The Arabist Network

As maintaining a blog by oneself is difficult, some friends of mine and I are helping collectively contribute to a wide-ranging, comprehesive Middle East blog. It looks at politics, economics, and cultural events throughout the ME.

So while I am keeping this one for emergency postings and idea sorting, please visit The Arabist Network. Its good informed commentary on current events by people who watch things closely.

al-Arish/Sinai Torture

The story of the week is the detention and torture of somewhere between 2,000-3,000 people by Egyptian Security Services in the Sinai cities of al-Arish and al-Shaykh Zwaid.
The story was broken by three Egyptian human rights groups - The Egyptian Association against Torture, Hisham Mubarak Law Center, and El-Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence. These groups traveled to north Sinai governate and carried out research. The testimonies of victims is available online.
The story has been commented on by other domestic human rights groups such as the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR). Their statement was published here.
The international media has been slow to pick up this story. Naturally, after Amnesty International issued its statement, more attention has followed.
A straight-forward article was published in today's Financial Times. A slightly more nuanced piece is Paul Schemm's "Trouble in Sinai" in the bi-weekly Middle East International (3 December 2004).

As far as the Cairo press goes, al-`Arabi (the Nasserist Party paper) printed an investigative piece yesterday entitled, "City under Siege". The rest of the Egyptian press is remaining reserved until the security services and/or government comment.
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Unfortunately the state's use of collective punishment and torture is a frequent occurrence in the past 15 years. Whether it involves Islamists in Cairo's Imbaba section (1992), sectarian violence in Sohag governate (village of al-Kosh) in August 1998 and January 2000, or problems with drug runners in Nakhila (Assuit governate) in February/March 2004, the state's trend response is the mass arrest and torture of men, women , and children.

More will follow as this story develops.

National Council for Human Rights

As observers prepare to mark the first anniversary of Egypt's NCHR, I recall some council members challenging social criticism by arguing that "After a year, you will see" its impact.
Yet, I don't think we need to wait until January when they publish their first annual report to argue the organ is not active domestically. Thankfully, though, Botrous-Ghali used his UN connections to get Lousie Arbour (UN Higher Commisoner for HR) to come to Egypt next March when the first Arab States HR conference convenes. Unsurprisingly, the violations in Palestine and Iraq will dominate the proceedings.

A nice summary of the Egyptian council's first year was published in the Daily Star two weeks ago.

Succession Scenario in Egypt

Here is a commentary Lebanon's Daily Star published this morning regarding succession in Egypt.
Enjoy and criticisms are most welcome.
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