SUEZ/CAIRO: Egypt cannot move forward until victims of human rights violations, before and after the January 25 revolution, receive justice, the secretary general of Amnesty International said Saturday.
Salil Shetty told reporters in Cairo that it will be “very difficult to move forward” if Egyptian victims of human rights violations do not feel that “accountability and compensation” have been adequately applied.
Families of martyrs have delivered a “persistent message” that they feel the country’s security and police officials responsible for human rights violations are moving around “scot-free,” Shetty said, warning that this creates “a lack of confidence in the system.”
In addition to a lack of accountability, many victims seriously injured during the clampdown by the country’s security services during the revolution “are not receiving compensation or medical relief.”
An official fact finding mission said 846 were killed and more than 6,000 injured during the protests that began Jan. 25 and culminated when president Hosni Mubarak was ousted on Feb. 11. According to a statement released by Amnesty, “Government officials have said they are looking at how to help injured protestors, but to Amnesty International’s knowledge, no action has yet been taken.”
Meeting with victims and their families in the city of Suez Friday, Shetty and a delegation from Amnesty listened firsthand to the hardships faced by Egyptians seeking justice and financial compensation for their injuries.
One Suez resident, who identified herself as Rabab, explained to Daily News Egypt that “the government is still asleep” and is doing nothing to support victims.
Since the revolution, she has been volunteering to assist 120 people in receiving government support, but has had to turn to individual donors to help the victims of Suez.
One victim, Adil El Said, told DNE that “there is no medical treatment at all, and the government hasn’t said a thing to [him].”
“I was hit by a shotgun’s buckshot in my left eye, and now I am blind,” he said.
“Most of the victims in Suez suffer from gunshot wounds,” Rabab explained, highlighting the sad story of “Ghareeb,” who attended the Friday meeting with Amnesty with the help of his young wife and family members, after losing both of his eyes to buckshot.
According to a report released by Amnesty International last month, and whose findings were presented to the Suez residents during the meeting, “one of the most common injuries during protests was buckshot wounds to the eyes, often leading to permanent loss of vision.”
Ashram Abbas, another resident of Suez, expressed to DNE his desire for justice, complaining that five months after the revolution, “the people responsible” for the atrocities “are still out there.”
Speaking to victims and their families in Suez, the Amnesty International secretary general said that he received assurances during a meeting Friday morning with Minister of Interior Mansour El-Essawy that police officers and security officials responsible for human rights violations will be brought to justice. However, according to Shetty, there is “still a gap” between the “minister’s intention” and the “reality on the ground.”
While Shetty said he felt Essawy was sincere in wanting to bring accountability and justice, the people of Suez and Egypt should continue to pressure the government “until justice is achieved.”
Even with the best intentions, Shetty explained, changing the behaviors of institutions is difficult, and Amnesty will continue to “stand behind [the victims] in their struggle for justice and compensation.”
Suez resident Abbas, however, while welcoming Amnesty’s efforts, complained that he “hear(s) talk like this every day, and it is nothing new.”
“We have no results, we don’t know what to do,” he added.
Ensuring Fair Elections and Building Trust
The secretary general also called on Egyptian authorities to immediately scrap the country’s “old system of repression” in order to ensure for “proper elections” in September.
According to Shetty, the Egyptian government and military authorities need to “earn the trust” of the Egyptian people, and that “old habits, old institutions, [and] old actors” brew “suspicion and distrust.”
Shetty reiterated Amnesty’s calls to end the country’s emergency law, and any law “that hinders full participation in the electoral process.”
He also blasted the country’s continued reliance on military tribunals for civilians, calling it a “paradox” that the “one person with a military background,” Hosni Mubarak, will be tried in a civilian court, while those with civilian backgrounds are being tried in military courts.
More than 7,000 civilians have been tried in military courts since February, according to rights groups’ findings.
“This doesn’t create any sense of confidence,” Shetty said, recommending instead that Egypt turn towards its civilian judicial system, calling it capable of “maintaining public order.”
“This is an incredible moment of opportunity for the Egyptian authorities to show they have made a clean break with past abuses.”
