By William Fisher
Nearly two dozen of Egypt’s most respected human rights organizations charged yesterday that the changes made by country’s “temporary” military rulers are cosmetic and intended to paper over the “vast gulf” that separates those whose efforts won the revolution and those who are now charged with running the country.
It is believed to be the strongest attack yet made by the human rights community against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in Egypt.
In a statement issued yesterday the coalition of human rights groups said it
“decisively condemns the exploitation of the political crisis between the forces of the revolution and those managing the country’s affairs in the transitional period as an excuse to employ the same repressive tools and means that the regime of deposed president Hosni Mubarak used against its enemies and critics.”
The group added, The SCAF has been “foregoing dialogue, negotiations, and political solutions in favor of the old security approach. Such security solutions lead to violence, oppression, and an increasing use of repressive legislation against opponents, be they political activists, media workers, or civil society and rights activists.”
Regrettably, the undersigned organizations have noticed that the policies recently embraced by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the government that heeds its dictates have entailed increasing political tension and have strengthened the belief that a vast gulf separates, on one hand, Egyptians’ aspirations for democracy, an end to the legacies of an obsolete despotic regime, and a clean break with the practices and policies of that repressive regime, and, on the other, the tendencies of those administering the country’s affairs, who are clearly and gradually preserving the primary components of the deposed president’s regime while attempting to give it a facelift by sacrificing several old regime figures.”
“This,” they added, “is an insult to the thousands who sacrificed and died in a vicious battle to overthrow the entire regime, not for the sake of a few new faces.”
The groups were most forceful in their condemnation of SCAF Decree (93/2011), “which not only revived the application of the emergency law—which has officially been in force since the Mubarak era—but also expanded the scope of the law to exceed the limits guaranteed in 2010 by the deposed president, who vowed to apply the law only in the context of crimes of terrorism and drug-trafficking.”
The SCAF’s decision “allows the emergency law to be invoked for disturbances to national security and the public order and to confront acts of thuggery, assaults on the freedom to work, vandalism of facilities, the obstruction of transportation and roads, and the dissemination of false news and statements.”
The group added, “The expansive language of the decree permits a broad interpretation of such acts that will allow for the intimidation and harassment of persons involved in peaceful protests, demonstrations, and strikes. It also constitutes a direct threat to freedom of expression and a free media.”
The groups also focused their wrath on what they characterized as the broader picture. They said, “The use of the emergency law to stifle basic liberties and to repress actions by forces of the revolution cannot be viewed separately from the broad, escalating assault on civil society institutions and various media outlets.”
The groups said, “It should be noted that in the run-up to the 2010 elections, the most infamous in Egypt’s history, the Mubarak regime launched an all-out attack on various forms of media, several of the most prominent political talk shows, and human rights organizations and civil society, impeding their ability to monitor the elections and expose irregularities.”
They added, “The course pursued by those currently administering the country’s affairs differs little from the ways of the Mubarak regime. They have clung to an electoral system that has been nearly unanimously rejected by all political forces and human rights groups, although these forces have proposed alternative electoral laws that advocate elections based on unconditional, proportional lists, whether for parties, coalitions, or independents.”
As a result, they said, “The electoral system chosen by the SCAF and the flagrant deficiencies in districting have provoked the anger of various parties, who believe that these measures will only reinstate a parliament dominated by the same forces that controlled Mubarak-era parliaments through the use of money, narrow partisan interests, and religious sentiment.”
“Adhering to the same policies pursued by Mubarak and his dissolved party, those administering the country’s affairs have preceded the impending parliamentary elections with a hostile assault on the media that has involved suspending licenses for new satellite stations and closely monitoring the satellite media as a prelude to taking legal action against satellite channels that “ignite civil strife,” in the words of the Minister of Information.”
“Under the pretexts of alleged ‘media chaos’ and of examining satellite channels’ sources of funding, the campaign began by targeting 16 satellite channels. For example, the office of al-Jazeera Egypt was shut down and the station’s transmitter was confiscated on the grounds that the station had not received a broadcast license, although the station had applied for a license four months ago and had been broadcasting in the interim without government objection,” the groups said, adding:
In tandem with this attack on the media, the campaign against civil society associations, human rights organizations, and some political groups involved in the January 25 revolution was redoubled. After the ouster of Mubarak, these groups have been subject to the same baseless accusations used by the Mubarak regime against human rights defenders and the same allegations by which that regime sought to stoke popular hostility to the revolution and those involved in it.
