The United States will not seek to close a free trade agreement with Egypt this year because the "timing" is not right, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said before a trip to Middle East that includes a first stop in Egypt. It was widely believed Washington, which had planned to reach the agreement with the government of President Hosni Mubarak by year’s end, had switched course after what it saw as backsliding on Egyptian promises to reform its political system. There was widespread police-inspired violence during parliamentary elections late last year as the government openly sought to block opposition voters from reaching the polls. Nearly a dozen people were killed in the election violence. Rice, however, denied the trade pact was being withheld to penalize the Egyptian government.

Human rights activists are appealing to judicial authorities for a retrial of former opposition MP Ayman Nour due to “irregularities” in the initial investigation and trial. “A retrial should be carried out as quickly as possible,” said Bahieddine Hassan, head of the Cairo Institute of Human Rights Studies, “in order to address the serious legal breaches made in his first trial”. Nour, a leading opposition figure and head of the nascent Al-Ghad Party, was tried along with six others and convicted in December of having forged signatures on party documents. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

The proliferation of corruption and abuse of power dominated the intense debates at the People's Assembly this week. The fireworks began on Sunday, when the assembly met to discuss a preliminary report about the sinking of the Egyptian ferry Al-Salam 98 in the Red Sea two weeks ago. The report, prepared by the assembly's transport committee, called it the most tragic disaster to hit Egypt in its modern history. Committee chairman Hamdi El-Tahan said "carelessness, indifference and corruption [were] the main culprits."

The last group of Sudanese remaining in detention after a protest in a Cairo park was broken up in late December, were released on Saturday by the Egyptian authorities with a promise not to deport them. After extensive interviews by UNHCR in the detention facilities, the 156 Sudanese just released were determined not to be refugees in need of international protection. However, UNHCR requested that their cases be treated on humanitarian grounds and asked that they be released and not deported.

Mona Prince, an Egyptian woman writer, traveled to America full of hope and excitement. But what she found forced her to stand up for her rights and “resist the silences”. Before returning home she had a chance to hear the voices “against the war, against the erosion of what is great in the American system, against homeland security as a pretext for silencing ‘other’ voices.

In a climate where the United States is seen as an aggressor enforcing her way and will on the rest of the world, I found myself excited last summer to be heading to America after being chosen as part of the International Writing Program (IWP) in Iowa City. My excitement stemmed from the fact that I refused to believe that the US, with one of the best constitutions in the world, where individual rights are cherished and defended, has lost its soul. Rather I wanted to believe that its current policy is an aberration that came to pass as a result of fears arisen after 9/11, and not a true reflection of what America is all about.

I could not think of a better bridge to mend the widening gap between the image and true face of the Arab "other". As an Egyptian woman writer and academic, I wanted so much to show the true face of the other, transcending the stereotype that has been propagating in the US lately, wanted in my own small way to unveil that thick veil of misunderstanding and misinterpretation.

I was officially invited by the US Embassy in Cairo and funded by the US State Department to participate in the IWP, an invitation I wholeheartedly accepted. I was delighted to be part of a programme that fosters mutual understanding, cross-cultural communication, and tolerance; to share and exchange ideas with, and learn from, the other international writers as well as our American counterparts in an academic institution setting at the University of Iowa where the programme resides.

I arrived in Iowa City and my first two weeks in the program was all I would have hoped for. I felt energised, thinking of many things I want to do -material for my writings that would benefit from my stay in the US within the IWP. One of my major interests and ideas for a writing project was to visit an Indian reservation, get in contact with Native American traditional storytellers and learn about their spiritual practices. What unravelled after those two weeks was so much telling of the extent of the erosion of the American way as a result of the current administration's policy and how deep it has affected even the best of sanctuaries and defendants of individual rights, transforming academics and poets into big brothers driven by homeland security to charter the handling of their programmes.

I informed the programme director of my interest in visiting an Indian reservation and explained to him the reason behind my interest. His initial response was positive. So I took it upon myself to search for potential places I could visit and found one in a neighbouring state. I informed the director where I would be heading - a short visit to Minneapolis to visit an Indian reserve.

The e-mail response that I have received from the director was a total shocker in both language and content. I was threatened with homeland security law, informing me that I could not leave Iowa City and if I did I would be expelled from the programme and the United States. I was made to feel like a prisoner at best, a criminal at worst. At no point before or during my visit was I made aware of any rule in the IWP program restricting the movements of international visitors. Additionally, an immigration officer confirmed that there were no such rules. This incident and what followed thereafter made me think whether this response from the director was an isolated and petty exercise of power or was symptomatic of a bigger picture where homeland security and what it entails is starting to seep into the American system, reaching the gate of institutions that are traditionally viewed as strong voices for the preservation of the individual rights, voices against stereotyping and labelling of the "other". Are the fences of Guantanamo Bay slowly closing on academia, indeed on all of us? I abided by the director's decision and did not go to Minneapolis. Elation and excitement were quickly replaced by feelings of failure and depression. Guantanamo seemed just around the next corner.

