Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 24 - 30 January 2002 Issue No.570
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

FBI talks
US FEDERAL Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller met with President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday as well as other Egyptian officials during a 24-hour visit to Cairo, reports Soha Abdelaty. "The purpose of the meetings is to continue to build on the strong foundation of cooperation that preceded the events of 11 September and that only increased afterwards," Mueller said after meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher on Saturday. "The sharing of information and cooperation between our two countries has never been better, not only in the area of addressing terrorism around the world, but also for such cases as the case against Fred Schultz," he assured reporters.
Schultz is an American antiquities dealer who is charged with conspiring to import and deal in stolen Egyptian antiquities. His case is due to be heard by a US court later this month.
Maher and Mueller also discussed the issue of Egyptians who were detained and held in US prisons after the 11 September attacks. Mueller told Maher that in each of these cases, the individual was detained "for a good reason and each of the detainees has been accorded full rights under the United States constitution."
Mueller cited reports from individuals who have been released and who assured the public that they were well-treated by the FBI during their detention. He said that he does not expect this matter to "be an issue down the road." Cairo was the first stop on Mueller's first regional tour since taking office in October. His tour takes him to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jordan.
...and military talks
DURING a tour of the Middle East, US Joint Chief-of-Staff Lieutenant- General Richard Myers paid Egypt a two-day visit early this week to discuss military cooperation.
Following a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday, Myers told reporters that the US campaign would extend across the globe to find militants and their backers, but he did not specify any states that were to be a target of the effort.
"It's anticipated that once the action in Afghanistan is over, US forces will, of course, pull out of Afghanistan. Where we are going next has not been decided," Myers said.
Asked whether he discussed with President Mubarak potential targets, Myers said the discussion was much more general.
Defence Minister Field-Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi met with the American commander and reviewed recent regional and international developments and Egyptian efforts to maintain stability and strive for peace in the region.
Myers's tour included the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. According to US officials, he is due to fly back to Washington today.
Religious peace
THE GRAND Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, presided over a two-day interfaith conference in Alexandria. Notable attendees included the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, and Israel's chief rabbi. Numerous other Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders attended the conference. Delegates concluded the conference on Monday with a statement urging an immediate cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians and the prevention of attacks on Israelis. The conference also called on Israel to stop building settlements and to lift travel bans on Palestinians.
On Tuesday, the group met President Hosni Mubarak. Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher quoted Mubarak as telling the clerics that Israel's blockade on Palestinian towns and the siege it has imposed on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is "further worsening the situation and leading the whole region into a very dangerous situation."
Supporting Palestine
FOUR Arab organisations issued a strongly-worded joint statement from Cairo on Saturday, expressing full support for the Palestinian struggle for independence and condemning what it called Israel's "blatantly racist policy," its "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity." The Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organisation, the Arab Lawyers' Union, the Arab Organisation for Human Rights and the Federation of Arab Journalists three-page statement follows yet another local wave of anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment voiced in both the official and opposition press as Israel continues to destroy Palestinian infrastructure and assassinate Palestinian civilians, public figures and activists.
The statement slammed Israel's "massacres," demolition of Palestinian homes, expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land and Israel's "hateful policy of racial segregation," which it described as "more abominable than the apartheid regime that existed in South Africa." It criticised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plans to bring five million Jewish immigrants to occupied Palestine by the year 2020. The statement warned that Sharon is seeking to "establish a state based on religious and racial 'purity' following the futile pattern of the loathsome Nazi dream." In their statement, the four organisations used language that was for them, uncharacteristically emotive and politically charged.
Declaring complete solidarity with the Palestinian people and the Intifada, the four organisations appealed to the international community to pressure Israel to end the occupation, implement the Fourth Geneva Convention and to intervene to stop the "genocidal war" against the Palestinians who are deprived of "the most essential of human rights: the right to life and self determination."
The four organisations urged the Arab world to stop work on 30 January for five minutes starting 11.00am "in a show of solidarity with the Palestinian people."
Waiting in hope
FAMILY and sympathisers of human rights activist Saadeddin Ibrahim remain hopeful that Egypt's highest court, the Court of Cassation, will overturn a seven-year prison sentence, despite the court's decision to adjourn Ibrahim's appeal for the second time, reports Jailan Halawi. On 19 December the court adjourned the case till 16 January, then subsequently postponed the court ruling to 6 February.
On 16 January, family, diplomats and supporters of Ibrahim gathered at the courthouse waiting for the ruling. After almost five hours of deliberations, the judges emerged to announce that the case would be once again adjourned.
Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly, family members said they were "determined" and would not "lose hope." Barbara, Ibrahim's wife, noted that "it is not over yet, the door is still open. The judges are seriously considering the case, they know it is historic and want to make the right decision."
Home at last
AFTER more than 70 years, the base of Akhnaten's sarcophagus has finally been recovered, reports Nevine El-Aref.
At a grand celebration on Monday at a Munich museum of Egyptian Art, the German authorities handed back to Egypt the base of Akhnaten's sarcophagus after long intensive negotiations.
The sarcophagus was discovered in 1907 in tomb KV55 in the Valley of Kings. In fragments when it was discovered, the sarcophagus mysteriously disappeared from the Egyptian Museum between 1915 and 1930.
In 1980, a Swiss private collector asked the Munich museum for advice on restoring the wooden fragments of the base. At that point the wooden and golden fragments were glued onto a fibre glass sarcophagus-shaped base. Since then, the artefact had been exhibited at the Munich museum.
On a visit to Egypt in May 2001, Bavarian governor Edmund Stoiber promised to return the sarcophagus. An agreement to hand over the artefact was signed in Munich on Monday by Gaballa Ali Gaballa, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), and the Bavarian Culture Minister Hans Zehetmair.
The cost of marriage
BUSINESSMAN Ragab El-Sweirky was sentenced to seven years with hard labour by a Cairo criminal court on Tuesday for having five wives -- exceeding the legal (and Islamic) limit of four. He was also convicted of entering into marriages with 29 minors.
El-Sweirky was proved to have falsified his marital status and forged documents specifying that the 29 girls he was briefly married to were over 15 years old. The 52-year-old owner of the "El-Tawhid wa El-Nour" bargain- price clothing shops denied the accusations vehemently, but he did admit that he married 19 times.
Alarm quake
MANY Cairenes were shaken awake by an earthquake just before 7am on Tuesday. No casualties or damage were reported following the tremor, which registered 6.4 on the Richter scale.
According to the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, the epicentre of the quake was about 500 kilometres north of Cairo in the Mediterranean and east of the Greek island of Crete.
The quake was also felt in Greece and Israel.
Compiled by Shaden Shehab

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