Under Mubarak, the issues of external funding and foreign agendas were used to stigmatize political activists and impugn the patriotism of hundreds of thousands of people who gathered in Egypt’s public squares, as prelude to an attack by paid bands organized by the network of interests overseen by the ruling NDP and the police state apparatus at that time.
The groups say they “still hope that the SCAF will assume its responsibilities to achieve the democratic aims expressed by the Egyptian revolution, from which the SCAF derives its legitimacy in this transitional period. We emphasize that securing a safe transition to democracy requires those currently administering the country’s affairs to open up the public sphere to a democratic, equitable, institutional dialogue among all active parties in society, in order to reach a social consensus on the political system and the course it will take.”
The groups asked the SCAF to revoke its decision to activate and expand the emergency law, abolish the law criminalizing strikes and sit-ins, end the state of emergency, and suspend all exceptional trials, including trials of civilians in military courts, and all trials in the Emergency Supreme State Security Court.
In addition to urging the SCAF to end its campaign against NGOs, the group calls on the military men to reconsider the electoral system and electoral districting to be responsive to widespread demands for an unconditional, proportional list system in all seats in elections for the People’s Assembly and Shura Council; and release a time-bound agenda for the transitional period that includes specific dates for parliamentary and presidential elections and a referendum on the new constitution.
Some of the better known groups signing the statement include Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Arab Penal Reform Organization, Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance, Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services, and Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Bahrain’s Doctors
By William Fisher
As 20 of Bahrain’s physicians were being sentenced to prison terms of 5-15 years for treating victims of peaceful demonstrations, the US Government was readying the red bows on a package of $200m in military sales to the tiny Gulf nation.
The arms sale comes less than three months after the US included Bahrain on a list of human rights offenders requiring the United Nations' attention. According to Al Jazeera, the US Government report showed a $112m rise in sales to Bahrain, much of it involving aircraft and military electronics. The US also licensed $760,000 in exports of rifles, shotguns and assault weapons in 2010. US military exports to Bahrain in 2009 totaled $88m.
Bahrain, a tiny island nation that is home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet, occupies a strategic position in White House priorities. That position is enhanced by Bahrain’s proximity to the oil field of East Saudi Arabia. Saudi troops have been assistant Bahraini authorities in putting down the demonstrations.
Since mid-February, the kingdom has confronted demonstrators with cordons of armed military and police firing live ammunition. At least 31 people have died and hundreds more have been injured in the clashes.
The Kingdom is ruled by a Sunni monarch and his family, while the large majority of the king’s subjects are Shia. The Shia have complained for years of discrimination in employment, housing, health care and the minutiae daily life.
The Crown Prince of Bahrain has visited President Obama and State Department officials recently, complaining he was worried about Bahrain’s “image” for tourism. The country has recently retained the services of two high-profile US-based public relations firms to represent it.
In court proceedings, 20 Bahraini male and female doctors have been sentenced to 5-15 years imprisonment by Military Court for treating injured protesters. The sentenced doctors had been detained for 5 or more months, reportedly tortured, and deprived from access to lawyer and family most of time.
The doctors were working in Salmaniya hospital, frantically trying to save the lives of men, woman and children wounded by government security forces. It has been reliably reported that these forces then closed off the entrance to the hospital and would not let anyone in or out. Wounded patients were removed from their beds and taken to unknown government facilities, where many died.
Reuters reports that the possibility that American-built weapons might have been used against protesters has raised questions in the US Congress and led the department to review its defense trade relationships with several Middle East nations.
The Obama administration has been virtually silent on the subject of Bahrain. It has criticized the use of violence against dissenters by police and military units but has not exacted specific repercussions against Bahrain's government.
Jeff Abramson, deputy director of the Arms Control Association, told Mother Jones magazine that “the political upheaval across the Middle East has brought to light the problems of providing arms to repressive regimes. The hope is we'll now begin to see a rethinking of the willingness to do that".
The new report showed that licensed US defense sales to other Middle East and North African nations caught up in democracy protests remained mostly unchanged.
