Egyptian Farmers Clash With Police To Protest Pig Cull

gyptian riot police clashed on Sunday with stone-throwing pig farmers trying to prevent their animals from being taken away for slaughter as part of a nationwide cull.

Anti-riot police replied by firing rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, most of them youths.

A security official and pig farmers said in the evening that government workers will return on Monday to begin confiscating the pigs, the government having promised the farmers compensation.

Seven policemen were slightly injured in the Moqattam clashes, a security official said, while at least eight demonstrators were hurt, according to the correspondent and a medic.

One injured protester lay sedated in a neighbourhood hospital bed, with birdshot wounds to his thighs and stomach.

At least five protesters were dragged away by police, two of them bloodied. A community leader later told pig farmers and rubbish collectors gathered at a church in the slum that the arrested men had been released.

"They want to steal our livelihood," protested one of the farmers, Adel Izhak, in the Moqattam area of Manshiyet Nasr, home to about 35,000 scrap and recycling merchants known as the "zabaleen."

Local pig farmers and rubbish collectors, who own an estimated 60,000 pigs, later gathered at the neighbourhood's church, where a priest tried to persuade them to surrender the livestock.

"What have you accomplished? Violence begets violence. The government has agreed to compensate all of you," Father Samaan, flanked by government representatives, said in a speech often interrupted by angry farmers.

Egypt began the cull of the nation's 250,000 pigs in earnest on Saturday, despite the World Health Organisation saying there was no evidence the animals were transmitting swine flu to humans.

The authorities are calling the slaughter a general health measure. No cases of swine flu, or influenza A(H1N1), have been reported in Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world.

The authorities have said it will take six months to complete the cull of Egyptian pigs and announced plans to import three machines to raise the culling capacity to 3,000 beasts a day.

According to the government newspaper Al-Ahram, the authorities plan to pay out 100 pounds (14 dollars) for each boar slaughtered and 250 pounds (35 dollars) for each pregnant sow.

Egypt's pigs mostly belong to the Coptic Christian minority who say the cull has reignited religious tensions.

Pig-farming and consumption is concentrated in Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, estimated at 10% of the population.

The authorities initially said the pig cull was a precaution against swine flu but now describe as a general public health measure.

Officials now say the cull is aimed at bringing order to the country's pig-rearing industry, so that in future animals are not reared on rubbish tips but on proper farms.

The World Organization for Animal Health OIE said it was "inappropriate" to cull pigs as a precaution against the new flu virus and countries should instead focus their efforts on increasing surveillance and strengthening biosecurity.

"The OIE advises members that the culling of pigs will not help to guard against public or animal health risks presented by this novel A/H1N1 influenza virus and such action is inappropriate," said the OIE in a statement reported by Reuters.