , picture and video these mass graves to prove to our just case.

Dostor newspaper has put the government or rather the regime in to a corner and unfortunately I think the regime will ignore the whole matter again because of many reasons most of us know , this report I believe is just like these reports in the media that prove the failure of this regime on every single level.

Back to the Dostor report , you can find it here in Arabic . The report is about the massacres that happened against our officers and soldiers on the 5th and 6th of June 1967 in Al Arish valley area or as it was known then as the “First Defense Line”or as it is known to the locals there now “The Black Zone”

The report includes testimonies from the locals and one of the Egyptian POW survivors who escaped death in 1967 , this besides the photos and the video from the mass graves themselves showing the bone.

Stay tuned for more coverage insh Allah , please spread this post

Remembering the 25th of April

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Today Egypt remembered the 25th of April which is known in our national calendar as the Sinai liberation day. Today from 28 years ago the Egyptian flag returned back to Sharm El-Sheikh leaving only Taba for a long legal international dispute between Egypt and Israel to be ended only after six years on the 26th of February 1989.

Remembering the 25th of April does not include remembering how the Sinai returned back to us whether through war or through peace or those great men who returned it back but all those men who gave their blood for Sinai whether as fighters or as POWs. God bless them all.

Sharm El-Sheikh was an early witness on one of the first recorded war crimes by the IDF against the Egyptians and also the earliest exposed massacres by the testimonies of the Israelis themselves. Of course unfortunately our regime does not care enough to restore back the rights of those who were killed in 1956.

Unit 1391

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Truth always comes in the end regardless of how many years and how many attempts to hide it and the truth of Unit 1391 was a proof on this.

The world had a chance in 2003 to know Unit 1391 but unfortunately it missed this chance for some reason thanks to the media that ignored it or rather believed so easily that Israel’s first known secret detention came better known as Unit 1391 had been shut down , well for sure it is shut down but there are for sure many secret detention prisons worse that unit 1391 in that country.

That secret detention is only one in a big series of secret prisons there and I do not have to bet that it had been used not only against Palestinian Political prisoners but also against Arab POWs including the Lebanese and Egyptian POWs , it had been used for sure since the time of the British forces.According to several Lebanese sources this prison which could not be found on official maps was used during the Israeli invasion to Lebanon in 1980s and several Lebanese Amal movement POWs were transferred there and never were seen again. May be the high ranked Egyptian POW from officers were taken there from Atlit camp to there for interrogation as several Egyptian  POWs remember that several Egyptian POWs were taken from the camp and did not return back , there were not seen again whether dead or alive in the camp.

Unit 1319 may have been closed on papers but I am sure it is still open by a different name in different location. It is not enough to close its file ,the torture and human rights crimes do not fall by seniority I am afraid.

From Wikipedia : Camp 1391

Thanks for Dear friend Hossam  for reminding me with Unit 1391

40 Years On Bahar El-Baqar Massacre

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From 40 years ago the IAF attacked a small village in Egypt called Bahar El-Baqar targeting a small 3 classrooms school , that school was named after the village : Bahar El-Baqar primary school.

The Israelis attacked the school claiming that they had mistaken it for a military facility , the result of their mistake as usual was 30 dead students not to mention the injured.

Bahar El-Baqr school massacre is just one bloody page in the Israeli army book of war crimes. 40 years have passed and strangely despite the official neglect the people still remember it , the name of “Bahar El-Baqar” has been immortalized in our Egyptian memory forever whether by a small dramatic scene in film starring Magda or Poem by Egypt’s Saleh Jahin that was sang by Shadia

Bahar El-Baqar raids according to international standards now are a war crime.

Remembering Bahar El-Baqar and paying respect to its victims won’t affect our relations with Israel on the contrary it will send a message to the whole world that Egypt never forgets her children

A Testimony of an Ex-POW Called Fouad Hegazy

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Egyptian writer Fouad Hegazy is known to be the first one to write about his experience as an Egyptian POW  in Atlit prison. His book “The POWs build barricades” was from first novels to speak about that sad and terrible experience. Mr. Hegazy had a political activity before the six days war and he is considered  from the most active writers and novelists from outside

The POWs build barricades
The POWs build barricades

Cairo and Alexandria. He is originally from Mansoura and God knows that this man is behind the reason of having this website, he was the one who introduced me through his interview with Mona El-Shazely two years as far as I remember to the forgotten suffering of our POWs.His description to how our Egyptian POWs died while being transferred by train to Atlit reminded me with Schindler’s list film train scene.