Maria McFarland of Human Rights Watch told Mother Jones, "This is exactly the wrong move after Bahrain brutally suppressed protests and is carrying out a relentless campaign of retribution against its critics. By continuing its relationship as if nothing had happened, the US is furthering an unstable situation."
In another legal case, Ali AlTaweel was sentenced to death by military court and Ali Attiya was sentence to life imprisonment for allegedly killing riot police officer AlMuraisi.
“Ten people were accused in the case of cutting the tongue of the Prayer Caller "Mo'athen" Erfan, two of which were charged with Incitement only. They were all sentenced to 15 years imprisonment despite the lawyers presenting substantial evidence against the allegations of the prosecution.
The military appeal court dismissed the appeal for the 14 prominent figures yesterday and upheld the sentences ranging between three years to life imprisonment. A number of those figures are still on hunger strike since the 24th of September demanding the release of the female detainees.
In a separate case, the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said 32 civilians were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for arson on a royal family member’s farm. Hussain Ahmed, who the group says “was arrested only because he is Abdulhadi Alkhawaja's son in law”, will have his verdict read on 2nd October. His lawyer stated that Hussain's case is unique because there is absolutely nothing against him, not even the usual posts on facebook or twitter, and all that is being held against him is his extracted confession under torture. He has been detained for 174 days, and is a 22 year old university student,” Abdulhadi Alkhawaja is a prominent human rights activist in Bahrain. He is currently in prison awaiting trial.
Meanwhile, Bahrain said on Tuesday it had released 25 Shi'ite women arrested last week over protest for political reforms and denied that they had been abused in detention.
Police detained 45 women who shouted anti-government slogans in a Manama mall a day before parliamentary by-elections boycotted by the main Shi'ite opposition party, Wefaq.
An Interior Ministry official said allegations of mistreatment in detention were not true, the statement said. Amnesty International said on Monday it feared the detainees had been tortured.
"They were apprehended without arrest orders, interrogated without lawyers present and some of them reportedly tortured or otherwise ill-treated," the London-based group said.
Bahraini security forces have arrested and beaten more than 40 females protesting against the parliamentary by-elections in Bahrain, the country's main opposition group, al-Wefaq, says.
The female Bahrainis, including seven minors aged between 12 and 15, were arrested on Friday, one day before the by-elections -- boycotted by the opposition -- to replace 18 lawmakers who resigned from the parliament in protest to the crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.
"More than 40 Bahraini women were savagely arrested... in a commercial center,” al-Wefaq said in a statement on Monday, adding that they were "beaten and humiliated."
Al-Wefaq condemned the females' arrests as "savage and inhumane,'' saying that they had only been expressing their "right to freedom of expression".
Election results in Bahrain show that more than 80 percent of the electorate refused to vote in the by-elections in the country.
According to a Bahraini government website, less than one in every five voters cast their ballots on Saturday.
Of the 144,513 eligible voters in 14 districts only 25,130 came out to vote, representing a 17.4 percent turnout, the Bahraini government's elections website (www.vote.bh) reported.
The Al-Wefaq leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, said the results showed that Bahrainis rejected the king's reforms, adding, “There is no such thing as Bahraini democracy. There has to be peaceful rotation of power.”
“If there is no transition, Bahrain will remain in a crisis of security and human rights, this is a historic moment,” he added.
Finally, Mahdi Abu Deeb, president of the Bahrain Teacher's Society, who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, is “still on hunger strike and his life and well being is at threat.” He started his hunger strike on September 11 and stopped taking his medication on the 16th.
As 20 of Bahrain’s physicians were being sentenced to prison terms of 5-15 years for treating victims of peaceful demonstrations, the US Government was readying the red bows on a package of $200m in military sales to the tiny Gulf nation.
The arms sale comes less than three months after the US included Bahrain on a list of human rights offenders requiring the United Nations' attention. According to Al Jazeera, the US Government report showed a $112m rise in sales to Bahrain, much of it involving aircraft and military electronics. The US also licensed $760,000 in exports of rifles, shotguns and assault weapons in 2010. US military exports to Bahrain in 2009 totaled $88m.
Bahrain, a tiny island nation that is home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet, occupies a strategic position in White House priorities. That position is enhanced by Bahrain’s proximity to the oil field of East Saudi Arabia. Saudi troops have been assistant Bahraini authorities in putting down the demonstrations.
