Issue No. 599
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15 - 21 August 2002 Issue No. 599 Home news |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Discussing Sudan
US ENVOY to Sudan John Danforth held talks with Egyptian officials to discuss the Machakos protocol and Egypt's role in the ongoing Sudanese negotiations, Soha Abdelaty reports. Danforth met with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa yesterday and is scheduled to meet today with Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and President Hosni Mubarak's Chief Political Adviser Osama El-Baz. The meetings come after Egypt declined to take part in the resumed talks that began on Monday between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told reporters on Sunday that Cairo had no intention of taking part in the talks in Kenya, but refused to give a reason for the decision. "We are in touch with the various Sudanese parties and they know our position and our willingness to help them in preserving the unity of Sudan," Maher said.
Under the Machakos protocol, which was endorsed by Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and SPLM leader John Garang on 20 July, southern Sudan will be granted a six-year period of administrative autonomy and will not be subject to Islamic law applied in the Arab north. After the six years, animists and Christians, who form a majority in the south -- along with a Muslim minority -- will vote in a referendum on whether they wish to remain part of Sudan or secede.
Egypt has some reservations about the tentative peace agreement. It has indicated in meetings with Sudanese officials that it is concerned that the unity of Sudan be discussed in the ongoing talks. Maher said that the "negotiations in Nairobi are dealing with fundamental issues because what has been agreed on was only a general framework that leaves out some important issues, like a cease-fire and arrangements in the transitional phase.
"The issue is not over yet and what is important is that there be a desire to avoid secession because that would have dire consequences for the Sudanese people and the whole African region," he added.
Civil war broke out in 1983 when the SPLM took up arms to end Khartoum's domination, resulting in the death of more than two million people and displacement of more than five million others.
Storm in a teacup
THE COURT case initiated by a Paris-based pro-Israel Jewish lobby group against Ibrahim Nafie, editor-in-chief of Cairo's Al- Ahram newspaper, chairman of the board of the daily's mother organisation (which also publishes Al-Ahram Weekly) and chairman of the press syndicate, has been delayed indefinitely upon the ruling of the presiding French judge on 8 August.
According to the court ruling, Nafie could testify before an Egyptian court instead of a French one. The court's decision was in accordance with a bilateral judicial agreement signed by Egypt and France in March 1982 which delegates the Egyptian court the authority to look into cases initiated before French courts.
Nafie is charged with inciting hatred against Jews by the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism for allowing the publication of an article titled "Jewish pie from Arab blood" which was written by Adel Hammouda and published in Al-Ahram on 10 October 2001.
Arab organisations for human rights vowed to urge the European Court for Human Rights to look into European laws that constrain freedom of expression. Hafez Abu Sa'eda, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights and the deputy head of the International Federation for Human Rights, said that work is underway to urge European human rights organisations to follow suit.
Another adjournment
THE SUPREME Military Court on Sunday adjourned till 25 August the trial of 94 suspected militants accused of plotting to assassinate top officials, sending young members abroad for military training and seeking to smuggle weapons to a militant Palestinian group.
The suspects, including six who are being tried in absentia, are alleged to be members of a previously unknown group, named Al- Wa'd (the Promise). They were arrested in May 2001, and referred to military trial late last year. The suspects, who include nationals from the former Soviet republic of Daghestan and three Egyptians who hold dual nationality, allege that additional charges were brought against them after the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington.
The military court concluded its deliberations in late March, and was due to deliver sentences on 10 April. But for reasons that remain unknown, the judges twice postponed the sentencing. On 16 June, the court announced the reopening of the trial after one suspect was arrested in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan and handed over to Egypt. During the past three sessions, the military judges heard the defence's case for Abdel-Rahman Fakhry. Sources involved in the case told Al-Ahram Weekly the 25 August session could be the last before the court sets a new date to issue the sentences.
Guilty of torture
A CAIRO criminal court on 8 August sentenced two police officers to three years in prison for severely torturing two suspects at the Nasr City Police Station, killing one and badly injuring the second.
The head of the investigation department at Nasr City Police Station, Major Hazem El-Derbi, and his deputy, Captain Ashraf Gohar, had arrested two suspects, Sayed Eissa and Mustafa Helmi, in January, on suspicion of involvement in a car theft. The officers were found guilty of detaining the two suspects for nearly 45 days, during which they were subjected to severe torture, including beatings, electric shocks and whipping. Prosecutors said that after Eissa and Helmi's health deteriorated, Derbi and Gohar took them to a flat belonging to rank-and-file policeman Mahmoud Khalifa, to provide them with treatment, however Eissa died. The policemen then threw both bodies into the street in the Cairo suburb of Imbaba.
Helmi, who was found by residents of the area, complained to the police, after which Interior Minister Habib El-Adli immediately ordered the case to be referred to trial.
Policeman Khalifa, who also stood trial, was found innocent along with Colonel Gamal Fouad, the former head of the department for combating motor vehicle theft.
Several cases of police torture became public in recent months.
In March, a warden and three police officers received between five and 10 years each for beating a prisoner to death. In July, three policemen were jailed for five years each for torturing a 38-year- old man to death during interrogations in which they attempted to force the man to disclose the whereabouts of his wanted brother.
Local and international human rights groups charge that torture is routinely used in Egypt against ordinary criminal suspects as well as political detainees.
Stele discovered
A NUMBER of sandstone stelae dated back to the reign of Ramses III and a lioness-headed goddess of war Sekhmet have been unearthed at Mut's Temple in Luxor, reports Nevine El-Aref.
While excavating the area south of Karnak Temple, the American mission of Johns Hopkins University unearthed the discovery. The stelae are decorated with coloured scenes featuring Ramses III kneeling in worship in front of his various deities.
Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said that the excavators also found the lower part of a Ramses III statue made of schist and a head of an unidentified king wearing a crown.
Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that in the vicinity of Mut's Temple the mission found a number of storehouses, granaries, clay cooking pots, a black granite double crown and two decapitated statues.
All of these objects date back to the reign of Amenhotep III who built the main structure of Mut's Temple and decorated its vast halls with huge black granite statues of the lioness god Sekhmet, deity of war.
Sabri Abdel-Aziz, head of the Pharaonic department in the SCA, said that a collection of cartouches bearing the name of king Shashanq I, the founder of the 22th Dynasty and the builder of the great hall of the Karnak Temple have been also found.
Compiled by Shaden Shehab
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