Issue No. 602
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5 - 11 September 2002 Issue No. 602 Home news |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Peace input
IN THE WAKE of the breakdown of the Machakos talks between Khartoum and southern Sudan rebels, Egypt committed itself to continued peace efforts on the Sudan front, reports Soha Abdelaty. An Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative, hatched three years ago, was shelved after a breakthrough agreement in the Kenyan city of Machakos in July.
Asked by reporters on Monday whether the suspension of the Sudanese peace talks could mean a revival of the Egyptian-Libyan initiative, Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said that even though Egypt was not part of the Machakos negotiations that does not mean the country is no longer participating in the peace efforts. "Egypt is not far from the Sudanese issue and will never be so," he said, adding that all of Cairo's efforts are directed towards preserving the unity of Sudan.
Minutes before, Sudan's Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters in Cairo that Khartoum will suspend all peace talks with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), after rebel units occupied the southern city of Torit. "When we are convinced that the rebel movement is serious about continuing in the track of peace and reaching a peaceful resolution, then the situation will change," Ismail said after meeting with Maher.
Ruling soon
ON MONDAY, the Supreme Military Court is scheduled to announce its rulings in the case of 94 suspected Islamist militants accused of plotting anti-government attacks. The 94 defendants on trial, five of them in absentia, are alleged to be members of a previously unknown organisation named Al-Wa'ad [the Promise]. The defendants were first charged in May 2000 with seeking to smuggle weapons across the Egyptian-Palestinian border to the militant organisation Hamas. Their lawyers charged that after the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington, authorities added new and more serious charges of seeking to assassinate top officials and planning anti-government attacks.
The military trial originally started in November and was concluded on 24 March, with the judges saying they would announce the rulings on 10 April. However, after Israel reoccupied the West Bank in late March and demonstrations broke out across Egypt in support of the Palestinians' plight, the court postponed the sentencing to 16 June. But shortly before that date, one of the defendants at large was arrested in the former Soviet republic of Azerbijan and was handed over to Egypt. The court, consequently, decided to reopen deliberations to allow the defendant's lawyers to plead his case.
After the case wraps up, there will not be any suspected militants on military trials. Human rights groups have said that civilians should be tried by civilian courts rather than military tribunals, where sentences cannot be appealed and must be ratified by the president, in his capacity as the commander in chief of the armed forces.
Blood feud
ON SATURDAY, Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahid referred 20 men to court on charges of premeditated murder, illegal possession of weapons and harbouring suspects, in connection with a revenge killing that left 22 members of the same family dead in southern Egypt.
In the worst feud killing in a decade, 22 members of Al-Hanashat family, in the southern governorate of Sohag, were gunned down on 10 August by members of the rival Abdel-Halim family. Three members of the Al- Hanashat family were also wounded in the murders which were committed to avenge the killing of one of the members of the Abdel-Halim family in April. Thirteen of the Abdel-Halims, two of whom are on the run, were charged with premeditated murder and the attempted killing of the three survivors. Six others were charged with illegal possession of weapons, and the mayor of a neighbouring village was charged with harbouring suspects.
Talk is not cheap
THE MINISTRY of Communication and Information Technology has announced that all phone bills starting this month will be calculated according to the number of minutes of the phone call, rather than "calling units", reports Dena Rashed.
The charges for a phone call were previously calculated on the basis of "calling units" that comprised six minutes and cost 10 piastres. Now, telephone calls are to cost two piastres a minute and carry a connecting fee of three piastres for every call made.
Since March, phone owners have begun to pay their bills quarterly rather than bi-annually as they did under the previous system. Bills issued in June were calculated according to a mixture of call units and minute counts. But starting September, all phone users will be billed based on the new system.
Domestic long distance calls are to cost 10 piastres per minute and carry connecting fee of five piastres for each call.
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