Since mid-February, the kingdom has confronted demonstrators with cordons of armed military and police firing live ammunition. At least 31 people have died and hundreds more have been injured in the clashes.
The Kingdom is ruled by a Sunni monarch and his family, while the large majority of the king’s subjects are Shia. The Shia have complained for years of discrimination in employment, housing, health care and the minutiae daily life.
The Crown Prince of Bahrain has visited President Obama and State Department officials recently, complaining he was worried about Bahrain’s “image” for tourism. The country has recently retained the services of two high-profile US-based public relations firms to represent it.
In court proceedings, 20 Bahraini male and female doctors have been sentenced to 5-15 years imprisonment by Military Court for treating injured protesters. The sentenced doctors had been detained for 5 or more months, reportedly tortured, and deprived from access to lawyer and family most of time.
The doctors were working in Salmaniya hospital, frantically trying to save the lives of men, woman and children wounded by government security forces. It has been reliably reported that these forces then closed off the entrance to the hospital and would not let anyone in or out. Wounded patients were removed from their beds and taken to unknown government facilities, where many died.
Reuters reports that the possibility that American-built weapons might have been used against protesters has raised questions in the US Congress and led the department to review its defense trade relationships with several Middle East nations.
The Obama administration has been virtually silent on the subject of Bahrain. It has criticized the use of violence against dissenters by police and military units but has not exacted specific repercussions against Bahrain's government.
Jeff Abramson, deputy director of the Arms Control Association, told Mother Jones magazine that “the political upheaval across the Middle East has brought to light the problems of providing arms to repressive regimes. The hope is we'll now begin to see a rethinking of the willingness to do that".
The new report showed that licensed US defense sales to other Middle East and North African nations caught up in democracy protests remained mostly unchanged.
Maria McFarland of Human Rights Watch told Mother Jones, "This is exactly the wrong move after Bahrain brutally suppressed protests and is carrying out a relentless campaign of retribution against its critics. By continuing its relationship as if nothing had happened, the US is furthering an unstable situation."
In another legal case, Ali AlTaweel was sentenced to death by military court and Ali Attiya was sentence to life imprisonment for allegedly killing riot police officer AlMuraisi.
“Ten people were accused in the case of cutting the tongue of the Prayer Caller "Mo'athen" Erfan, two of which were charged with Incitement only. They were all sentenced to 15 years imprisonment despite the lawyers presenting substantial evidence against the allegations of the prosecution.
The military appeal court dismissed the appeal for the 14 prominent figures yesterday and upheld the sentences ranging between three years to life imprisonment. A number of those figures are still on hunger strike since the 24th of September demanding the release of the female detainees.
In a separate case, the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said 32 civilians were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for arson on a royal family member’s farm. Hussain Ahmed, who the group says “was arrested only because he is Abdulhadi Alkhawaja's son in law”, will have his verdict read on 2nd October. His lawyer stated that Hussain's case is unique because there is absolutely nothing against him, not even the usual posts on facebook or twitter, and all that is being held against him is his extracted confession under torture. He has been detained for 174 days, and is a 22 year old university student,” Abdulhadi Alkhawaja is a prominent human rights activist in Bahrain. He is currently in prison awaiting trial.
Meanwhile, Bahrain said on Tuesday it had released 25 Shi'ite women arrested last week over protest for political reforms and denied that they had been abused in detention.
Police detained 45 women who shouted anti-government slogans in a Manama mall a day before parliamentary by-elections boycotted by the main Shi'ite opposition party, Wefaq.
An Interior Ministry official said allegations of mistreatment in detention were not true, the statement said. Amnesty International said on Monday it feared the detainees had been tortured.
"They were apprehended without arrest orders, interrogated without lawyers present and some of them reportedly tortured or otherwise ill-treated," the London-based group said.
Bahraini security forces have arrested and beaten more than 40 females protesting against the parliamentary by-elections in Bahrain, the country's main opposition group, al-Wefaq, says.
The female Bahrainis, including seven minors aged between 12 and 15, were arrested on Friday, one day before the by-elections -- boycotted by the opposition -- to replace 18 lawmakers who resigned from the parliament in protest to the crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.
