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| Africa North | |
| Egypt 'pledges' to end rights group raids | |
| 2011-12-31 | |
| CAIRO — The United States said on Friday that Egypt has given assurances that there will be no more police raids on human rights watchdogs after a major clampdown this week drew a torrent of criticism. Some of the organisations targeted in Thursday’s swoops on 17 offices of local and international non-governmental organisations charged that the security force action ordered by Egypt’s military rulers was worse than that under the veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak whom they replaced in February. A chorus of European governments had also expressed concern about the implications for the promised transition to democracy in the Arab world’s most populous nation, which is one of the major achievements of this year’s Arab Spring. Egypt’s military leaders assured US ambassador in Cairo Anne Patterson that the raids on US and other pro-democracy groups would stop, and confiscated property, including computers and documents, be returned, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. “The ambassador has sought and received Egyptian leadership assurances that the raids will cease and property will be returned immediately,” Nuland said. “She has also made clear that we expect all international NGOs, including those that receive US government support, be able to return to normal operations as soon as possible in support of the democratic transition underway in Egypt.”
Rabab al-Mahdi, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo, said recent tirades by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) against the protesters and campaigns against the most vocal opposition movements were “indicators of a clear attack on voices of dissent”. “The raids on NGO offices have to be seen in the wider context, they cannot be taken in isolation,” she told AFP. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |