was News Feb 26, 2003 www.aljazeerah.info

Al-Jazeerah, News

Washington ‘understands’ Cairo’s emergency laws with reservations
Civilians have been tried in military courts for nonviolent offenses

‘The Egyptian authorities demonstrated their fear of public scrutiny by the speed and stealth with which they renewed’ tough rules

Compiled by Daily Star staff

The United States said while it understood the motives behind Egypt’s extension of emergency powers it has reservations about how Cairo applied the laws.
On Sunday, the Egyptian Parliament approved a three-year extension to the law, which has been in force since President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981.
The emergency powers have been repeatedly condemned by human rights groups which charge they are used to crack down on political opponents.
“We certainly understand and appreciate the Egyptian government’s commitment to combat terrorism and maintain stability,” State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Monday. The United States has had concerns in the past, he added, about the referral to emergency courts of cases that do not appear linked to national security, the referral of civilians to military tribunals for nonviolent offenses and the power to hold detainees without charge indefinitely.
“So we would, as we have in the past, urge the Egyptian government to take these concerns into consideration as they apply that emergency law,” he added.
The State Department’s report on human rights in 2001 criticized the emergency law for restricting freedom of expression, infringing on privacy rights and depriving defendants of the normal constitutional protections found in the civilian judicial system.
Egypt’s Middle East News Agency said 30 lawmakers in the 454-member Parliament, dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party, opposed the extension.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch slammed the “abrupt” renewal of the law, which it said was introduced “without prior notice and passed the same day.”
“The Egyptian authorities demonstrated their fear of public scrutiny by the speed and stealth with which they renewed this deeply unpopular law,” said Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. “This approach shows real contempt for the government’s democratic processes.”
An Egyptian human rights activist concurred with the view, saying the law infringes upon freedom of expression and association, restricts civil society and justifies arbitrary arrests and referring people to military tribunals.
“This law will remain a sword that hangs over freedoms and rights granted by the Egyptian Constitution,” said Hafez Abu Saada, the secretary-general of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.
Lawmaker Mohammed Morsi, who belongs to the banned Muslim Brotherhood opposition, said his group “vehemently opposes” the extension.
“It is totally unjustified, especially considering that the government has repeatedly said there is no terrorism in Egypt,” Morsi said. “The ruling party has been using this law to curb … its political opponents.”
The government has used the laws to routinely arrest and refer Muslim Brotherhood members to military courts, whose verdicts can only be overturned by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Emergency laws were imposed in Egypt in 1981 after Islamic militants assassinated Sadat during a military parade. The laws have been routinely renewed every three years.
Authorities say the laws are needed to fight Islamic groups. Such forces began a violent campaign in the late 1980s aimed at toppling Egypt’s government.
Defending the law during the brief People’s Assembly debate, government officials cited America’s “war on terrorism” as one of the main justifications for renewal.
Kamal al-Shazly, minister of state for People’s Assembly and Consultative Council Affairs, reportedly cited as a model the anti-terrorist legislation in the United States, which he said had greatly expanded police powers since Sept. 11, 2001.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, the US has also taken to holding detainees indefinitely without charge and has threatened to use military tribunals against civilians on the ground that they are “enemy combatants.”
It has been holding hundreds of detainees at a US base in Cuba for more than a year. Two American citizens are being held incommunicado in military custody without being formally charged.
“This vote exemplifies the opportunism of governments exploiting the threat of terrorism to restrict their own people’s rights and freedoms,” said Megally. “The real emergency in Egypt is the government’s renewal of the Emergency Law for another three years.” Agencies

http://www.aljazeerah.info

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.