"More than 40 Bahraini women were savagely arrested... in a commercial center,” al-Wefaq said in a statement on Monday, adding that they were "beaten and humiliated."
Al-Wefaq condemned the females' arrests as "savage and inhumane,'' saying that they had only been expressing their "right to freedom of expression".
Election results in Bahrain show that more than 80 percent of the electorate refused to vote in the by-elections in the country.
According to a Bahraini government website, less than one in every five voters cast their ballots on Saturday.
Of the 144,513 eligible voters in 14 districts only 25,130 came out to vote, representing a 17.4 percent turnout, the Bahraini government's elections website (www.vote.bh) reported.
The Al-Wefaq leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, said the results showed that Bahrainis rejected the king's reforms, adding, “There is no such thing as Bahraini democracy. There has to be peaceful rotation of power.”
“If there is no transition, Bahrain will remain in a crisis of security and human rights, this is a historic moment,” he added.
Finally, Mahdi Abu Deeb, president of the Bahrain Teacher's Society, who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, is “still on hunger strike and his life and well being is at threat.” He started his hunger strike on September 11 and stopped taking his medication on the 16th.
Will the Generals Ever Leave?
By William Fisher
Nearly two dozen of Egypt’s most respected human rights organizations charged yesterday that the changes made by country’s “temporary” military rulers are cosmetic and intended to paper over the “vast gulf” that separates those whose efforts won the revolution and those who are now charged with running the country.
It is believed to be the strongest attack yet made by the human rights community against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in Egypt.
In a statement issued yesterday the coalition of human rights groups said it
“decisively condemns the exploitation of the political crisis between the forces of the revolution and those managing the country’s affairs in the transitional period as an excuse to employ the same repressive tools and means that the regime of deposed president Hosni Mubarak used against its enemies and critics.”
The group added, The SCAF has been “foregoing dialogue, negotiations, and political solutions in favor of the old security approach. Such security solutions lead to violence, oppression, and an increasing use of repressive legislation against opponents, be they political activists, media workers, or civil society and rights activists.”
Regrettably, the undersigned organizations have noticed that the policies recently embraced by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the government that heeds its dictates have entailed increasing political tension and have strengthened the belief that a vast gulf separates, on one hand, Egyptians’ aspirations for democracy, an end to the legacies of an obsolete despotic regime, and a clean break with the practices and policies of that repressive regime, and, on the other, the tendencies of those administering the country’s affairs, who are clearly and gradually preserving the primary components of the deposed president’s regime while attempting to give it a facelift by sacrificing several old regime figures.”
“This,” they added, “is an insult to the thousands who sacrificed and died in a vicious battle to overthrow the entire regime, not for the sake of a few new faces.”
The groups were most forceful in their condemnation of SCAF Decree (193/2011), “which not only revived the application of the emergency law—which has officially been in force since the Mubarak era—but also expanded the scope of the law to exceed the limits guaranteed in 2010 by the deposed president, who vowed to apply the law only in the context of crimes of terrorism and drug-trafficking.”
The SCAF’s decision “allows the emergency law to be invoked for disturbances to national security and the public order and to confront acts of thuggery, assaults on the freedom to work, vandalism of facilities, the obstruction of transportation and roads, and the dissemination of false news and statements.”
The group added, “The expansive language of the decree permits a broad interpretation of such acts that will allow for the intimidation and harassment of persons involved in peaceful protests, demonstrations, and strikes. It also constitutes a direct threat to freedom of expression and a free media.”
The groups also focused their wrath on what they characterized as the broader picture. They said, “The use of the emergency law to stifle basic liberties and to repress actions by forces of the revolution cannot be viewed separately from the broad, escalating assault on civil society institutions and various media outlets.”
The groups said, “It should be noted that in the run-up to the 2010 elections, the most infamous in Egypt’s history, the Mubarak regime launched an all-out attack on various forms of media, several of the most prominent political talk shows, and human rights organizations and civil society, impeding their ability to monitor the elections and expose irregularities.”
They added, “The course pursued by those currently administering the country’s affairs differs little from the ways of the Mubarak regime. They have clung to an electoral system that has been nearly unanimously rejected by all political forces and human rights groups, although these forces have proposed alternative electoral laws that advocate elections based on unconditional, proportional lists, whether for parties, coalitions, or independents.”
