News reel

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Talking truce

ON SATURDAY Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will receive Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for talks expected to focus on developments in the occupied Palestinian territories and the slow pace of the Israeli government in honouring its commitments reached in Sharm El- Sheikh in February.

The meeting, expected to take place in Sharm El-Sheikh, is part of a world tour by Abbas to garner political and economic support for the Palestinians and to explain the Palestinian Authority's stand on the implementation of the truce with Israel.

Meanwhile, Egypt's ambassador to Israel, Mohamed Assem, met Monday with Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The meeting focused on the overall status of the implementation of commitments made by the Israeli and Palestinian sides as agreed upon in the Sharm El-Sheikh summit under Egyptian supervision.

Assem stressed Cairo's expectation that the Israeli side fully implements Sharm El-Sheikh's understandings. The meeting also discussed the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in the summer.

Angry doctors

ON TUESDAY, doctors protested in front of their syndicate headquarters against the detention of 19 of their colleagues arrested while taking part in pro-reform demonstrations in several governorates. Prominent Brotherhood figure and member of the Arab Doctors Union Essam El-Erian was among those arrested. Marching among the protesters was Ibrahim, El-Erian's son, holding a banner that read: "Release my father".

Protesters, including wives and families of the detained doctors, said their loved ones were arrested under the emergency law, enforced since 1981, which gives the Ministry of Interior a free hand in curbing demonstrations and other forms of peaceful assembly.

Later, the Doctor's Syndicate held a conference in support of their colleagues. Syndicate member Ahmed Amr said those arrested had done nothing except "exercise their right to free speech."

Kifaya activist George Ishak participated in the conference, declared solidarity with the doctors and demanded their release. The conference issued a statement in the name of the families of the doctors in which they asked all national organisations and individuals to intervene.

Brotherhood concern

ON MONDAY, the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) issued a 35-page report, Muslim Brotherhood, Suspects Without a Crime in which it condemned the large-scale arrests of members of the banned but sometimes tolerated Muslim Brotherhood group and demanded an investigation into allegations of police brutality that reportedly resulted in the death of one of the protesters, Tarek Ghannam, on 6 May.

The report listed the names of 498 Brotherhood members and supporters who were reportedly detained after peaceful demonstrations in several parts of the country. On Wednesday, police rounded up a number of Muslim Brotherhood members, bringing to 550 the total number of arrests.

It also said that, according to an EOHR eyewitness, the police had surrounded the protesters and used excessive force in dispersing the crowd.

The EOHR expressed its concern over what it described as "a dangerous development" that threatens citizens' rights and the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly as guaranteed by international agreements and the constitution.

Defending labourers

IN SCHEDULED People's Assembly hearings, Minister of Labour Ahmed El-Aamawi is expected to brief parliament on the outcome of contacts conducted by the government with Jordanian officials on the abuse that hundreds of Egyptian workers in Jordan have been subjected to.

Last week Assistant Foreign Minister for Consulate and Immigration Affairs Mohamed El- Ghabarri met Jordan's ambassador to Egypt "to express Egypt's serious concern regarding the mistreatment to which Egyptian workers have been subjected by their Jordanian patrons and police".

El-Ghabarri told Al-Ahram Weekly that throughout the meeting, the Jordanian ambassador argued that the physical and psychological harm to which Egyptian workers had been subjected was "unintentional". Jordanian police, the ambassador reported, was conducting an across-the-board campaign to "control illegal immigration" that has been escalating.

El-Ghabarri said Egypt had sent all concerned Jordanian officials a clear message that it was "eager to make sure that such harmful treatment will not happen to any member of the Egyptian community", especially since Egyptian labourers suffered similar harassment when returning home from Iraq through Jordan.

Rejected recommendations

THE NATIONAL Council of Human Rights (NCHR) strongly rejected the allegations included in a recently released report by the US State Department suggesting that Copts in Egypt are suffering from a serious discrimination problem. The NCHR also declined to accept the recommendations made by the report suggesting that Cairo needs to eliminate alleged discriminatory laws and regulations.

The report, which was released this week, is based on research conducted by the International Religious Freedoms Committee at the State Department.

It also recommended the need for the Egyptian government to work on abolishing all anti-Semitic signs and practices, especially those it says are included in school textbooks and TV programmes. The report strongly recommended punishing individuals proven to be responsible for committing anti-Semitic action.

Ahmed Kamal Abul-Magd, NCHR deputy chairman, said neither Egypt nor the NCHR "are willing to accommodate orders from any foreign entity". The report, Abul-Magd added, highlighted several recommendations that are not obligatory as far as Egypt was concerned. "We do not respond to such recommendations unless we feel there is a situation that requires such recommendations to be pursued."

An NCHR source told the Weekly that the Egyptian human rights body is nonetheless keen to maintain a dialogue with the US administration on issues related to the promotion of human rights. "Extensive rounds of dialogue can play a pivotal role in helping both sides reach a better understanding of each other's stance," the official said.

No supervising

AHMED Kamal Abul-Magd, deputy chairman of the National Council on Human Rights, said Tuesday that the council will not be involved in supervising this year's presidential elections.

"The council will only follow up the election process. Supervising the elections is the responsibility of the judiciary, not the NCHR." However, Abul-Magd emphasised the necessity for "transparency and wide-scale political participation in the elections" in the fall.