FBIS4-59260 "drnes092_c_94004"
FBIS-NES-94-092 Daily Report 11 May 1994
Egypt

Rights Group Says Thousands Detained

Rights Group Says Thousands Detained NC1105155394 Paris AFP in English 1527 GMT 11 May 94 NC1105155394 Paris AFP English BFN [Text] CAIRO, May 11 (AFP)--Egyptian authorities are holding between 20,000 and 30,000 political prisoners, most of them Moslem fundamentalists, the Egyptian Human Rights Organisation said Wednesday. Mahmud Qandil, a member of the organisation's board, said it was difficult to have a precise figure because "every day many detainees are arrested or released." The Interior Ministry could not give an exact number, he said, but added that "according to various estimates, the number of political prisoners was between 20,000 and 30,000." Qandil was presenting a report by a team from the organisation which visited Asyut, the southern region which has seen the worst violence between fundamentalists and the security forces. According to the report nearly two-thirds of the 114 people killed in the violence in the first four months of this year died in Asyut province. It blamed the outlawed al-Jama'ah al-Islamiyah (Islamic Group) for the murder of a German woman tourist and 29 policemen in the region this year and also said the al-Jama'ah was suspected of killing eight Coptic Christians, including five gunned down in a monastery in March. However, the organisation also accused the security forces of rounding up daily at least 250 people "indiscriminately" on suspicion of belonging to the al-Jama'ah. Witnesses quoted in the report said the "excessive or accidental" use of firearms by the police had led to the deaths of innocent people, such as the killing of four people on March 27 who had no connections with the outlawed fundamentalists. The government has launched frequent raids on hideouts used by the Islamic militants, whose two-year violent campaign has badly hit the tourist industry and cost almost 400 lives. The human rights organisation said the situation was likely to "explode" in the Suhaj and al-Minyah provinces to the north and south of Asyut. It urged the authorities to set up an independent legal commission to investigate killings by the security forces in their battle against the militants. The report said the violence would only stop when the government respected the law, ensured freedom of speech, changed the education system and stopped certain broadcasts likely to incite sectarian violence. On Tuesday a senior Egyptian opposition MP, Kamil Khalid, accused unnamed government officials of ordering the killing of a lawyer closely associated with the militants. Khalid said 'Abd-al-Harith Madani died after having tried to give him proposals for ending the conflict between the militants and the security forces. The Egyptian Bar Association earlier accused the security forces of torturing Madani to death in custody.