Dear all, here's a petition to the Italian government which, as Ugo already stressed, is also morally responsible together with most Western countries for supporting de facto El Sisi.
To sign: https://docs.google.com/a/uniroma1.it/forms/d/1u2mE0xEtKMuPCDw3958FBbI6kj1ynJCerrAeGkUjKeE/viewform

The petition:

Dear Prime Minister Matteo Renzi

The news of the death of our esteemed colleague Giulio Regeni in Egypt on the 4th of February, caused an immense pain among all of us researchers and specialists of the Middle East and North African. The news devastated us, but didn’t catch us by surprise, unfortunately.

We, researchers and academics who undertook fieldwork research in Egypt, and who followed closely its latest political developments thanks also to the important work of colleagues such as Regeni, know very well how cheap has lately become the value of life in the country. 

Mass arrests, disappearance of hundreds of people, extrajudicial killings, intimidation and torture, mass expulsions of academics and critics of the regime, have become common practices in Egypt since former general al-Sisi, on the 3rd July 2013, took power through what we define a military coup d’etat. That day, the Egyptian path towards democracy has suffered its final blow.

That very same day, the voices of the many young people who since the 25th of January 2011 for the first time in 60 years paved the way for a more democratic, free, and self-determined Egypt, were once again repressed. Those voices have been repressed and silenced to satisfy the desire of power of a military cast that since 1954 behaves as being the ultimate owner of the country, forgetting that its duty is instead first and foremost that of protecting its people. 

Since July 2013, notable government and non-government organizations have spoken against the abuse of Human Rights in Egypt by security forces; not only official forces such as the military and state police, but predominantly against those unofficial state security forces, best known with the name of ‘Baltagiya’, of which al-Sisi remains the main coordinator and responsible. Egyptian people continue to be victim of disappearances, killings, mass arrests, arbitrary detentions, detentions without trial, trials before military courts, torture, and their fundamental rights of freedom of expression and opinion have been denied.

The news linked to the circumstances of the death of our colleague Giulio are fragmented and contradictory. For us, this is a clear signal of the will of the Egyptian security forces to conceal the real causes of Giulio’s death, which we believe to be directly linked to the abuse of power by the same security forces, particularly after considering that the use of torture has become common practice among institutionalised power since July 2013.

We also believe that the Italian government has willingly condoned such practices of Human Rights abuses in Egypt in order to guarantee the continuation of diplomatic and economic exchanges between the two countries, of which the latest example is represented by the opportunity to benefit from the use of the largest source of natural gas in the Mediterranean sea discovered by ENI just off the Egyptian coast. 

As Italian citizens and academics and friends of our esteemed colleague Giulio Regeni, we demand ourselves since when the lives of our citizens as well as those of thousands of Egyptians have become value for trade in the name of economic profit. Closing our eyes before the circumstances surrounding Giulio’s death, and continuing to support economic exchanges with a repressive and dictatorial military regime such as that of al-Sisi in Egypt, means to denigrate and belittle the important contribution that the political, cultural and human work of researchers like Giulio and many other Egyptians bring to our Country, to Egypt, and to the world. Moreover, it means for us to denigrate the value of freedom, democracy, and respect for Human Rights, over which our same country is built.

We also believe that continuing to provide financial support to dictatorial regimes such as that of al-Sisi invalidates any effort to find a solution to the Humanitarian Crises we are experiencing today. Terrorism and the emergency linked to immigration are phenomena that arise from the lack of fundamental freedoms. Terrorism, as Italians know well, is fuelled by repression and violence. To continue to financially support countries that regularly abuse of fundamental Human Rights only means to delay and make more difficult any attempt to provide a solution to the emergency of immigration and terrorism in the region. 

For this reason, we academics, colleagues, and friends of Giulio Regeni, demand full and pro-active collaboration between the Italian and Egyptian government in investigating the circumstances which led to the death of our beloved colleague. We also demand for the responsibles, the real responsibles of Giulio’s death, to be brought to justice, despite very little can be said to run according to justice in Egypt today.

But above all, we demand our government, and first to you dear Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, to pursue the truth with regard the circumstances of Giulio’s death, even though if this could mean to admit to have supported, directly or indirectly, a dictatorial military regime such as that of al-Sisi, which repressive politics have affected, eventually, also us Italians and our country.


2016-02-08 9:49 GMT+01:00 Ugo Rossi <[log in to unmask]>:
Yes I think the University or Cambridge should take the lead in creating a research centre dedicated to Giulio Regeni in which there could be an archive of his writings along with those of early stage researchers working on Middle Eastern politics and other postcolonial contexts from a critical perspective.

I think the word 'critical' should be embraced in a classic sense (Marxist, postcolonial, post development, etc) refusing any revisionist attempt to assimilate it into the current Western war against global terrorism and related Atlantic ideology.

All the best 
Ugo 


Il lunedì 8 febbraio 2016, sarah glynn <[log in to unmask]> ha scritto:
I never met Giulio, but I wish I had.
I hope that someone is pulling together the work that he was doing and that he died for. I read his last article but it would be good to have a bigger picture that could be publicised more generally to show what is happening in Egypt and to demonstrate that you can't destroy the truth by murdering the messenger.
Sarah Glynn
Dundee

Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2016 12:57:31 -0600
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: In memory of Giulio Regeni
To: [log in to unmask]

Just a note,
I was also surprised at the silence of Cambridge but yesterday I had a hint that they may have more people on the ground in a situation similar to Giulio's and they may be keeping a low profile to take care of those situations before.

