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ANI |
Updated: December 21, 2020 11:54 AM IS
By John Solomou
Nicosia [Cyprus], December 21 (ANI): Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the ruler of the most populous Arab country, in his seven-year iron rule has been violating almost all human rights in the relevant Universal Declaration, but So far the United States and the European Union have treated her with outrageous kindness.
According to the US State Department report on Human Rights Conditions in Egypt in 2019, there were illegal or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings by the government or its agents; enforced disappearance; torture; Arbitrary detention; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, political prisoners, and arbitrary or illegal interference with privacy.
The report also says that during 2019 in Egypt there were the worst forms of restrictions on freedom of expression, the press and the internet, including arrests or prosecutions against journalists, censorship, site blocking, substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of freedom. association. , as excessively restrictive laws governing civil society organizations; restrictions on political participation; violence involving religious minorities; violence directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people; arbitrary arrests and prosecutions of LGBTI persons; and forced or compulsory child labor.
One month after the Egyptian army overthrew Egypt’s first democratically elected civilian president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, on August 14, 2013 troops moved to two pro-Morsi camps where thousands of Islamists had been protesting against the coup and killed more than 817 people. . Human Rights Watch described the event as “one of the largest single-day killings of protesters in recent history.” Subsequently, the Muslim Brotherhood was declared illegal and thousands of Islamists were imprisoned, while Morsi died in 2019 while his trial was unfolding.
Currently, there are more than 60,000 political prisoners, Islamists, people who oppose the government for various reasons, journalists, lawyers, academics.
The latest move by the Sisi government was to arrest three officials from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIRP) last month, because they gave diplomats from the European Union, at their request, a briefing on the situation of rights humans in Egypt, something that would be routine in most countries. The three members of the EIPR were released after international pressure from Western politicians, diplomats and even celebrities such as Scarlett Johanson and Emma Thompson.
Antony Blinken, who is President-elect Joe Biden’s candidate for Secretary of State, indicated that the incoming administration would take a tougher position on the issue of human rights violations in Egypt. Reacting to the news of the arrests, Blinken, a former board member of the United States First Human Rights Advocacy Group, tweeted: “Meeting with foreign diplomats is not a crime. Nor is it peacefully defending human rights.” . On another occasion, Blinken said that a Biden administration would take a stronger stand against human rights abuses.
Last week, the European Parliament passed a resolution strongly condemning “the latest state crackdown on peaceful protests against the government, as well as ongoing restrictions on fundamental rights in the country. In recent weeks, the Egyptian authorities they have arbitrarily arrested more than 4,300 people who have protested against systemic corruption, repression and austerity measures, and have demanded the resignation of the Egyptian president. “
Enraging activists who had warned French President Emmanuel Macron not to honor the Egyptian president during his recent controversial visit to Paris, Macron decorated Sisi with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor and refused to condition trade relations between France and Egypt to those of Sisi. Respect for human rights.
US President Donald Trump, who never cared much for human rights, has described Sisi as “a fantastic guy” and “my favorite dictator.” For Trump and successive American administrations, Egypt is a very important country to American interests for many reasons. To name just a few, Egypt controls the strategic Suez Canal, has a peace treaty with Israel, and cooperates with the Jewish state against militants and instability in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. It should be noted that for fiscal year 2021, the president is requesting about $ 1.4 billion in assistance to Egypt, almost all for purchases of military equipment.
In stark contrast to Trump, Biden said “there will be no more blank checks for Trump’s favorite dictator.” Biden vowed to put democracy back on the agenda and vowed to host a gathering of the world’s democracies to demonstrate his commitment to democratic values around the world.
What remains to be seen is whether the United States and the European Union, in addition to Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi’s verbal convictions for his human rights abuses, will be prepared to stop selling arms to Egypt and provide financial aid, and proceed. to impose targeted sanctions for human rights violations committed by his government.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, says: “Western governments share the blame for this unfortunate situation by supporting the Sisi government politically and financially with little effort to keep it up to the most basic human rights standards. For example, when So- General Sisi oversaw the killing of at least 817 protesters in Rabaa Square over the course of twelve hours in 2013, most governments made no serious effort to press for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. Similarly, governments remained largely silent after the brutal crackdown on mass protests by the Sisi government in September 2019. Those precedents of impunity have only encouraged continued abuses by the Sisi government … It is time to a new approach “. (AND ME)
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