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Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 March 2000 Issue No. 473 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 March 2000 Issue No. 473
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Rights in disarray
By Amira Howeidy
Hafez Abu-Se'eda, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), has probably become Egypt's most well known human rights activist. Few, if any, in the human rights movement in the country could boast the kind of press attention that greeted him when he arrived from France last Friday evening, after a month-long absence. The reason: a military order to put him on trial before a state security court for receiving money from foreign organisations without notifying the authorities.
Holding a press conference the day after his arrival, Abu-Se'eda told reporters he felt that some "positive progress" was made on the NGO-government front in meetings with Zakaria Azmi, chief of the presidential staff; Kamal El-Shazli, minister of parliamentary affairs; and Ali Maher, Egypt's Ambassador to France during his stay in Paris.
The press conference and Abu-Se'eda's meeting with top officials are both very telling of the situation facing both the government -- which has enacted a law viewed as "restrictive" of NGO activity -- and the civil society's reaction. If anything, rights groups appear to be divided on whether or not to register with the Ministry of Social Affairs in line with the new law; the groups appear to have been weakened by criticism that they survive on foreign funding.
Abu-Se'eda announced that his organisation had prepared the necessary papers to register. A week earlier, the Group for Democratic Development (GDD) announced that it would suspend its activities in reaction to the government's "continuing harassment of civil society organisations, and those working in the human rights field in particular."
"I cannot take it any longer if my son reads in newspapers that his father is a thief because of foreign funding," Negad El-Borai, GDD's director, told Al-Ahram Weekly, "This really hurts."
Established in 1996, the GDD has been active in monitoring and evaluating participation in political life. El-Borai said that his organisation has decided to suspend its activities for three reasons: the new NGO law, which will be enforced starting next May; the prolongation of the emergency law; and the decision to put Abu-Se'eda on trial.
"We formed GDD to serve society. When we came under criticism, society was supposed to stand up for us, but no one did. So, if society doesn't want our services, we'll stop working," said El-Borai.
Foreign funding became an issue in August 1998, when the EOHR released a report on human rights violations by police in the predominantly Coptic Upper Egyptian village of Al-Kosheh. The report was cited by the Western press as evidence of the alleged persecution of Copts in Egypt.
Back home, the independent Al-Osbou newspaper launched a campaign against the EOHR and accused it of "treason" for allegedly receiving a $25,000 cheque from the British Embassy. The newspaper claimed that the cheque was intended to fund the controversial Al-Kosheh report on the police violations. Al-Osbou's editor filed a complaint with the prosecutor-general, who ordered that Abu-Se'eda be taken into custody.
Following his release on bail, the prosecutor decided a year later to put him on trial before a state security court. The decision coincided with renewed acts of violence in the village of Al-Kosheh, resulting in the death of 20 Copts and one Muslim.
Abu-Se'eda was in Paris when the prosecutor made the decision and prolonged his stay there because "Anyone in my position, who suddenly finds himself put on trial and facing a minimum penalty of seven years, needs to think about the matter for a while."
During his stay in Paris, it was rumoured that Abu-Se'eda might seek political asylum in France. Abu-Se'eda denied the claims, but it was only after he met with both Azmi and El-Shazli that he announced he would return to Cairo. Abu-Se'eda maintains, however, that he did not get any "safety" guarantees from the two officials.
According to Abu-Se'eda, "The meeting [with the two officials] lasted for 40 minutes, and they told me that our reports are rather harsh. I reminded them that we, the EOHR, were not the ones who said that corruption is rampant, but that this was said by members of parliament."
Abu-Se'eda added, "I also expressed my wish for opening a dialogue with the government because, after all, we're not against the government."
If a dialogue is ever opened, it will be set against the background of a weakened civil society -- a society that until very recently, maintained a relatively unified front, especially against the new NGO law. But the scene is quickly changing: besides the suspension of GDD's activities, another active rights group, the Centre for Human Rights Legal Aid (CHRLA), is in the throws of a crisis.
The CHRLA witnessed a mass exodus when the majority of members, led by director Gasser Abdel-Razek, walked out and formed another group under the name of the Hisham Mubarak Legal Centre. According to Abdel-Razek, some of CHRLA's board members decided to register the centre with the Social Affairs Ministry in accordance with the new NGO law without consulting other members. "We had no choice but to establish another group," he said.
In protest against the new NGO law, the Arab Programme for Human Rights cancelled its celebration of International Day for Human Rights Defenders. The group also staged a symbolic sit-in at its headquarters for four hours on Tuesday.
Despite the dispirited state of major rights groups, Abdel-Razek asserts that all is not lost. "It's true, to a great extent, that rights groups were weakened or strongly affected by the new NGO law," Abdel-Razek said. "We have received strong blows from the government but, on the other hand, that is not the complete picture; new generations are emerging and the coming days will prove that the situation is not that bad."
