Sawaseya Deplores 25 Years of Restricted Freedoms

Sawaseya Center for Human Rights released a statement on September 5, 2006 to mark the 25th anniversary of September 1981 detentions, saying that the Egyptian people have gone through freedom restricting measures ever since this detention. The statement read as follows:
Today Tuesday September 5, 2006 marks the twenty fifth anniversaries of the detention decisions issued by late President Sadat in September 1981. The campaign reached out to about 1600 persons of all political and intellectual spectrums who opposed Sadat’s autocracy mainly in terms of domestic and foreign policies, a measure which made Egypt an object of criticism worldwide for its arbitrary measures. The entire political, intellectual and social forces in Egypt then were locked in an unstopping dispute with the political despotism. This was confronted with governmental heavy handed, rash campaign of detention which reached out to university professors, press symbols, party chairmen, men or religion and even feminist leaderships and former ministers. Although twenty five years has passed, the incumbent regime still persists with its dictatorial policy monopolizing decision making and restricting freedoms. Such measures earned the regime a public discontent which showed clearly in the outrageous demonstrations not only among the judges and journalists and engineers but also among university professors, lawyers and doctors not to mention students and workers. A good example of this was the demonstrations participated by all brackets of society in May of this year in solidarity with the judges in their quest of judicial reform. The center cautions that absence of freedom and the continuation of the state of emergency have not brought in stability or security either for the rulers or the ruled. Rather, it has led to further deterioration in political and economic and social aspects. A good example of this bad state of affairs is the monopoly of power and wealth, as well as embezzlement of the public funds with laws protecting these corrupt elite, which poses a threat to the security of Egyptian people. Paradoxically, the number of security forces has tripled that of the army now that the government has opted for peace in handling foreign disputes while it has rejected to use the same peaceful means with the political opposition. In other words, the government uses a repressive policy when it comes to the ruler- ruled relationships while it becomes soft when it comes to relationships with international quarters. While the centre appreciates reform campaign launched by the civil society movements, it reiterates its appeal to the government to steer away from any constitutional or legal amendments until it floats such amendments to public referendum. The center also calls on the political and intellectual trends within the civil society to get together to promote for a package of values and principles among citizens such as political participation, public scrutiny and accountability which helps confront monopoly of decision making and widens the margin of freedoms, and ensures justice and equity among all political currents, thus striking a balance between the majority and minority in a way that ensures and consolidates equity among citizens.