After a few e-mail exchanges with the programme director, and a fruitless effort to get advice or help from the US embassy, I decided to break my silence and to speak out against the intimidation and abuse. I wrote several statements against the unprofessional and undiplomatic handling of my situation, while demanding at the same time an official apology, as well as to be provided with the governing laws by which writers should abide while in the programme.

I sent all the official correspondences between the programme director and myself to all parties concerned, as this matter impacted upon all the members of the IWP programme. Not only was I severely criticised for speaking up against this injustice, I was repeatedly intimidated, offended, and threatened by the grave consequences that would be directed at me if I do not put an end to my vocalism, which I took to mean, "Shut up and take the abuse."

The programme director, eventually, decided to terminate my participation in the programme because of the public statements I made, as clearly stated in his official letter. I was removed from all my scheduled public cultural activities and my funding was cut, leaving me with two days to evacuate Iowa City. The termination letter cited a US State Department decision that I have yet to receive.

After my deportation from Iowa City, I joined a group of African Americans who were evacuated from New Orleans after the Katrina hurricane. I felt for them and in some way felt part of them. What those evacuees told me in an interview is a counter- narrative that expressed their concerns about how America was, to their minds, disintegrating from within, which has resonated very well with my own experience in Iowa. A different form of "homeland security" had been imposed on them, and their human and constitutional rights had been violated.

During the current administration they had more than ever been marginalised, made to feel like they belong to a second-class America. They looked at the breach of the levy that flooded the city, their homes, as a symbol of the neglect of the current administration that is preoccupied with the "unjust" war in Iraq. They were forced at gunpoint - fully loaded M16s - to leave their houses while affluent white Americans were extended all necessary assistance and did not have to leave their homes. They told of being searched several times for weapons, as if they were terrorists in their own country. They were shipped in a plane, guarded by armed soldiers, without knowing their destination, to finally land as refugees in Omaha, Nebraska.

Before I flew back to Egypt, I was able to finally arrange a meeting with Native Americans. I met one of the five elders of the Dakota nation who still speaks the Dakota language and performs the spiritual ceremonies of his tribe. Contrary to what I have heard from the IWP administration, I was unreservedly welcomed by the spiritual elder and his family. I was offered a sweat lodge ceremony that is meant to purify the soul, mind and body, which was attended by other non-Native Americans. We were a mixed group of all colours and ethnic backgrounds.

The ceremony began with an ancient Indian saying "we are all relatives." Following the instructions of the spiritual elder, we all prayed in our different languages for the good health and happiness of all people. The ceremony ended again with the same wise man iterating that "we are all relatives." After the ceremony was finished, all of us had a collective dinner at the house of the spiritual interpreter. Before I left the reserve, I asked if I could have an Indian name. They agreed, and a special ceremony was held for me the following day. The name that was given to me from the spiritual world was "Good Eagle Woman."

I flew back home empowered by the immense knowledge and experience I gained in the US. In spite of having the misfortune of leaving the programme earlier than planned, and being subjected to such unjust and unfortunate treatment from the IWP director, I remain enriched by the whole journey, by finding it in myself to stand up for my rights, to refuse to be intimidated into silence. When I was about to leave the US, I witnessed the emergence of voices that started to speak out against the war, against the erosion of what is great in the American system, against homeland security as a pretext for silencing "other" voices. I will always remember the people that came to my defence; the refugees in Nebraska that hosted me when I was deported from Iowa City, and my spiritual enriching encounter. As my journey came to a close, I came out of it flying like an eagle having broken free, resisted being bullied into submission, even under the pretext of "homeland security". I can't think of my journey to the US without thinking about the "Good Eagle Woman" as a symbol for resisting silence.

* This article was first published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM. It is reproduced here with permission of the author. Please send comments to

Civil society groups and members of the Sudanese community in Egypt held a ceremony on Tuesday commemorating refugees and asylum seekers killed in clashes with local police, following a sit-in protest in December 2005. In Muslim countries such as Egypt, wakes are traditionally held 40 days after a death has occurred. Late last year, Sudanese protesters staged a three-month-long sit-in demonstration in a public park in central Cairo. On the night of 29 December, however, Egyptian police staged a massive security operation to evacuate the site of the protest.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has unveiled plans to provide 500 university scholarships for students from other African nations over the next ten years. Foreign minister Ahmed Abul Gheit made the announcement on Mubarak's behalf at last week's African Union (AU) summit in Sudan. "The development of African societies should be based on an advanced and strong infrastructure of education, culture and scientific research systems in order to bridge the digital and scientific gaps [that are] steadily increasing between developing and developed countries," said the statement.

