To All Living Things
Last Week's Column

Amnesty Action:
"Disappearance" and Fear for Safety
in Egypt
by Kathy Gay

his week’s action from Amnesty International concerns an 18-year-old woman in Egypt who has been missing for over six months. One morning in August 1996, she left the family home to go shopping and never returned. While inquiring in the neighborhood later that day, her family learned that a group of security officers had been stationed in the area that morning and arrested a number of suspected Islamists.

In September, there were unconfirmed reports that she was being held in detention in a State Security Investigations (SSI) Department building in Cairo. Then, in January, her family heard that she had been seen in a prison outside Cairo. When they tried to visit her there, prison authorities initially said they could see her, but then, after a long wait, they denied that she was there and made the family leave immediately.

Amnesty International is concerned for the safety of this young woman. The organization fears that, if she was among those arrested by security officers on the same day she "disappeared," she may have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment during her detention.

Background Information

Thousands of suspected members or sympathizers of banned Islamist groups have been detained in Egypt since the introduction of state of emergency legislation in 1981. Most have been held without charge or trial; others, almost all civilians, have received grossly unfair trials before military courts.

Torture is used repeatedly against political detainees in Egypt, particularly in police stations, the SSI headquarters in Cairo and SSI locations elsewhere in the country. Most commonly cited torture methods include beatings, electric shocks, suspension by the wrists or ankles, burning with cigarettes, and psychological torture. Hundreds of complaints of torture lodged with the Public Prosecutor’s Office have been met with little or no response, despite the establishment in November 1993 of a special unit to investigate such reports.

In May 1996 the United Nations Committee against Torture issued a report which stated that "torture is systematically practiced by the Security Forces in Egypt, in particular by State Security Intelligence." The Committee urged the Egyptian Government to "make particular efforts to prevent its security forces from acting as a State within a State, for they seem to escape control by superior authorities."

How you can help

Join with Amnesty International in urging the Egyptian government to make public this young woman’s whereabouts and either charge her with a recognizably criminal offense or release her.

Please send a letter to the President of Egypt immediately if possible, but no later than March 10, 1997. You may use the sample letter linked below or use it as a model to write your own letter. If you choose to use the sample letter, please cut off or delete all website information at the very top of the letter. If you choose to write your own letter, make sure that it is politely worded and non-partisan (i.e., not used as a vehicle for political expression). Care must be taken to ensure that nothing is written that will cause harm to this young woman. Be sure to include both your name and address, as well as the date, on the letter.

U.S. airmail postage to Egypt is 60 cents.

Questions?

If you have any questions, just post a message to me (Kathy Gay) at the Pub, and I will respond as soon as I can. I greatly appreciate your interest and support.

To see the sample letter for this action, please click here.

__________________________________________________

Kathy Gay is a vegan, and has been a member of Amnesty International for nearly 10 years, where she has worked on numerous campaigns. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a business analyst for a leading California bank.

Kathy's column, To All Living Things, is a regular feature of VegSource On-Line Magazine.