As a result, they said, “The electoral system chosen by the SCAF and the flagrant deficiencies in districting have provoked the anger of various parties, who believe that these measures will only reinstate a parliament dominated by the same forces that controlled Mubarak-era parliaments through the use of money, narrow partisan interests, and religious sentiment.”
“Adhering to the same policies pursued by Mubarak and his dissolved party, those administering the country’s affairs have preceded the impending parliamentary elections with a hostile assault on the media that has involved suspending licenses for new satellite stations and closely monitoring the satellite media as a prelude to taking legal action against satellite channels that “ignite civil strife,” in the words of the Minister of Information.”
“Under the pretexts of alleged ‘media chaos’ and of examining satellite channels’ sources of funding, the campaign began by targeting 16 satellite channels. For example, the office of al-Jazeera Egypt was shut down and the station’s transmitter was confiscated on the grounds that the station had not received a broadcast license, although the station had applied for a license four months ago and had been broadcasting in the interim without government objection,” the groups said, adding:
In tandem with this attack on the media, the campaign against civil society associations, human rights organizations, and some political groups involved in the January 25 revolution was redoubled. After the ouster of Mubarak, these groups have been subject to the same baseless accusations used by the Mubarak regime against human rights defenders and the same allegations by which that regime sought to stoke popular hostility to the revolution and those involved in it.
Under Mubarak, the issues of external funding and foreign agendas were used to stigmatize political activists and impugn the patriotism of hundreds of thousands of people who gathered in Egypt’s public squares, as prelude to an attack by paid bands organized by the network of interests overseen by the ruling NDP and the police state apparatus at that time.
The groups say they “still hope that the SCAF will assume its responsibilities to achieve the democratic aims expressed by the Egyptian revolution, from which the SCAF derives its legitimacy in this transitional period. We emphasize that securing a safe transition to democracy requires those currently administering the country’s affairs to open up the public sphere to a democratic, equitable, institutional dialogue among all active parties in society, in order to reach a social consensus on the political system and the course it will take.”
The groups asked the SCAF to revoke its decision to activate and expand the emergency law, abolish the law criminalizing strikes and sit-ins, end the state of emergency, and suspend all exceptional trials, including trials of civilians in military courts, and all trials in the Emergency Supreme State Security Court.
In addition to urging the SCAF to end its campaign against NGOs, the group calls on the military men to reconsider the electoral system and electoral districting to be responsive to widespread demands for an unconditional, proportional list system in all seats in elections for the People’s Assembly and Shura Council; and release a time-bound agenda for the transitional period that includes specific dates for parliamentary and presidential elections and a referendum on the new constitution.
Some of the better known groups signing the statement include Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Arab Penal Reform Organization, Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance, Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services, and Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination.
Nearly two dozen of Egypt’s most respected human rights organizations charged yesterday that the changes made by country’s “temporary” military rulers are cosmetic and intended to paper over the “vast gulf” that separates those whose efforts won the revolution and those who are now charged with running the country.
It is believed to be the strongest attack yet made by the human rights community against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in Egypt.
In a statement issued yesterday the coalition of human rights groups said it
“decisively condemns the exploitation of the political crisis between the forces of the revolution and those managing the country’s affairs in the transitional period as an excuse to employ the same repressive tools and means that the regime of deposed president Hosni Mubarak used against its enemies and critics.”
The group added, The SCAF has been “foregoing dialogue, negotiations, and political solutions in favor of the old security approach. Such security solutions lead to violence, oppression, and an increasing use of repressive legislation against opponents, be they political activists, media workers, or civil society and rights activists.”
Regrettably, the undersigned organizations have noticed that the policies recently embraced by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the government that heeds its dictates have entailed increasing political tension and have strengthened the belief that a vast gulf separates, on one hand, Egyptians’ aspirations for democracy, an end to the legacies of an obsolete despotic regime, and a clean break with the practices and policies of that repressive regime, and, on the other, the tendencies of those administering the country’s affairs, who are clearly and gradually preserving the primary components of the deposed president’s regime while attempting to give it a facelift by sacrificing several old regime figures.”
“This,” they added, “is an insult to the thousands who sacrificed and died in a vicious battle to overthrow the entire regime, not for the sake of a few new faces.”
