SATURDAY, MARCH 02, 2002
UN human rights chief urges Egypt to scrap emergency laws
AP
CAIRO, Egypt: The UN human rights chief urged Egypt to scrap its 21-year-old emergency laws and accommodate outlawed Islamic groups like the Muslim Brotherhood to help strengthen civil society and public freedoms.
Mary Robinson said she was encouraged by the openness of government officials here to address human rights issues, noting the invitation Egypt offered to a special UN envoy on torture.
Egypt's emergency laws were declared after Muslim militants assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981. They allow the trial of civilians before military and state security courts and give security forces sweeping powers to curb political and civil rights.
While saying terrorism must be fought, Robinson said "it is not helpful for a country to have the constant extension of emergency legislation and ... a two-track system of courts, detention powers and a whole erosion of human rights values in the context of emergency courts."
Robinson said she called for emergency laws to be scrapped by 2003. "It is very important for a moderate Egypt," she told reporters. Egypt should let Islamic groups like the Muslim Brotherhood have a bigger say in public life and provide "more space for Islamic activity," she said.
The Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group with 17 independent lawmakers in the 454-seat Parliament, was banned in 1954. The government has arrested hundreds of Brotherhood supporters since the mid-1990s, accusing the group of advocating violence so to turn Egypt into an Islamic state. Brotherhood members say they have renounced violence.
Robinson also condemned Israeli incursions into Palestinian refugee camps in Nablus and Jenin, leaving 18 Palestinians and two Israelis dead in two days of fighting. "I join UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in calling for the immediate withdrawal of the (Israeli Defense Forces) from the refugee camps, for an end to the attacks in densely populated areas and for ensuring full respect for the immunity of humanitarian facilities," she said in a statement.
During her two-day visit to Egypt, Robinson met with government ministers and Muslim and Coptic leaders. From Cairo, she travels to Bahrain, Beirut, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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