Category: Blog

Rights groups denounce govt crackdown on CTUWS

Posted on By 3arabawy

Human rights and leftist organizations are rallying for the CTUWS, in the face of a renewed crackdown. Rights watchdogs will be forming a “protection group” of activists who will remain constantly in the Center for Trade Union Rights office in Helwan, to defend it from any attempt by the government to shut it down.

A delegation of activists will go tomorrow Tuesday 10:30am to meet the Minister of Social Affairs, to protest the state assault. There will be also a press conference at the CTUWS office, 2pm in Helwan, to brief reporters about the attack.

UPDATE: Here’s an English translation of the statement:

Solidarity Campaign of Egyptian Civil Society Organizations with Center for Trade Union and Workers Services “CTUWS”
Press Conference on Tuesday 24/4/2007
Non Governmental organizations participating in the meeting, held this morning, Monday the 23rd of April 2007, discussed actions that should be taken in response to the administrative and security authorities’ attacks on CTUWS, which culminated in the threat to close down the Central Office in Helwan, after the closure of Naja’a Hamady branch on Thursday 29 March, and Mahalla branch on Wednesday 10 April.
Civil Society Organizations signatories to this urgent statement have announced that they will continue to uphold the CTUWS, and emphasized their hard struggle using all forms of lobbying tools against that serious crack down, which indicates the beginning of a wider attack against social society organizations as a whole, foremost human rights organizations.
Organizations signatories to this statement have reached the following decisions:
* The organization of an ongoing sit in of NGO representatives in the main office of CTUWS in Helwan to join efforts with the organziaiton’s team in case of any further interventions or provocations.
* A delegation representing civil society and human rights organizations will meet tomorrow morning, Tuesday 23 April at 10.30 am, with the Minister of Social Solidarity asking for clarifications concerning the issue, and the role of the Ministry regarding the administrative provocations that CTUWS has witnessed.
* Civil society organizations will then organize a Press Conference, tomorrow, Tuesday 24 April at 2 P.M. at the main office, to announce the outcome of the meting with the Minister and their subsequent plan of action.
* Civil society organizations signatory to this statement have decided that their campaign will continue to address all civil society organizations, activists, independent newspapers and media, in addition to all individuals concerned with the right of expression and freedom of organization.
The Press Conference will be held at CTUWS office in Helwan
Address: No. 1 (A) Muhammad Said Ahmad Street, Petrogas Buildings.
Alexandria Building – Helwan
Signatories in alphabetical order:

(more…)

Mubarak cracks down on Hamas officials

Posted on By 3arabawy

From the Jerusalem Post:

Egypt has imposed severe restrictions on Hamas officials crossing into the country, sources close to Hamas told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. Israeli defense officials said the decision to impose the restrictions was part of a general Egyptian “crackdown” on Hamas, which also included increased efforts to prevent weapons smuggling from Sinai into the Gaza Strip.
Many Hamas officials who traveled abroad through the Rafah border crossing over the past few months have complained that they were delayed for several hours on the Egyptian side of the border. The restrictions have created a crisis between Egypt and Hamas, whose leaders accused Cairo of humiliating senior Hamas leaders.

Shooting the messenger

Posted on By 3arabawy

Elijah Zarwan writes in solidarity with detained blogger Moneim:

Abd al-Monim Mahmud, a young, articulate Egyptian television journalist and blogger with a taste for Martin Scorsese movies, sits in a dirty, overcrowded prison on the outskirts of Cairo. Security officers arrested him at Cairo airport last week as he tried to board a plane for Sudan, where he was to work on a television story about human rights abuses in the Arab world for the London-based Al-Hiwar satellite channel.
Egypt’s notorious State Security Investigations department has issued a preliminary report on its investigation into Mahmud and, according to one of his lawyers, cited his public criticisms of the government’s human rights record, and specifically its use of torture. The day after his arrest, a prosecutor interrogated Mahmud for almost a full day and charged him with “belonging to a banned organization,” with “being an administrator in a banned organization,” and funding an armed group.
Mahmud has made no secret of his affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. The organization, despite having renounced violence for decades and being the largest opposition bloc in Egypt’s parliament, remains banned in Egypt. But the reason authorities targeted Mahmud for arrest, out of the tens of thousands Brotherhood members, was his outspoken criticism of human rights abuses in Egypt and his broad contacts with foreign journalists and secular pro-democracy activists.
In addition to his journalistic work, Mahmud ran a blog in English and Arabic called “Ana Ikhwan,” (I am a Brother), in which he criticized human rights abuses in Egypt. He wrote about being tortured in 2003, and about the sentencing in February 2007 of Abd al-Karim Nabil Sulaiman, a secular government critic, to four years in prison for “incitement to hate Muslims” and “insulting the president.”
Mahmud also helped run the Muslim Brotherhood’s English-language Web site and assisted families of Brotherhood detainees facing military trials to start blogs to campaign for their release. In the weeks before his arrest, he had spoken out about torture in Egypt at international conferences in Doha and Cairo and in interviews with journalists and human rights organizations.
It was Mahmoud’s willingness to speak out, not his membership, that got him into hot water with the authorities. Once again, the Egyptian government is prosecuting a journalist for reporting on human rights abuses when it should be focusing its energies on ending those abuses.

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