Recently this year Dar-Shorouk published a new edition from his novel “The POWs build barricades” which was first published in Cairo in 1976. He had written this novel and finished in 1968 right after his return from Atlit.

The name of the novel itself is inspired by the famous events that took place on the night of 27th of Ramadan I believe where there was huge mutiny in the prison that put Atlit, the city itself in high alert status.

This novel was translated in to English and Russian and I am currently searching for these foreign translations. It was also used in PHD thesis in Sweden.

Now I have added Mr.Hegazy’s testimony to our Egyptian testimonies.I recommend please to read it and spread it because it is very important.He was captured by the Israelis on the very first day of the war, and remained a prisoner for eight months. This testimony will give a little hint about the Israeli death camp aka Atlit

Were They Collected As Trophies From Murdered POWs ??

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Nobody saw this coming nor expected something similar like this to happen , as a son of a late Israeli paratrooper decided to return back the ID and letters his dad collected from the dead Egyptian soldiers and officers in  the six days war to the families of those soldiers and officers. He decided to give them back to Yedoit Ahronot to help him in locating the relatives and relatives of these soldiers and officers “where is our embassy??”   Theses families and relatives  have been awaiting for 42 years to know anything about their men who went to that war and never came back.These souvenirs were telling the story from the other side according to the newspaper which gave me the impression that they do not consider us as humans who have a life too !!!?

The souvenirs include IDs,photos,permissions, letters and diaries of soldiers and officers on the front you can see them below here

Here are the names of these late officers and soldiers God bless their souls mentioned in the report :

  1. Ali Hassan Ali , a solider from Cairo who was born in 1905 and used to work as a conductor
  2. Fathi Abdel Khalek Shahin from Sharkia , who owned a pastry shop and was a musician at the same time ; Mr.Shahin was ready to sing in weddings and parties.
  3. Hassan Salim Agowa , a solider who took a leave from the base from 30/4/1967 to 1/5/1967 ; a very short leave indeed
  4. EAF officer Mohamed Ibrahim who took a leave and returned back to his fate.
  5. Soldier Mahmoud Ibrahim , No. 904841 in in unit 451031 who used to write his memories where he said that his unit captured 8 IDF soldiers
  6. Galal Said Abdel Hamid from Ismailia who lived at no.5 at the Plage street
  7. Mahmoud Abed

Yedoit Ahronot published this as a special report and I do not know if they expect  the level of controversy they will create back in Egypt as this report , these souvenirs will open the door of the Egyptian POWs files again and thank God they will do it.

Some people including me believe that these souvenirs were taken from Egyptian murdered POWs and this is because some reasons :

1- The newspaper for some unknown reason did not identify the name of the Israeli paratrooper nor his son , only “Y” ; why are they afraid from mentioning his full name ?? Already I believe we should thank the son of Mr. “Y” for his desire to return those stuff to where they do really belong !!??

The fact that they hid his name and the name of his family not to mention the detail of his father’s military background as which battalion he used to be at .. etc except that he is a paratroop raises many questions.

2- The father wanted to return these stuff to Egypt for decades but he was afraid and I only wonder the reason behind; why he was afraid from returning back these stuff to the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv ; was he afraid from accountability and that our diplomats may ask questions on how he got them other than he took from dead Egyptians.

3- Some people believe that Mr. Y, the father was a member in Shaked battalion but I doubt it because Shaked was not the only battalion that killed our POWs. Also if he were from Shaked battalion I would bet that these souvenirs would have been destroyed by now to protect Ben Elizer from any accountability.

4-The father said nothing to his son about the circumstance of the fights

The son of that paratrooper decided to return back these Egyptian collectibles  after the death of his father by a year and half.

I believe the least thing our embassy in Tel Aviv must do is to restore these items immediately and return back to rightful owners, we need to have them back. I do not even dare to ask them to investigate who that Mr. Y was !!

P.S Al Shorouk Newspaper is calling the families of these men in the photos to contact the newspaper and share their stories.

They Were Not Murdered in Action But They Were Murdered in Capture

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Many people in the world think that our soldiers and officers had been murdered in action during the six days war just like an army during a war , especially a defeated army , there is no argue in this but unfortunately many of our soldiers and officers had not be murdered in action but rather murdered in capture in the six days war.

