WASHINGTON, February 5, 2012 (AFP)
WASHINGTON, February 5, 2012 (AFP)
A US pro-democracy group condemned the Egyptian military on Sunday for waging a “war on civil society” after the regime said it would put on trial dozens of activists, including 19 Americans.
Egypt is to try 44 people over the alleged illegal funding of aid groups, a judicial source said earlier on Sunday, a day after Washington vowed to review its vital aid to Cairo if it continued with the crackdown.
Arrests would further strain US-Egypt ties after the offices of several NGOs, including US organizations International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, were raided in December.
“I think the Egyptian military’s handling of this issue has been a disaster,” said Charles Dunne, director for Middle East and North Africa programs for Freedom House.
“This represents another escalation by the Egyptian government in its war on civil society — and it’s not just the US organizations, it’s the Egyptian organizations,” he told AFP.
“I find it astounding that they would do this while you still have a delegation of Egyptian general officers here in the United States to talk to the Congress and the administration about continued US military funding.”
Dunne noted that annual US military aid to Egypt totals some 1.3 billion dollars a year.
Meanwhile, his and other NGOs were actively seeking news of what has happened to their staff members, and whether they were among those detained.
“We’re reading the same media reports,” said Lisa Gates, spokeswoman for the International Republican Institute. “We’re still trying to find out something definitive,” she told AFP.
The offices of Freedom House and the International Republican Institute, were among 17 local and international NGOs raided in December by Egyptian authorities as part of a probe into alleged illegal funding.
Egypt then barred in January some US members of the NGOs from leaving the country and American officials said “a handful” subsequently took refuge inside the US embassy fearing arrest.
Among those barred from leaving the country is the Egypt director of IRI, Sam LaHood, the son of US Secretary for Transportation Ray LaHood.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Washington’s aid to Egypt would be reviewed, highlighting the continued deadlock over Cairo’s crackdown.
Senior Egyptian military officers visited the United States last week in a bid to defuse the row.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta telephoned Egypt’s military ruler, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, and asked him to lift the travel ban on the American citizens.
An Egyptian judicial source said earlier that 44 people, including 19 Americans, had been referred to the Cairo criminal court, accused of “setting up branches of international organizations in Egypt without a license from the Egyptian government” and of “receiving illegal foreign funding.”
Analysts have said the crackdown is part of a wider campaign by Egypt’s military rulers to silence dissent after months of criticism of its human rights record.
