Mixing with Saudis SAUDI Arabian officials are making it clear to their Egyptian counterparts that something has to be done to stop the increase in mixed Saudi-Egyptian marriages. The issue was discussed Tuesday during a regular coordination meeting between Foreign Ministry officials on both sides. The meeting reviewed a wide range of bilateral issues including consular-related affairs such as entry visas for Egyptian pilgrims and working conditions and labour in Saudi Arabia. According to officials on both sides, the Saudi delegation expressed concern over the registration of Egyptian-Saudi marriages, mostly between Egyptian women and Saudi men, by Egyptian lawyers in Egyptian courts without securing the approval of Saudi authorities as stipulated by Saudi civil law. The marriages between Egyptian women, usually young and economically disadvantaged, and Saudi men, usually older and having Saudi spouses, have been a growing social concern in Egypt, especially in view of the dramatic socio-economic consequences that result from the abrupt annulment of the marriage by the husband and the failure to secure for the divorced young mother her due alimony because of a lack of a harmonised civil arrangement between the Egyptian and Saudi sides. Egyptian authorities do not have exact figures but civil rights groups have warned that such marriages have been on the increase since it offers low-income women economic advantages that are otherwise impossible to attain. Back from Syria A GROUP of Egyptian workers who were arrested by Syrian authorities last week after illegally entering Syrian territory in search of job opportunities returned safely to Egypt following the intervention of Egyptian authorities. The 83 workers who were misled by an Egyptian and a Jordanian recruitment office, had entered Syria, unknowingly using forged work contracts they obtained from the recruitment offices. Investigations are underway with the concerned offices. Peace for Sudan EGYPT and the Arab League have voiced strong support for the efforts undertaken by the Sudanese government to find a peaceful and negotiated end to the crisis in Darfur. During talks he held in Cairo with Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, Sudanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ali Al-Kerti received the support of both officials for Khartoum's agreement to deploy a hybrid force in Darfur to secure peace and stability in the Western Sudanese province wrecked by fighting for the past four years. Abul-Gheit and Moussa insisted that the deployment of the forces under the mandate of the UN would not in and of itself resolve the problems of Darfur. A political settlement between Khartoum and rebel forces in Darfur is vital if peace was to be attained and maintained. In Paris on 25 June for an international conference on Darfur -- to which Sudan is not invited by the French host -- the delegations of Egypt and the Arab League would urge the participating international and regional players to stop the one-sided pressure that they have been exercising on the Sudanese government and prompt the rebel forces to meet, in good faith, amongst themselves first, then with the Khartoum regime, to reach a political settlement that would accommodate the demands of the various parties for sharing power and wealth as well as security arrangements. "The time has come to send a strong message to the rebel forces [in Darfur] to indicate that the patience of the international community is wearing thin over their deliberate procrastination to reach a settlement," Abul-Gheit said in a press statement issued after the meeting. Al-Kerti insisted that the Paris conference could have offered an opening in the direction of re-assembling all the concerned Sudanese parties had it been better conceptualised and prepared. Protest at promises TWO hundred residents of Qalaat Al-Kabsh demonstrated on Monday in front of the Cairo governorate building to protest against the government's failure to provide them with new housing units to replace the wooden shacks that were burnt to the ground in March following a massive fire, reports Reem Leila. Central Security Forces (CSF) attacked the demonstrators and arrested six women who took part in the protest. Mustafa Mohamed, a demonstrator who was seriously injured, was moved to Qasr Al-Aini Hospital. He had initially refused to be taken in an ambulance called for by the CSF as a symbolic protest. The demonstrators clashed with the security forces and pelted them with stones. In May, security forces imposed a dawn to dusk curfew on Qalaat Al-Kabsh to prevent its residents from protesting outside the area. The demonstration was the latest act by the Qalaat homeless to have the government provide them with alternative housing. In the wake of the fire, the Cairo governorate allocated alternative housing units to 850 Qalaat residents at Al-Nahda City, on the Cairo-Belbeis desert highway. The remaining 150 have thus far received nothing but pledges from the government. On the delay in providing the Qalaat Al-Kabsh homeless alternative units, Ahmed Helmi, Cairo governorate's assistant secretary-general, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the governorate needs time to check the names of those in genuine need of the housing units. "We are currently drawing up a list of names of those affected by the fire, as well as the names of families who suffered from demolitions." Helmi was referring to houses which were brought down to clear the site. He added that a previous list included names of people who falsely claimed to