First of all you must know that in 1967 the Egyptian army had just come out from the Yemen war exhausted , there was new recruitment process in the army , many young men from all around the country were dispatched to the front even without training or even receiving their uniforms.When the war broke and we seemed on the verge on a terrible defeat ,

inexperienced minister of war then Abdel Hakim Amar issued a withdrawal order that has been considered one of the most worst withdrawal ever issued in the modern military history. Without going in to too much details the withdrawal order was simply getting away from Sinai as soon as possible with no organization or defense plan at all. The sudden withdrawal plan by the way is from the X-Files in this war, there is no justification for why the Egyptian forces had to leave the peninsula without a single real fight despite they were capable of doing it and the officers were willing to do it.The forces had to leave everything behind them even weapons to be swift and move as quickly as they could to the second bank. Of course we are talking about Sinai in June , a hell in the desert especially with water and food running out.  It was a tough experience of being lost and chased especially there was no direction home in that vast desert.

In this unorganized withdrawal the IDF found a golden opportunity to destroy the Egyptian totally through hunting down the tired soldiers and officers who thought that it would not be the end of the world if they were captured but unfortunately it was for them. Many Egyptians who surrendered to the IDF in their way to Suez Canal were shot either in their place or in mess graves they were forced to dig  by their own hands according to eye witnesses from locals and survivors who managed to escape this hell. The Egyptian soldiers and officers thought that they would be treated like any POW around the world according to the Geneva conventions but of course they were mistaken.The policy of the IDF , in fact the Israeli regime then was to send a powerful message to Egypt that it was over , no more Egyptian army.

The people of Al Arish still remember very well in vivid details how the city from North to South drunk from the Egyptian blood of Egyptian soldiers and officers who were murdered while raising their hands up. The city is full of mess graves which the locals made for our men who were left to decay for days. This was just the tip of the ice-berg , you should only hear from the very few who were transferred to Atilt prison what hell really meant and how it was an ugly copy from the Nazi concentration camps to know what does it mean to be murdered in capture.

I do not know how we can’t considered pouring napalm over the walking withdrawn troops from flying jets as war crime !!??

I do not know how we can’t considered shooting in an execution style the withdrawn and surrendered troops as war crime !!??

What happened in the six days war from war crimes against the Egyptian army is an outrageous crime against humanity and it kills me that our regime pretends as if it never happened despite all the evidences that could send help of the Israeli commanders and officers  in 1967 behind bars for war crimes !!??

FYI the Egyptians who were considered missing in action in the six days war were more than in any other war we fought in the 20th century. Up till now there are thousands of Egyptian families who do not what exactly happened to that young uncle in the black and white photo hanging on the wall of their granny’s chamber except that he was in Sinai during the six days war and that he will never come back again !!

Remembering the 1956 War POWs

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Yesterday the world celebrated the Armistices day aka the remembrance day in several countries around the world like the UK and the States. Also in the Middle East Lebanese party and militia Hezbollah celebrated and remembered its men who were killed in action in the wars against the Israeli occupation to South Lebanon.

On this day I remember all the Egyptians who were killed and were captured during the 1956 Suez War especially in Port Said ; the great city which was nearly destroyed in the Anglo-French attack.

Also I will not ever forget those great Egyptian POWs who were slaughtered in a cold blood in Sharm Sheikh by the IDF.

I remember today our POWs in 1967 and 1973 too.

May be the government has forgotten our POWs , our heroes and our veterans but some of us have not forgotten them at all.

The 1973 Egyptian POWs

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In 1973 Egyptian POWs were captured by the IDF , of course their numbers were too small comparing to those who were captured in 1967 not to mention all the spot lights were highlighted on the Israeli POWs captured by the Egyptian side.

As expected the Egyptian POWs in 1973 like their brothers in 1967 and 1956 did not receive the same treatment which the Israeli POWs received in Egypt.

It is enough that the Egyptian POWs of 1973 are accusing the IDF of injecting them by HCV and of using them in medical experiments in Atlit prison camp. Already this would not be the first time it happens, it happened before in 1967.

Most of the Egyptian POWs of 1973 have passed away by liver cancer and hepatitis diseases which they brought with them from their capture. The only remaining Egyptian POW from them is Abdel Rahman Mohamed Kadous ,who is currently suffering from liver cancer and also the neglect of the regime. kadous once tried to sue the Israeli government but the court for some reason refused the lawsuit.

We are currently celebrating the 1973 nowadays in Egypt and I believe we should not neglect the file of the Egyptian POWs in 1973 especially on the other side we treated the Israeli POWs as it should.