I have no idea where those people who talk about torture in Egypt get their information from. Egyptian authorities simply have no tolerance for the torture of any of their citizens; so how can we possibly believe what those human rights organizations claim about widespread torture in Egypt. The latest report by one of them had the audacity to say that Egypt is internationally classified as a country where torture is "systematic in prisons and police stations. I implore all those who falsely and maliciously accuse our government of condoning torture to extract confessions, to look into what happened in Kuwait in the past few days. Two young Egyptian men were tortured at the hands of Kuwaiti security officials while in detention. The Kuwaiti Al Rai Al Aam (Public Opinion) newspaper exposed this scandal - a blatant violation of human rights, by all means. As soon as our national newspapers got wind of the news, they transferred it from Kuwaiti 'Public Opinion,' to Egyptian public opinion, causing a massive outcry, which is certainly understandable. People began demanding that the concerned state institutions take full responsibility and questioned whether they've failed to live up to their role. Naturally this is not the case. The foreign minister himself took the initiative to convey to the Kuwaitis the anger of the Egyptian street regarding this unfortunate incident and to demand the Kuwaiti authorities launch a "serious investigation into the issue. If it means anything at all, his attitude proves that the Egyptian authorities' aversion to torture is genuine. If Prophet Mohamed [PBUH] had ordered people "to seek knowledge even in China, as the hadith goes, then along the same lines our official mantra is "reject torture, even in Kuwait, better still, especially if it's in Kuwait. My dear friend Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has implemented this slogan to protect our citizens from torture but at the same time without jeopardizing the good relations we have with Kuwait. Minister Aboul Gheit asserted that the Egyptian foreign ministry has left no stone unturned when it came to fighting human rights violations against Egyptians abroad, not to mention torture in Kuwait. How in God's name can we then accuse the state of condoning torture as a "systematic practice in prisons or at police stations? If the state completely rejects torture in Kuwait, how could we possibly conceive of it accepting torture in prisons and police stations as some of those deviant human rights organizations claim? In answering this rhetorical question, we must first consider Kuwait's geographical borders and whether or not they incorporate Egyptian prisons and police stations. Ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, for instance, believed that there were no borders separating Iraq from Kuwait. He even believed that the name "Kuwait was a derivative of "El Kut, the name of an Iraqi mountain that lies along Kuwait's southern border with Iraq. This makes one wonder about our own borders with the Gulf state. Do they really exist or do we live within the boundaries of the "Greater Arab Nation divided by a colonialism that imposed illusory borders, when the reality is that we are one nation, one people spanning the distance from the ocean to the gulf. What happens here, happens there and what we condemn here, we condemn there. I suggest that all those who claim that there is torture in Egypt and publish photographs of such violations at police stations, go back to the Kuwaiti newspaper "Al Rai Al Aam. The authorities immediately took steps as soon as the newspaper published photographs of the two tortured Egyptians, even though their reaction was not as swift when similar photos ran in our own newspapers. What can this possibly mean? It could mean that our newspapers conspire with those wretched human rights organizations. That is why what is published in Al Rai Al Aam warrants immediate attention and what we publish in our newspapers is considered no more than idle talk. As for the position of our official institutions, it is crystal clear for all to see. No one can deny that Egypt categorically rejects the torture of any Egyptian citizens . in Kuwait. Mohamed Salmawy is President of the Writer's Union of Egypt and editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo. This article is syndicated in the Arabic press.