have lost their homes in the fire. A new list must consequently be drawn up, Helmi added. A three-stage development plan began in Qalaat Al-Kabsh in 2001. Two have been carried out; the third phase is planned for this year. Qalaat Al-Kabsh is located in the low-income Cairo district of Sayeda Zeinab. Workers threaten wider action WORKERS at Ghazl Al-Mehalla's textile factory on Monday threatened to go on strike on 21 July if the General Federation for Egypt's Trade Unions and the Ministry of Manpower do not meet their demands, reports Karim El-Khashab. "The strike will be bigger than the one in December when almost 27,000 workers joined in," worker and strike leader Mohamed El-Attar told Al-Ahram Weekly. For more than six months, Mehalla workers have been asking for the impeachment of the current union after around 18,000 letters of resignation were sent to it. They have also sought an improvement in housing conditions, a 25 per cent increase in labour bonuses and a change in the pricing mechanism for workers' output. However, no official reply was forthcoming. "After taking every legal and legitimate avenue, workers feel that only a general strike will bring about a solution," El-Attar said. Preparing for the strike, workers in Mehalla, in Gharbeya governorate, have been holding several meetings with workers in Kafr Al-Dawar, in Beheira governorate, as well as with workers in the transport sector in Cairo to guarantee wide-ranging support from workers everywhere. "The workers' movement is now more organised than ever and stands together as one," El-Attar said. Workers at Kafr Al-Dawar and Cairo told Al-Ahram Weekly that they are backing their colleagues in Mehalla but had not yet begun garnering support for the strike. There has so far been scant evidence to prove that a wave of strikes and sit-ins in the country this year have been connected, even indirectly. However, many workers around the country do share the same grievances and demands as those in Mehalla. Online recruitment WHILE Egypt's incarcerated Jihad leaders are expected to announce a halt to violence by the end of this month, the Ministry of Interior announced this week the arrest of two groups on charges of planning destructive operations against the state. The security apparatus announced the arrest of two separate groups, each numbering more than a dozen suspects, plotting to blow up the state's vital establishments. Reportedly, the group used the Internet as a channel for attracting new recruits and promoting their extremist thought. The arrests come at a time when political analysts are expecting a closing of the Jihad detainees file which they say will come only after the group's incarcerated leader releases documents revising their ideologies and halting all violent operations. CIA rendition trial adjourns ON MONDAY Milan judge Oscar Magi suspended until 24 October a criminal trial on the alleged abduction in Italy of an Egyptian terror suspect by CIA agents until the country's highest court rules on the case. Italy's highest court must decide whether state secrets can be used as evidence in the trial, which opened in Milan on 8 June. Reportedly, a judge unlawfully relied on state secrets to justify the charges. The Italian government asked the Constitutional Court to throw out the indictments against 22 suspectsmostly CIA agents as well as several top Italian spiesaccused of kidnapping an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street on 17 February 2003 with the complicity of Italy's SISMI agency. The high court also plans to hear a challenge charging that prosecutors went too far by wiretapping Italian intelligence agents. The case dates back to 2003 when Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, an Egyptian Muslim cleric, was allegedly abducted in February 2003 in Milan under the so-called extraordinary renditions and brought to Egypta case in which terror suspects are secretly transferred by the US to detention centres around the world for questioning. Abu Omar was on his way to Milan's main mosque when he was abducted. At the time of his disappearance he was reportedly being investigated by Italian prosecutors on terrorism charges. According to prosecutor Armando Spataro, Abu Omar was flown to Germany and eventually "rendered" by the US to his homeland. Twenty-six Americans and seven Italians were indicted in the case, including Nicolo Pollari, the former chief of military intelligence. Pollari has denied any involvement in the abduction. Prosecutor Armando Spataro argued that the court must continue its deliberations despite the pending case in the highest court, denying that any state secrets were involved in the preparation of the case and expressing confidence that the Constitutional Court's decision would back him up. The trial is the first of its kind targeting "extraordinary renditions," one of the most controversial aspects of US President George W Bush's global war on terror. The 26 Americans have left Italy, and according to a senior US official, they would not be turned over for prosecution even if Rome requests it. The government has not yet responded to prosecutors' requests to seek their extradition. The justice minister has indicated the Constitutional Court's ruling would be a key factor. Meanwhile, Abu Omar's Egyptian lawyer Montasser El-Zayat has filed a complaint with the Italian prosecutor-general after he was searched in Milan airport on his way back home. He described the search as a violation of freedom, a personal insult and an unlawful act since there was no warrant for the search.
