Post by Bozur on Feb 26, 2005 19:36:12 GMT -5
Egypt under fire for torture, detentions after bombings
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 Updated at 11:09 AM EST
Associated Press
Cairo — A U.S. human-rights group criticized on Tuesday the continued detention of up to 2,400 people arrested by Egyptian security police in bombings that devastated the Taba Hilton hotel in October.
Some of the detainees have been tortured, and all have been held for about 16 weeks without access to lawyers or their families --a violation of Egyptian law, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Tuesday.
“Egyptian security forces responded to the Taba atrocity by committing mass human-rights abuses,” said Joe Stork, the Middle East director of Human Rights Watch.
Mr. Stork, who was a key speaker at the Cairo conference being held in conjunction with several local human rights and anti-torture groups, also accused President Hosni Mubarak of arrogance toward the issue.
In a 48-page report titled “Mass Arrests and Torture in Sinai,” Human Rights Watch accuses the government of a lack of transparency. The state has not released the detainees' names, told their families where they are or said if they have been charged.
Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady received a copy of the report, but did not comment.
The government has never released the number of people detained since the Oct. 7 bombings at the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, which killed 34 people. The attacks, which destroyed a wing of the Taba hotel, were the first significant terrorist attacks in Egypt since the 1997 massacre of tourists at Luxor.
When asked about reports that 3,000 people had been detained in the northern Sinai town of el-Arish, Mr. Mubarak was quoted as replying: “The whole of El-Arish doesn't have 3,000 people.”
Mr. Stork criticized Mr. Mubarak's remark, saying “it betrays a certain arrogance that the President should have kept to himself.”
He said Egyptian officials privately defended the use of torture by pointing to what the United States was doing to terrorist suspects detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“It is shameful when a government official says 'we do it because everybody else does it,'” he said.
Mr. Stork said, however, that the U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo undermines the universal prohibition against torture.
On Jan. 28, some 500 relatives and friends staged a protest against the prolonged detention of their loved ones in el-Arish. Three police officers and about 10 protesters were reportedly injured in clashes with police.
Early this month, the state released 90 of the detainees, a fact that Human Rights Watch mentions in its report.
In an interview, Mr. Stork said the figure of 2,400 remaining in custody is an estimate based on the work of several Egyptian human-rights organizations.
“This is not the first time this has happened,” Mr. Stork said, referring to the mass arrests during the Islamic insurrection of the 1990s.
He said he could not explain the large number of detainees.
“It may indicate that the government, in fact, does not know who carried out the attacks and who else might be involved,” he said.
The government said in October that the mastermind of the bombings, who was killed in the attacks, was a Palestinian driven by anger against Israel. Many Israeli tourists visit the Sinai resorts. Three wanted suspects were killed in clashes with Egyptian forces earlier this month.
The government said it had detained five others implicated in the bombings but that none belonged to any larger extremist group, such as al-Qaida.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 Updated at 11:09 AM EST
Associated Press
Cairo — A U.S. human-rights group criticized on Tuesday the continued detention of up to 2,400 people arrested by Egyptian security police in bombings that devastated the Taba Hilton hotel in October.
Some of the detainees have been tortured, and all have been held for about 16 weeks without access to lawyers or their families --a violation of Egyptian law, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Tuesday.
“Egyptian security forces responded to the Taba atrocity by committing mass human-rights abuses,” said Joe Stork, the Middle East director of Human Rights Watch.
Mr. Stork, who was a key speaker at the Cairo conference being held in conjunction with several local human rights and anti-torture groups, also accused President Hosni Mubarak of arrogance toward the issue.
In a 48-page report titled “Mass Arrests and Torture in Sinai,” Human Rights Watch accuses the government of a lack of transparency. The state has not released the detainees' names, told their families where they are or said if they have been charged.
Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady received a copy of the report, but did not comment.
The government has never released the number of people detained since the Oct. 7 bombings at the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, which killed 34 people. The attacks, which destroyed a wing of the Taba hotel, were the first significant terrorist attacks in Egypt since the 1997 massacre of tourists at Luxor.
When asked about reports that 3,000 people had been detained in the northern Sinai town of el-Arish, Mr. Mubarak was quoted as replying: “The whole of El-Arish doesn't have 3,000 people.”
Mr. Stork criticized Mr. Mubarak's remark, saying “it betrays a certain arrogance that the President should have kept to himself.”
He said Egyptian officials privately defended the use of torture by pointing to what the United States was doing to terrorist suspects detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“It is shameful when a government official says 'we do it because everybody else does it,'” he said.
Mr. Stork said, however, that the U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo undermines the universal prohibition against torture.
On Jan. 28, some 500 relatives and friends staged a protest against the prolonged detention of their loved ones in el-Arish. Three police officers and about 10 protesters were reportedly injured in clashes with police.
Early this month, the state released 90 of the detainees, a fact that Human Rights Watch mentions in its report.
In an interview, Mr. Stork said the figure of 2,400 remaining in custody is an estimate based on the work of several Egyptian human-rights organizations.
“This is not the first time this has happened,” Mr. Stork said, referring to the mass arrests during the Islamic insurrection of the 1990s.
He said he could not explain the large number of detainees.
“It may indicate that the government, in fact, does not know who carried out the attacks and who else might be involved,” he said.
The government said in October that the mastermind of the bombings, who was killed in the attacks, was a Palestinian driven by anger against Israel. Many Israeli tourists visit the Sinai resorts. Three wanted suspects were killed in clashes with Egyptian forces earlier this month.
The government said it had detained five others implicated in the bombings but that none belonged to any larger extremist group, such as al-Qaida.