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Egypt Central Security Forces
About 300,000 members of the paramilitary Central Security
Forces (CSF) augmented the police force. The CSF was responsible
for guarding public buildings, hotels, strategic sites (such as
water and power installations), and foreign embassies. They also
helped direct traffic and control crowds. Formed in 1977 to obviate
the need to call upon the armed forces to deal with domestic
disturbances, the CSF grew rapidly to 100,000 members when Mubarak
took office. The government had hoped that the CSF would
counterbalance the military's power, but the force never served
this function. Poorly educated conscripts from rural areas who
failed to meet the standards for army service filled the ranks of
the CSF. Officers often treated the conscripts harshly and
frequently humiliated them. Conscripts commonly lived in tents and
sometimes lacked beds, adequate plumbing, and electricity.
The Central Security Forces rioted in 1986 when a rumor spread
that their term of service would be extended from three years to
four years. They set hotels and nightclubs on fire in the tourist
areas of Cairo and near the pyramids at Giza (Al Jizah) and
destroyed automobiles. Army units restored order after the rioting
had gone on for four days and had spread to other cities. When the
uprising ended, hundreds of people were dead or wounded, and about
8,000 CSF conscripts were missing. The CSF as a result dismissed
more than 20,000 conscripts.
The minister of interior subsequently promised a series of
reforms in the CSF, including a reduction in the number of people
to be drafted into the force. He also promised to raise training
standards, improve health care, and eliminate illiteracy. He
doubled conscripts' wages (which had been lower than the wages of
army conscripts) to ŁE12 a month. Nevertheless, as of 1987, living
conditions appeared to have improved only marginally and the size
of the force decreased by only 10 percent. The government continued
to use the CSF as the main force for dealing with student
disturbances, intimidating industrial strikers and peasant
demonstrators, and curbing gatherings of Islamic activists.
Data as of December 1990
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