CAIRO: Rights groups expressed concern over the ruling military council's response to their critical reports, with some describing it as hostile and others speculating a full-on smear campaign. “The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is responsible for launching a campaign against us for condemning its violations, including subjecting civilians to military trials and performing virginity tests on female protesters,” Gamal Eid, director for the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHIR), told Daily News Egypt. The groups cited the cabinet's decision to establish a fact-finding committee to investigate the foreign funding given to civil society organizations, including human rights groups, as part of a campaign that could depict them as “spies, serving foreign agendas.” The cabinet's decision came after SCAF issued a statement singling out the April 6 Youth Movement, and raising suspicion over its sources of funding and whether it serves any “foreign agendas.” “These actions, which focus on the idea of fighting against a foreign conspiracy aimed at causing a rift between the people and the army, raised suspicions against human rights organizations,” Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), told DNE. “Specifically those who criticized some of SCAF's practices,” he added. However, Bahgat disagreed with the word “campaign” saying that HR organizations suffered from a “hostile environment,” created by SCAF, adding that there were no direct campaigns or accusations against them. “We haven't been clearly or directly targeted by SCAF yet,” he said. Ahmed Fawzy, head of the Egyptian Association for Developing Social Participation, speculated that prominent figures were pushed by SCAF to raise these “ridiculous” accusations against HR organizations in the media. “If we are considered spies for accepting foreign funding then SCAF should be as well, because they receive a lot of funding from the United States,” he said. Egypt has received an average of $2 billion in annual aid from the US since 1979; the majority of that amount went to the military – an average of $1.3 billion annually. Fawzy explained that civil society organizations receive around 5 percent of foreign funding given to Egypt, while the government and private sector receive the rest. “Civil society organizations are considered the most transparent organizations in comparison with the government,” he said. Analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah, a researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, speculated that some NGOs are corrupt and misuse funding, due to the lack of supervision over them. “But I believe that most of these organizations are competent, hard working and they support development projects,” he said. Fawzy agreed. “We are only human and we make mistakes. “But if there is any evidence incriminating a civil society organizations, it should be presented to the Prosecutor General instead of making void accusations in the media,” he added. Fawzy also accused SCAF of excluding human rights organizations from their discussions with political powers regarding reform and development during this critical transitional period. “They want to put us on the sidelines because we are independent organizations that have no interest in flattering the SCAF,” he said. Abdel Fattah said that SCAF was following the same pattern of the ousted regime, accusing the opposition of “treason” and fulfilling foreign agendas. The regime often dismissed condemning reports by local and international groups as part of a plot to impose foreign, mainly Western, values on the Egyptian society. “This will increase the rift between the army and civil society organizations and they will in turn viciously attack the army,” he said. He added that such campaigns will not affect the reputation of these organizations in the eyes of the Egyptian public.
CAIRO: Rights groups expressed concern over the ruling military council's response to their critical reports, with some describing it as hostile and others speculating a full-on smear campaign. “The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is responsible for launching a campaign against us for condemning its violations, including subjecting civilians to military trials and performing virginity tests on female protesters,” Gamal Eid, director for the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHIR) told Daily News Egypt. The groups cited the cabinet's decision to establish a fact-finding committee to investigate the foreign funding given to civil society organizations, including human rights groups, as part of a campaign that could depict them as “spies, serving foreign agendas.” The cabinet's decision came after SCAF issued a statement singling out the April 6 Youth Movement, and raising suspicion over its sources of funding and whether it serves any “foreign agendas.” “These actions, which focus on the idea of fighting against a foreign conspiracy aimed at causing a rift between the people and the army, raised suspicions against human rights organizations,” Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), told DNE. “Specifically those who criticized some of SCAF's practices,” he added. However, Bahgat disagreed with the word “campaign” saying that HR organizations suffered from a “hostile environment,” created by SCAF, adding that there were no direct campaigns or accusations against them. “We haven't been clearly or directly targeted by SCAF yet,” he said. Ahmed Fawzy, head of the Egyptian Association for Developing Social Participation, speculated that prominent figures were pushed by SCAF to raise these “ridiculous” accusations against HR organizations in the media. “If we are considered spies for accepting foreign funding then SCAF should be as well, because they receive a lot of funding from the United States,” he said. Egypt has received an average of $2 billion in annual aid from the US since 1979; the majority of that amount went to the military – an average of $1.3 billion annually. Fawzy explained that civil society organizations receive around 5 percent of foreign funding given to Egypt, while the government and private sector receive the rest. “Civil society organizations are considered the most transparent organizations in comparison with the government,” he said. Analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah, a researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, speculated that some NGOs are corrupt and misuse funding, due to the lack of supervision over them. “But I believe that most of these organizations are competent, hard working and they support development projects,” he said. Fawzy agreed. “We are only human and we make mistakes. “But if there is any evidence incriminating a civil society organizations, it should be presented to the Prosecutor General instead of making void accusations in the media,” he added. Fawzy also accused SCAF of excluding human rights organizations from their discussions with political powers regarding reform and development during this critical transitional period. “They want to put us on the sidelines because we are independent organizations that have no interest in flattering the SCAF,” he said. Abdel Fattah said that SCAF was following the same pattern of the ousted regime, accusing the opposition of “treason” and fulfilling foreign agendas. The regime often dismissed condemning reports by local and international groups as part of a plot to impose foreign, mainly Western, values on the Egyptian society. “This will increase the rift between the army and civil society organizations and they will in turn viciously attack the army,” he said. He added that such campaigns will not affect the reputation of these organizations in the eyes of the Egyptian public.