Amera, the Africa and Middle East Refugees Assistance, has issued a statement of concern over the plight of Sudanese refugees in Egypt. "AMERA believes that the Four Freedoms Agreement (Agreement) allows any Sudanese citizen to reside in Egypt without a residence permit. Accordingly, we are concerned at the proposed deportation of a reported 654 individuals to Sudan as we do not consider this to be consistent with the terms of the Agreement. The Agreement came into force following ratification and then publication in the Official Gazette in September 2004. Accordingly, all Sudanese asylum-seekers, refugees, and migrants in Egypt are de jure legal residents in the country."

This week the issue of a potential US- Egyptian free trade agreement (FTA) emerged back in the spotlight. Reports coming from Washington suggest that the Bush administration has once again put on hold Egypt’s long aspired to dreams of a bilateral FTA. The reasons offered by the US administration this time, as relayed through trade diplomats and other officials, were not typical complaints over lax governmental efforts to pursue substantial economic reforms, as required by the US administration. Egypt’s slow pace of political reform — as assessed by Washington — is the sticking point now.

The Egyptian government has said that it will not deport hundreds of Sudanese detainees who lack status as refugees or asylum seekers. The detainees were arrested after a three-month sit-in protest in front of UN offices in Cairo resulted in a violent clash with Egyptian police on December 30, resulting in 27 deaths. The Sudanese protesters sought resettlement in a third country. The Ministry of Foreign Affair has said that following extensive interviews with the detainees by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, none will be deported to Sudan, and that Egypt will take steps to grant legal status to those who do not qualify for international protection. Egypt had earlier announced plans to deport 654 Sudanese refugees, but this was met with pressure from the international community, reports The Jurist.

A total of 233 people, including 176 Sudanese women and children and 57 Darfurians have been released from three prisons in Cairo. The Sudanese were part of a group of more than 2,000 people who were removed from a Cairo square near UNHCR's office on 30 December following a three-month demonstration.

This is terrible. Why would the world turn its back on such atrocities. Surely God will not let the culprits get away with it. Shame on the Egyptian government and the UNHCR for failing to take action when it was necessary.

The Egyptian government granted UN refugee agency UNHCR an unspecified amount of time to continue interviewing hundreds of Sudanese. They are still being held in detention centres after their involvement last month in a violent confrontation with police. "We have been given more time," said Astrid van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman for the UNHCR office in the capital, Cairo. "The government has not yet specified how long."

Reforms permitting optional early retirement for women from the semi-private industrial sector will result in increased marginalisation of female workers, according to women’s groups. Under a reform package which went into effect on 15 January, women will have the option to retire at age 45 if they have worked for the same company for at least 19 years. Previously, the retirement age for women was set at 50, the same as for men.

Egypt has given the UN refugee body another week to assess the status of about 650 Sudanese refugees whom police violently evicted from a city park last month, a UNHCR spokesperson said Sunday. Egypt had planned to deport 654 Sudanese but on Wednesday gave the UNHCR 72 hours to interview the refugees in police detention camps. Astrid van Genderen Stort told The Associated Press on Sunday that the UNHCR had spoken to everyone but needed more time. She said the government had given another week to complete the assessment.

Several Egyptian journalists have launched a new Internet radio station. According to Al-Jazeera.net, the radio station is believed to be Egypt's first to broadcast primarily news.

Days before 2005 closed, Egypt and Turkey finally signed a free trade agreement (FTA) the negotiations of which began in 1997. The FTA - concluded after six rounds of bilateral negotiations - follows Egypt's partnership agreement with Europe that allows for the phased liberalisation of bilateral trade in agriculture, industrial products and services. "The agreement is the outcome of elaborate work and fruitful negotiations," Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid said at a press conference held with his Turkish counterpart. "It lays the foundation of a new era of economic, political and social cooperation between the two countries," Rachid added.

