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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 Apr. - 5 May 1999 Issue No. 427 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 Apr. - 5 May 1999 Issue No. 427
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Focus Special Travel Sports People Features Living Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters No give-up on Sudan
EGYPT this week avoided making an issue out of statements made by Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, who accused Egypt of adopting a "negative stand towards Sudan" by allowing the Sudanese opposition to operate out of Cairo.Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, asked on Monday for a response, pointed out that the Sudanese president "also affirmed in his statements the special and central relations that bind Egypt and Sudan".
While welcoming this part of the statements, Moussa was reserved in his response to the criticism.
"Egypt is working to preserve the unity of Sudan, its territories and its people. We never work against Sudan. We have always had Sudanese in Egypt. We always talk of the Sudanese and Egyptians as the one people of the Nile Valley," he said.
Still cautious on Iraq
DURING a telephone conversation with his Iraqi opposite number Said Al-Sahhaf, Foreign Minister Amr Moussa was briefed on the general situation in Iraq.Diplomatic sources said the two ministers did not make plans for a bilateral meeting.
Answering reporters' questions on whether the US-British air strikes against Iraqi targets were turning into a fait accompli, Moussa replied, "The current situation in Iraq cannot go on forever; actually it should not go on at all."
However, the sources said that the Arab League Contact Group on Iraq, established in January, has no plans for a kick-off meeting. The group includes Moussa and six other Arab foreign ministers.
Anti-torture report
A DELEGATION from the Ministry of Justice has flown to Switzerland to submit and defend Egypt's report on governmental efforts to combat torture to the Geneva-based Committee Against Torture And Other Inhumane And Degrading Treatment, which is affiliated to the Human Rights Commission. The committee convenes from 25 April to 14 May.The committee expects reports from its 110 member states every four years. An elected 10-member panel gives recommendations on ways of improving anti-torture measures in the member states.
Sayed Qassim El-Massri, an assistant to the foreign minister, is a member of the panel. According to El-Massri, "One of the most difficult problems that the committee has to deal with is the situation of Israel, which is the only state in the international community that legitimises torture [against Palestinians] and uses it on a regular basis."
Inter-Arab contacts
WHILE Cairo says that an Arab summit is unlikely in the near future, it seems that inter-Arab contacts, in which Egypt plays an instrumental role, are on the increase. Both President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, who have gone on record as excluding the possibility of an Arab summit in the immediate future, have been conferring by telephone with their Arab counterparts.Yemen, whose President Ali Abdallah Saleh has anticipated an Arab summit in the next three months, is also playing a central role in these inter-Arab contacts.
Diplomatic sources told Al-Ahram Weekly: "If [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu is re-elected, then nobody should exclude an Arab summit, for it may be necessary. But the problem is that the Syrians say that they don't want another summit on the Middle East peace process unless the Arab countries are all prepared to toughen their position against Israel."
The sources added that whether an Arab summit should include or exclude Iraq is another problem that will have to be carefully worked out.
Aid to Kosovo
EGYPT on Tuesday sent two planeloads of emergency humanitarian assistance to Kosovo's ethnic Albanian Muslims ahead of a medical delegation headed by Health Minister Ismail Sallam.Sallam is expected to leave for Tirana in the next few days to get first hand information on the situation and perform surgeries, said Health Ministry under-secretary, Gamila Moussa.
Moussa was on one of the planes to Tirana, where she will monitor the distribution of 68 tons of blankets, food, medicine and mattresses to the refugees.
Egypt had earlier dispatched 64 tons of emergency aid to Kosovo refugees.
Talks with Rwanda
RWANDA'S Foreign Minister Ismail Amri Sued was in Cairo this week for talks with Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, focusing on the turbulent situation in the Great Lakes region and efforts to put an end to the fighting there.Moussa and Sued also discussed ways to boost cooperation between the countries.
The buck stops here
FOLLOWING the recent spate of train disasters, Transport Minister Suleiman Metwalli this week appointed Maher Mustafa as acting head of the Egyptian Railway Authority, replacing Talaat Khattab, who was given the position of first under-secretary for railway affairs.The Railway Authority has come under severe criticism from the press following two major train disasters. The first at the Nile Delta town of Kafr Al-Dawwar last October killed 48 and injured more than 100. The second, in the Daqahliya province also in the Nile Delta, in mid-April, killed three people and wounded around 50 others. It has become clear that the accidents were caused by an archaic railway system in desperate need of an overhaul. Also to blame were the difficult working conditions of the 5,500 train drivers employed by the authority, as well as the dilapidated condition of third-class carriages.
Mustafa will continue to hold his current position of head of the National Authority for Tunnels -- the subway service that has been praised for its efficiency. His new role is to revamp the oldest railway system in Africa, which was established in 1851 and today transports three million people in a total of 1,200 journeys a day.
Announcer wins lawsuit
THE ADMINISTRATIVE Court on Monday annulled a decree issued last June by Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif, demoting TV announcer Malak Ismail from her position as chairwoman of the television's first channel to deputy chair of television. The court order said that Ismail should regain her original post, which remains vacant.Ismail had filed a lawsuit contesting El-Sherif's decree, and asking for LE1 million in compensation for psychological harm suffered. The ministerial decree was issued after the first channel broadcast a false news report about the death of movie star Farid Shawki.
The court ruled that the ministerial decree did not aim at serving the public interest but was simply intended to keep the plaintiff from her job. The court described Ismail's original job as one of television's top posts, but described the second post as redundant. Moreover, the information minister did not cite a sound legal basis to justify his decree, which the court said should be viewed as illegal and arbitrary.
Ismail reacted cheerfully: "This is what is expected from our honest judiciary."
Violence at the Bar
THE CAIRO branch of the Bar Association was the scene of a fist-fight on Monday between one of the court-appointed custodians and angry lawyers who had been prevented from staging a sit-in strike the previous week. Three lawyers were injured.The custodian's supporters claimed that six lawyers entered the branch syndicate and committed acts of violence. The injured lawyers, however, claimed that the custodian attacked them first. They said they would file a complaint with the police. "Yes, I beat them. I could not leave them to destroy the syndicate. It's my job to protect the syndicate, and I'll do it, whatever the price," said custodian Badr Tahtawi.
Acts of violence were also reported last week, when Tahtawi's supporters attacked lawyers who were attempting to stage a sit-in strike at the syndicate headquarters. The fight, in which the two factions used chairs, started when a lawyer attempted to remove a banner condemning the sit-in strike. Two lawyers were injured.
Ahmed Reda Ghatwari, one of the custodians in charge of the syndicate, filed a police complaint, accusing three lawyers of insulting him in front of their colleagues.
