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.