“Screams never stopped; the most acute were children’s. My eyes couldn’t follow where or where to look. It was cold. It was dark. Soldiers were brutal. They were just beating anyone anywhere, stepping over anyone and anything.” This quote is from an anonymous eyewitness account (reproduced below) of events that took place last Friday in Cairo, when Egyptian security police brutally broke up a three-month sit-in protest being held by Sudanese refugees in Cairo. News reports indicate that the number of people killed is approaching 30. As detailed in an October 2005 Pambazuka News article (http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=29957) the refugees were protesting against their appalling conditions and the constant abuse of their rights and had camped out near the Cairo office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), demanding protection from forced repatriation and protection of vulnerable groups. At that stage one of the protestors vowed: “We will wait here, we will die here. We have no other place to go.”

At 10:00 pm, Thursday, December 29th I received an SMS saying the Mohandesin area was turning into a military camp and that Sudanese refugees who had been sitting in for 3 months may be disbursed by force.

I arrived at 11:00 pm to find state security trucks and plain clothes police closing the roads of Batal Ahmed Abdel Aziz, Ahmed Orabi, and Gameet el Dewal streets.

Public white busses lined up all the way from Donuts House till Mustafa Mahmud square with a few state security soldiers sitting inside them. I was able to take down some of the bus numbers as I walked - 4129, 3696, 4107, 4136, 4335, 3416, 3534, and 3416.

In a few minutes all streets leading to Mustafa Mahmud were totally blocked. Police forces started cornering and then disbursing civilian pedestrians.

At 1:00 am, and it was really cold, security forces started flushing the refugees with three water cannons from three different sides. The first spray lasted for almost 6 minutes and was rather high. We could see the water reaching as high as the 4th balcony of the near-by building. Probably it aimed at destroying the top of their shelters.

Refugees met the water floods with cheer and dance. This was a reaction no one at the other side could understand and it rather provoked the ‘they deserve whatever happens to them - they are crazy’ type of thinking.

The few civilians who gathered to observe the scene from afar were mostly quite amused. I painfully heard comments such as “let them take a shower to become clean”, “Egypt has been more than patient with them”, “security forces should’ve got rid of them from day one”, “They (Sudanese) are disgusting”. Laughs interrupted such comments as the refugees were sprayed with water. Few stood silent with eyes wide open at the scene, while only one objected and explained that Sudanese had demands and rights to be met by UNHCR.

A police officer told a friend as he smiled that they badly needed a bath after three months. “We have orders to finish this tonight and we will,” he added.

We resorted to the 2nd floor of a café just across the park to be able to observe, take pictures, and make phone calls. Choosing the time to attack the refugees was more than well planned. Midnight Thursday in the New Year’s weekend. All the media I contacted were out of town for vacation. A handful of political activists arrived but were totally helpless. A couple of human rights activists were with us on the phone all night.

Almost an hour later another 5 minutes of continuous water showered the refugees. This time the water was low, strong and direct, straight at the people.

Water stopped and a negotiation round started with a delegated refugee committee, an Egyptian official, and a UNHCR official. The Egyptian said: “UNHCR will do nothing for you. We are authorized by the highest power in the state to disburse this sit in today.” The reply of the refugees was that: “We will die on the turf.”

I was able to step to the second security circle surrounding them. A public bus waiting in the area had five refugees at the back seat while a sixth one was being brutally beaten by 5 state security soldiers. From my position next to the bus I could see and hear him screaming as they beat him on his head and back with hands and batons, kicked him, and twisted his arm and wrist behind his back as his screams went louder and louder.

An officer standing next to us explained that he was trying to break the window and escape because he was drunk. At this point a man from the back seat opened the window and holding a baby girl of a few months old, cried: “We are not drunk, I am not drunk, he is not drunk, and this baby is not drunk. Her mother died here in this park.” They beat him to silence as well and continued with the sixth guy. A young man took a video of the scene on his cell phone and later Bluetoothed it to me.

Reporters, observers and the few activists who were there started to leave the scene as time passed with no further developments. It was very cold and my hands and nose were freezing. It was unimaginable to imagine wet people!

At around 4 am we managed to get to the building of Al Watany Bank of Egypt and only then we had a full clear view of the situation from high. In Mustafa Mahmud square, I could count 60 state security wagons, 6 ambulances, 10 armored cars and uncountable busses.

At 4:45 am the troops were lining up properly and the first circle of formations moved closer to surround the refugees. Their warm up exercise echoed in the empty city as they said: “Ho- ho- ho- masr!” and singing “Ya ahla esm fel wegood yaa masr” meaning “To Egypt, who has the most beautiful name ever, whose name was created to be eternal, for Egypt we live…and for Egypt we die.”

Refugees lined up and started warming up too but saying “Allah Akbar”, “La ilaha ella Allah” and “Hasbona allah wa neama al wakil”, meaning “There is no god but Allah and only him we delegate to handle our injustice.” The Christians chanted Halleluiah. The few civilian audience started cheering for the Egyptian army.