On 7 Feb 2016 12:33, "Judith Watson" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Dear all

The petition has been endorsed by the Southern Region of UCU, the University and College Union. My colleague Patricia McManus, who is on UCU national executive, proposed it there and is going to pursue it at a national level too. She asks what University of Cambridge UCU is doing. Is anyone here a member?

What happened to Giulio really underlines the importance of everyone joining their trade union and participating in it actively. If you're in the UK you can join UCU right now at www.ucu.org.uk. Postgraduates can join free, and there is a sliding scale of membership charges so it is affordable for lower paid early career workers. 

I read the news in the Guardian. If the investigation of Giulio's murder certainly can't be left to the Egyptian authorities, the arrival of Italian investigators is not sufficient either. The University of Cambridge has a duty of care to its postgraduate students, and should be ensuring that the British authorities are also involved.

This raises so many questions about academic freedom, criticality, engagement and research ethics. So, how do we protect ourselves? Collectively.

Best wishes

Judith
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Diana Martin [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 07 February 2016 15:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: In memory of Giulio Regeni

Dear all,

I have for long debated about responding or not responding to these emails. A part of me prevented me from speaking: like Giulio, I am an Italian national and I refuse to have my indignation for what happened be associated to my nationality.  It seems to me that most of the answers to these emails and concerns also came from Italian scholars.  

For long this forum has been used to send CFPs (I did it myself and find it extremely useful to reach colleagues worldwide) and request access to papers that we may not have through our institutions.

As a researcher that has herself been in the Middle East and not always in the safest situations for study/research I feel that this tragic event cannot, and should not, be left 'unattended' and not addressed 'critically' (whatever being critical means). I happily signed the petition promoted by Giulio's supervisors. I thank them for that draft and for taking some steps towards justice for Giulio and all those who have been abducted, tortured or even killed because they are part of some opposition groups in Egypt. But this is not only about Egypt and AlSisi's dictatorship, and this is not only about a white man going to do international research.

What I feel,  is magisterially expressed by Neil Pyper here (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/06/murder-giulio-regeni-egypt-academic-freedom-students) where he talks about Giulio and the attack to academic freedom.

My question is, what does it mean to be free? What does it mean to be critical at this point? As Pyper puts it, what happened has much broader implications for higher education and research both within and beyond the UK. My question pivots around the role of research and our institutions. Can the researcher be safe and critical? In order to think and act critically, are there mechanisms that we can put in place to safeguard academic freedom without risking lives? How can we protect ourselves? And how should we be protected? 

I wish you all a great Sunday.

Best wishes,

Diana

Dr. Diana Martin

Lecturer in Human Geography, Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth

Email: [log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask]
Twitter: @Diana_Martin_It

On 7 February 2016 at 07:38, Ugo Rossi <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I agree with Luisa. In addition we should also stress the moral responsibility of the Italian and British governments and the other western governments. Not only the El Sisi government should be the target of our protest but also western governments.

Italy and UK (Giulio was an Italian expatriate in the Uk) have entertained good relationships with the military dictatorship in Egypt because of their economic interests linked to Eni and BP exploiting mineral resources (primarily gas) in Egypt.

when Giulio was still missing a delegation of the Italian government was discussing with the Egyptian authorities about economic investments in Egypt while it was already clear that he had been kidnapped for political reasons.

Giulio was a brilliant and promising scholar, interested in the informal economy and the workers movements, he was a Gramscian. He should be a symbol for all critical geographers across the world.

cheers 
Ugo 


Il sabato 6 febbraio 2016, Luisa Cortesi <[log in to unmask]> ha scritto:
Dear Prof. Alexander and Abdelrahman, Dear Friends of Giulio,

I signed the letter, but I am not sure it is sufficient to express our indignation.

Giulio was one of us. What happened to him can happen to any of us doing research, to any of the students we meet and advice everyday. His horrific death need to shake up the academic community!
Reacting to Giulio's cruel homicide, honors him. And goes beyond him. It reasserts what is the role of the researcher, what it means to do research.

We need a bigger protest.

Tell us who was Giulio. Why he was killed. Put together a short essay about him, a video on youtube and the like. Give us data, help us to realize that he was one of us, that we can be him.

Then, coordinate action: Ask us to flood emails to our Egyptian Embassies, or to the Guardian, or whomsoever it takes. Ask us to send photo of silent students sitting in protest. Each department, at least, of the Humanities and the Soc Sciences, since we have a similar modality of doing research. PolSciences, Anthro, Geography, cultural studies, Middle Eastern, History, etc..

If the death of Giulio speaks of who the Egyptian authorities are right now, how we react to it speaks of who we are, right now, as an academic community, what is our professional collective identity, what is our role in the world we live in.

Please do not read this as condescending, or polemic. I feel we should not miss this opportunity, and you have it right there in your hands. You knew Giulio, and you can lead us to know him, and, in return, to stand up for ourselves.

Regards,
Luisa Cortesi


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