 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Heritage Millennium Features Profile Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Farewell to arms
By Khaled DawoudWhen the country's largest armed militant group, the Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya, declared in March 1999 that it will stop all anti-government attacks, "inside and outside [Egypt]", this amounted to a confirmation of the already existing status-quo.
The year 1998 witnessed hardly any attacks by militants against their known targets: top officials, policemen, Copts and tourists. The record improved even further in 1999, with only one incident reported a few days after the failed attempt on President Hosni Mubarak's life in the city of Port Said on 6 September. The Interior Ministry said at the time that Cairo police had shot and killed four suspected Al-Gama'a members, including Farid Kedwani, who had long been wanted by authorities for his alleged involvement in scores of attacks in southern Egypt.
The 1999 record confirms a significant improvement in the security situation; it is the best since Al-Gama'a launched its armed campaign in 1992. According to human rights groups, nearly 1,300 killings, mostly police and militants, have taken place since 1992; the peak being in 1995, when nearly 400 people were killed. In June of the same year, Al-Gama'a militants tried to assassinate President Mubarak shortly after his arrival in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to attend an African summit.
In the two military trials that took place in 1999, no death sentences were passed against either Al-Gama'a or Jihad militants -- except for those standing trial in absentia. In the case known as that of the "returnees from Albania," which included 107 defendants, nine were sentenced to death in absentia, while those who stood in the iron cage received jail terms. Similarly, no death sentences were passed in another case involving 21 Al-Gama'a members accused of trying to attack a presidential palace in Alexandria.
Islamist lawyer Montasser El-Zayyat told Al-Ahram Weekly that he believed the killing of the four militants in Cairo following the Port Said attack "was an attempt by the interior ministry to prove they remained alert and powerful, although they failed to prevent the Port Said incident". El-Zayyat has been known for years as Al-Gama'a's unofficial spokesman. He was also heavily involved in efforts to persuade the expatriate Al-Gama'a leaders to approve the truce, which was first proposed in July 1997 by a group of so-called "historic" Al-Gama'a figures now serving life terms for the assassination of President Anwar El-Sadat in 1981.
El-Zayyat viewed the killing of Kedwani and the three other militants as a violation of the truce and declared, for the fourth or fifth time, that he was retiring in despair from political activity. But, as always, he would go back on this decision -- or threat -- once he calmed down.
Rifaie Ahmed Taha, the alleged military leader of Al-Gama'a believed to be based in Afghanistan, was also angered by the killing of Kedwani and his colleagues. He warned in a statement that the incident could make the group reverse its decision to stop anti-government attacks. But this turned out to be only an empty threat that led to even more divisions within Al-Gama'a.
Reports in newspapers known for their close links to Al-Gama'a militants said Taha had been removed from the group's leadership and replaced by Mustafa Hamza, another key military leader who was the top suspect in the Ethiopia attempt on Mubarak's life. However, sources close to Al-Gama'a denied that there was a leadership split and said that replacing Taha with Hamza was in line with internal regulations, which provide for rotation in the leadership of the group's highest decision-making body, known as the Shura Council.
The reality remains that after Al-Gama'a claimed responsibility for the November 1997 massacre of 58 tourists and four Egyptians at Luxor, the group's image was completely blackened, both inside and outside Egypt. Millions of average Egyptians, especially in Luxor, were hard hit by the attack's aftermath. President Mubarak and other top officials have repeatedly complained that militants are making use of the freedom they enjoy in European countries to plot attacks and raise funds for their followers at home. After the 1997 assault, foreign countries, including some European states who had previously blamed the continued violence on the government's violation of human rights, began to cooperate with Cairo and show understanding of the official position.
The bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998 was the straw that broke the camel's back. The world's superpower is now along the front-line of the fight against militant Islamist groups. Afghanistan-based Saudi billionaire, Osama bin Laden, was declared America's no.1 most wanted man, together with many Egyptian and Arab militants who received paramilitary training in the lawless country. Ironically, these militants are the same people once declared "freedom fighters" and provided with American backing and weapons in their struggle against the "evil" Soviet Union and its occupation of Afghanistan.
Leader of Egypt's Jihad, Ayman El-Zawahri, is known as a close aide of bin Laden's. In the "returnees from Albania" case, one of El-Zawahri's associates, Ahmed Sayed El-Naggar, praised the bombing of the US embassies and told reporters that the group's "struggle right now targets the United States and Israel only. They are the ones who support most of the infidel regimes in our region". Although he only drew a life sentence in the "returnees from Albania" case, El-Naggar was executed in 1999. He had been previously sentenced to death in absentia by a military court for his involvement in an assassination attempt against then Prime Minster Atef Sidki.
Meanwhile, El-Zayyat and other Islamist lawyers concede that the Interior Ministry has been following a different security strategy since the Luxor massacre. According to El-Zayyat, "Thousands have been released in 1999, and this seems to be an ongoing process". He added that the Interior Ministry "regularly reviews the cases of militants who have been jailed for years without trial in order to release them gradually. That is definitely a positive development."
Divisions within Al-Gama'a surfaced in 1999 following attempts by El-Zayyat and a number of other Islamists to establish legal political parties -- attempts that were doomed from the start. Mamdouh Ismail, a close associate of El-Zayyat and one of his supporters, asked the Political Parties Committee to approve an application for a party by the name of Al-Shari'a. Gamal Sultan, another former militant involved in the 1981 acts of violence, also applied for the formation of the Islah, or Reform, party. Only a few days after Ismail submitted his request, the Political Parties Committee met and rejected his application -- as was expected. Sultan, meanwhile, accused El-Zayyat and Ismail of seeking to form their own party in order to weaken his own project, "upon orders from the State Security."
Al-Gama'a's spiritual leader, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman -- now serving a life term in a US jail -- issued a fatwa, or a ruling, confirming that the establishment of political parties was not permissible under the group's strict understanding of Islam. For militant Islamist groups, Islamic societies should implement the Shari'a, or Islamic law. The multi-party system and the concept of pluralism is a western, secular invention not to be adopted.
In an interview with the Weekly, Ismail conceded that there are "theological reservations that some brothers have against political parties". However, in order to overcome these reservations, Ismail says that his proposed party will not necessarily run for election. "Right now, we don't have true elections under the emergency law," he said. "Even if we took part in elections, the government would only allow one or two deputies to enter parliament. In this case, we would be participating in making secular laws, and that is why we don't think it is suitable to run for election at this stage."
However, both Ismail and El-Zayyat say that they represent a "trend" of Islamists who "used to be members of groups that believe in Jihad [armed struggle]". This group believes that the violence of the past seven years has not done any good for their cause -- and might actually have done harm.
Ismail says that "the government remains intransigent in rejecting our effort". He added that the quick rejection of his party's application and the recent crackdown on several Muslim Brotherhood figures who faced trial before a military court, "were all signs that the government had no intention of changing its policy". Yet, the government's view is that it had learned its lesson, and would not repeat mistakes of the past. A security source, who requested anonymity, said the government's policy of tolerating militant groups in the early 1980s "only gave them the chance to spread their extremist views and made them feel that they could take over the country. Now, these days are gone, and there is no way in the near future that supporters of these groups will be allowed to go public again."
