Headlines, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa, North America

POLITICS-US: NGOs Call Mubarak to Account for Abuses

Eli Clifton

WASHINGTON, Aug 17 2009 (IPS) - Egyptian President Mohammad Hosni Mubarak is visiting Washington this week and will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Jewish American groups.

But Egyptian Americans are using Mubarak’s visit as an occasion to call attention to Mubarak’s human rights abuses and to pressure the Obama administration to keep its commitment to supporting human rights and democracy throughout the world.

On Monday, a coalition of Egyptian American groups, including the Coptic Assembly of America, Voices for Democratic Egypt, the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies and the International Qur’anic Center, issued statements regarding the Egyptian president’s abuses of power and failure to support democracy and human rights in Egypt.

While offering harsh criticism of Mubarak’s actions as president the group – known as the February 28 Coalition – thanked Obama for the commitments he gave in his Cairo speech but urged him to match his words with action and leadership.

”Next year Egypt is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections, followed in 2011 by a presidential election,” said the letter to Obama by the coalition. ”With two major democratic tests looming on the horizon, we write to you to request your support in asking the Egyptian government to take two immediate and urgent actions, in addition to ending the emergency law and releasing political prisoners.”

The group would like to see immediate presidential and parliamentary elections—to be held under international and independent Egyptian supervision – and an amendment of Article 76 of the Constitution. Article 76 puts an onerous list of requirements on any potential presidential candidate making it extremely difficult for anyone to challenge the power of Mubarak or his son – and rumored successor – Gamal Mubarak.

On religious freedoms, the group calls for a crackdown on sectarian violence and, ”the equal protection of the law for all religious minorities, ratifying the uniform construction of houses of worship law that has been on the books for some time and enacting a quota for Copts that would ensure that no less than 10 percent of Copts are represented in all elected governing bodies.”

”Over the past 28 years of Mubarak rule Egypt has slipped down on every development indicator,” said Egyptian human rights and democracy activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim at the press conference. ”President Obama had said during his campaign and inauguration that he will uphold human rights. This was all welcomed talk for those who supported him but now they’re waiting for him to walk the walk.”

Critics of Mubarak’s regime were bolstered by Obama’s Jun. 4 speech in Cairo, in which he stated the United States’ commitment to a foreign policy which supports democracy and human rights.

”I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn’t steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose,” he told an enthusiastic crowd at Cairo University. ”Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.”

Over the past several years Egypt – under Mubarak’s presidency – has experienced setbacks in human rights and has been under a state of emergency since the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat.

The state of emergency suspends constitutional rights and has led to a deterioration of free speech protections and an increase in reported cases of torture by police officers.

Mubarak, who has served as president since 1981, has continued to renew Egypt’s ”state of emergency” despite campaign pledges to the contrary.

”Mubarak operates like a monarch with an ability to act on whims and change the constitution when he wants,” Amnesty International’s advocacy director for the Middle East Zahir Janmohamed told IPS. ”Historically the U.S. looks away when he commits these abuses. Obama’s been tougher on Israel and the Palestinians (than past U.S. administrations) and we’d hope he’d be tougher on Egypt as well.”

The Obama administration faces the difficult task of living up to its commitment to human rights and democracy, while at the same time pursuing a peace plan between the Israelis and Palestinians which would almost certainly require Egypt’s approval and assistance.

As one of Washington’s most important strategic allies in the Middle East the Obama administration will face the tough choice of choosing between appeasing its strategic ally for political expediency or emphasising the principles which Obama outlined in his Cairo speech earlier this year.