WASHINGTON, January 3, 2012 (AFP)
WASHINGTON, January 3, 2012 (AFP)
The United States said Tuesday it was “unacceptable” for Egyptian authorities to maintain a crackdown on non-government organizations (NGOs), including US election monitoring groups.
US State Department said Washington is also concerned that some of the most “strident” statements in the row are being made by “holdovers” from the former government of toppled president Hosni Mubarak.
“We had been assured by leaders in the Egyptian government that this issue would be resolved, that harassment end, that NGOs would be allowed to go back to business as usual and that their property would be returned,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
“It is frankly unacceptable to us that that situation has not been returned to normal,” she told reporters.
Prosecutors backed by police special forces stormed 17 offices of local and international NGOs on Thursday, confiscating computers and documents as part of a probe into allegations of illegal funding from abroad.
The targeted US groups were the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House.
The raids fell under a wider campaign by Egypt’s military rulers to silence dissent after months of criticism of its human rights record, according to analysts.
Since a popular uprising ousted Mubarak in February, the military — which enjoys close ties with Washington and receives more than $1 billion in annual aid — has repeatedly accused foreigners of stoking unrest and encouraging activists to oppose its rule.
