More Egyptians

PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak recently issued two presidential decrees granting Egyptian nationality to almost 1000 individuals with Egyptian mothers and foreign fathers, reports Reem Leila .

More than 900 individuals had been granted Egyptian nationality by the minister of interior in the past two months. The minister of interior can only grant nationality to people over 21 years of age, while the president has no such restrictions.

According to Hamdi Hafez, head of the Immigration and Passport Administration, granting individuals Egyptian nationality is in accordance with Law 26 of 1975. Article 5 gives the president of the republic full powers to grant Egyptian citizenship to those who fall outside the criteria of the existing Nationality Law.

During the National Democratic Party's (NDP) first annual conference held in September, President Mubarak declared the government's willingness to amend the current Nationality Law. Until the law is amended, the president and minister of interior will consider applications for citizenship. The Parliament is expected to discuss and endorse the amended Nationality Law soon.

It is worth noting that according to sources the amended Nationality Law will be inclusive of Palestinians of Egyptian mothers. Palestinians were previously excluded from presidential and interior minister grants of citizenship.

Port Said blaze

SEVEN people died and 69 were injured after a blaze swept through the commercial district of Port Said on Sunday night. Thirteen of the injured remain hospitalised in critical condition. The fire also destroyed 16 houses, leaving another eight on the verge of collapse. 40 shops were completely ruined, and overall losses were estimated at LE10 million.

According to investigations, the blaze began when a cooking gas canister in an old house exploded. The resulting fire, fed by high winds that spread the flames to cloth tents erected in the streets and narrow alleyways to sell goods during the holy month of Ramadan, raged for more than four hours.

One of the dead was Najia Mohamed Soliman, an 80-year-old woman who, surrounded by flames, told her sons to leave her alone and save themselves.

Port Said Governor Mustafa Kamel allocated a sum of LE3000 for the families of each of the deceased, and between LE200 and LE400 for each of the injured. On Monday, Port Said residents quickly collected LE75,000 in donations. The city's commercial chamber also decided to allocate a sum of LE100,000 for the parties affected by the blaze.

A similar blaze took place in the same area in 1994. Afterwards, Fakhreddin Khaled, the governor at the time, decreed that shops were forbidden to place their goods in the streets. That decision was soon forgotten. In fact, it was directly as a result of the street displays that ambulances and fire engines had trouble containing this week's fire.

Water-main explodes

CHAOS ensued after a main water pipe, servicing Opera Square and the downtown area, burst on Sunday. Al-Azhar tunnel was almost entirely submerged, while water flowed in front of bus stations and in the streets, causing considerable traffic jams until iftar. Talaat Harb and Al-Gomhouriya streets were closed, as was Al-Azhar Bridge after surface water caused several cars to slide. More than 40 shops were flooded, causing millions of pounds in property damage.

Cairo governorate authorities cut the electricity in the area, while civil defence teams hurried to the chaotic scene to drain the water and fix the pipe. Their task was not an easy one and the work lasted until 2am.

Back home

ARTEFACTS taken by a massive antiquities smuggling ring headed by the former head of the National Democratic Party for Giza, Tarek El-Sweissi, will return home next week, reports Nevine El-Aref. A month after Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed referred 31 people involved in the smuggling ring -- which allegedly moved at least 300 Pharaonic, Coptic and Islamic artefacts from Egypt to Switzerland -- to trial, the unique objects will finally be where they belong.

"I am very satisfied with the results. I very much appreciate all the efforts made by both countries to arrest the smugglers and recover the objects," said Culture Minister Farouk Hosni. He also stressed the importance of cooperation between Egypt and Switzerland in the fight against antiquities smugglers.

"Without the help and support of the Swiss authorities we would not have been able to recover the 300 stolen objects," he said.

Hosni also promised that the returned artefacts will be subject to scientific study and research in order to discern their origins, as well as to place them on Egypt's Heritage List.

Evidence of the theft was uncovered eight months ago, when state security officers arrested El-Sweissi and found a number of artefacts in his luxury villa in the Al-Mansouriya district of Giza. In addition to charges of smuggling, the 31 Egyptians and foreigners referred to trial were also charged with corruption and money laundering. Eighteen of the accused are in custody, while 13 have yet to be apprehended. Nine are foreigners of various nationalities, including Swiss, German, Canadian, Moroccan and Lebanese.

The Egyptian defendants include El-Sweissi, three customs officials, two police officers and five antiquities officials.

The Egyptian culprits were accused of carrying out illegal excavations at several archaeological sites, taking possession of countless authentic artefacts, exporting them as replicas from the Khan Al-Khalili bazaar and then selling them with the help of foreign accomplices.

The prosecutor-general has charged El- Sweissi with bribing government officials to gain access to VIP gates at Cairo Airport, thereby circumventing luggage-inspection procedures. El-Sweissi was also charged with laundering LE10 million, $16 million, 112,000 euros and 600,000 Swiss francs. Abdel-Wahed requested that Swiss authorities freeze any bank accounts belonging to El-Sweissi.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 20 - 26 November 2003 (Issue No. 665)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/665/eg1.htm