At 5 am sharp the 3 water cannons flushed them again and right beside the water line security forces timely attacked the refugee campus with batons and shields. After 1 minute the water stopped. Soldiers destroyed the rest of their makeshift homes and pulled up their front line of luggage, throwing it away as other soldiers made their way in.

Refugees fought back with wood sticks, plastic empty water jars and gallons, and their hands.

The left side (the side of Radwan Ogeil store) fought back very bravely and was able to force soldiers to retreat out for three times, but on the other two sides soldiers were breaking in. Sounds of sharp metal hits were heard loudly. I guess these were the wooden sticks on the metal shields. Also sounds of screams, mainly women and children, echoed.

After 10 minutes, a whistle was heard and all forces pulled out of the garden. Lines were reorganized. Extra troops were added to the Al Ogeil store side and in a couple of minutes a signal was given and they lashed back in.

This time was fierce. The street lights were cut off. Screams never stopped; the most acute were children’s. My eyes couldn’t follow where or where to look. It was cold. It was dark. I am sure the garden was muddy after all this water. Soldiers were brutal. They were just beating anyone anywhere, stepping over anyone and anything.

Every 2 or 3 seconds a refugee would be dragged out of the horror circle, beaten all the way out. Another 3-4 soldiers would take grip of the refugee so the first soldier could go back to hunt another one. The soldiers receiving the refugee beat him more with batons on his back, bringing him down to his knee, slapping the back of his head, dragging him to a bus where other soldiers took care of the next stage. All the way through, obscenities could be heard.

This happened to men and women equally. Sometimes when the victim was a woman I saw a child trying to hang to her leg as the soldiers dragged the mother.

I saw four refugees carried by soldiers from their arms and legs, often dropping midway totally motionless and I could swear they were dead.

The most horrible was the EGYPTIANS! Civilians who cheered as if they were cheering for the ‘army forces’ freeing Egypt! As forces advanced in battle; the audience cheered, whistled and clapped. They were amused!

Resistance was weakening on Al Ogeil side and soldiers were breaking fully in when my host, standing beside me in the balcony said: “We are entering from the left side.” I looked back at him in shock. This is not “we”. He said: “I mean the Egyptians.” These are not Egyptians. He said “whatever.”

I started shaking.

As the refugees were dragged out in bigger numbers they forced them to sit on the ground in groups, casually beating them till soldiers would come pick them up and put them in busses.

A friend later told me he saw an officer spitting on a bus as it moved away with refugees!

Resistance fully collapsed. As fewer refugees were left inside the garden facing at least 2500 soldiers, the screams became sharper, louder and desperate.

Everything was over at 5:30 am sharp.

When I took control over my body, I picked up my car and followed 6 of the white public transportation busses carrying almost fainting refugees and state security forces to Dahshur State Security Camp in Fayoum road. They arrived there at exactly 7:15 am. The camp is almost 40 kms outside Cairo. Distance could be more or less, I was so tired and so not well. The wagon numbers were 3686, 4107, 6132, 4335, and 3696. I missed the numbers of the first bus.

Returning back to Cairo I went directly to the battlefield. Let the pictures speak.

So far 20 people died. There is news that those who were taken to the state security camp are all released. And some are released from Turah. No news yet from Dahshur.

Individuals, groups, lawyers, and associations are protesting in the same place tomorrow Saturday 12 noon at both the brutality of the Egyptian government and the disgraceful role of UNHCR.

We shall not close the file of the massacre committed by the Egyptian regime against the Sudanese refugees in Egypt. Send letters of protest and condemnation to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ([email protected]) and the Egyptian embassy in your country.

Write to UN Secretary General demanding an international investigation.

* Please send comments to

For a full list of those to be deported see the link below.

Egypt will deport 654 Sudanese refugees who were violently evicted from a protest camp in a Cairo park last week (December 31), a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Tuesday (January 3). They will be taken to Sudan by ship on Thursday (January 5) because "they were either found to be illegal immigrants or refugees who had violated security conditions," spokeswoman Fatma el-Zahraa Etman told The Associated Press.

Arab and Middle East civil society groups are accusing a United Nations agency of collaborating with Egyptian police in action which caused the deaths of at least 25 Sudanese refugees in a downtown Cairo park on Friday (December 31). The refugees, including women and children, have been staging a public sit-in for the past three months protesting their treatment by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and were demanding relocation to a third country. But Friday evening, a police force of nearly 4,000 officers cordoned off the Sudanese encampment, fired water cannons at them and beat them indiscriminately. Hundreds were dragged into buses and transferred to unknown destinations.