The groups were most forceful in their condemnation of SCAF Decree (193/2011), “which not only revived the application of the emergency law—which has officially been in force since the Mubarak era—but also expanded the scope of the law to exceed the limits guaranteed in 2010 by the deposed president, who vowed to apply the law only in the context of crimes of terrorism and drug-trafficking.”
The SCAF’s decision “allows the emergency law to be invoked for disturbances to national security and the public order and to confront acts of thuggery, assaults on the freedom to work, vandalism of facilities, the obstruction of transportation and roads, and the dissemination of false news and statements.”
The group added, “The expansive language of the decree permits a broad interpretation of such acts that will allow for the intimidation and harassment of persons involved in peaceful protests, demonstrations, and strikes. It also constitutes a direct threat to freedom of expression and a free media.”
The groups also focused their wrath on what they characterized as the broader picture. They said, “The use of the emergency law to stifle basic liberties and to repress actions by forces of the revolution cannot be viewed separately from the broad, escalating assault on civil society institutions and various media outlets.”
The groups said, “It should be noted that in the run-up to the 2010 elections, the most infamous in Egypt’s history, the Mubarak regime launched an all-out attack on various forms of media, several of the most prominent political talk shows, and human rights organizations and civil society, impeding their ability to monitor the elections and expose irregularities.”
They added, “The course pursued by those currently administering the country’s affairs differs little from the ways of the Mubarak regime. They have clung to an electoral system that has been nearly unanimously rejected by all political forces and human rights groups, although these forces have proposed alternative electoral laws that advocate elections based on unconditional, proportional lists, whether for parties, coalitions, or independents.”
As a result, they said, “The electoral system chosen by the SCAF and the flagrant deficiencies in districting have provoked the anger of various parties, who believe that these measures will only reinstate a parliament dominated by the same forces that controlled Mubarak-era parliaments through the use of money, narrow partisan interests, and religious sentiment.”
“Adhering to the same policies pursued by Mubarak and his dissolved party, those administering the country’s affairs have preceded the impending parliamentary elections with a hostile assault on the media that has involved suspending licenses for new satellite stations and closely monitoring the satellite media as a prelude to taking legal action against satellite channels that “ignite civil strife,” in the words of the Minister of Information.”
“Under the pretexts of alleged ‘media chaos’ and of examining satellite channels’ sources of funding, the campaign began by targeting 16 satellite channels. For example, the office of al-Jazeera Egypt was shut down and the station’s transmitter was confiscated on the grounds that the station had not received a broadcast license, although the station had applied for a license four months ago and had been broadcasting in the interim without government objection,” the groups said, adding:
In tandem with this attack on the media, the campaign against civil society associations, human rights organizations, and some political groups involved in the January 25 revolution was redoubled. After the ouster of Mubarak, these groups have been subject to the same baseless accusations used by the Mubarak regime against human rights defenders and the same allegations by which that regime sought to stoke popular hostility to the revolution and those involved in it.
Under Mubarak, the issues of external funding and foreign agendas were used to stigmatize political activists and impugn the patriotism of hundreds of thousands of people who gathered in Egypt’s public squares, as prelude to an attack by paid bands organized by the network of interests overseen by the ruling NDP and the police state apparatus at that time.
The groups say they “still hope that the SCAF will assume its responsibilities to achieve the democratic aims expressed by the Egyptian revolution, from which the SCAF derives its legitimacy in this transitional period. We emphasize that securing a safe transition to democracy requires those currently administering the country’s affairs to open up the public sphere to a democratic, equitable, institutional dialogue among all active parties in society, in order to reach a social consensus on the political system and the course it will take.”
The groups asked the SCAF to revoke its decision to activate and expand the emergency law, abolish the law criminalizing strikes and sit-ins, end the state of emergency, and suspend all exceptional trials, including trials of civilians in military courts, and all trials in the Emergency Supreme State Security Court.
In addition to urging the SCAF to end its campaign against NGOs, the group calls on the military men to reconsider the electoral system and electoral districting to be responsive to widespread demands for an unconditional, proportional list system in all seats in elections for the People’s Assembly and Shura Council; and release a time-bound agenda for the transitional period that includes specific dates for parliamentary and presidential elections and a referendum on the new constitution.
Some of the better known groups signing the statement include Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Arab Penal Reform Organization, Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance, Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services, and Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination.
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