Egyptian opposition wants investigating Sudan refugees killings
Egypt-Sudan, Politics, 1/3/2006

The Egyptian opposition called for the resignation of Egypt's minister of interior Habib al-Adeli on the background of the clashes which took place between the police and the Sudanese refugees last Friday, in one of Cairo's main squares, and resulted in killing 27 persons.

During the discussion of this issue at the Egyptian parliament, the representatives for the main Egyptian opposition of the Muslim Brothers, al-Wafd and al- Tajamuu, called for opening a parliamentary investigation to this end.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit on Monday was officialy reported saying "the break-up of the strike by Egyptian police came only after repeated breaches by the sitters-in of Egyptian laws and the 1950 Geneva Convention on refugees. Abul-Gheit pointed out that the refugees entered Egypt on tourist visas and later sought asylum, which is against the relevant laws."
Abul-Gheit stressed the fact that "all the efforts made by Egyptian officials over the past three months with the purpose of peacefully ending the crisis have been to no avail ... Egypt's diplomatic mission in Geneva sent an official memorandum to the UNHCR HQs, expressing Egypt' astonishment at the jump-to-conclusion approach adopted by the agency, which prompted an official investigation into the dispersing of the refugees. The UN had indicated that terms of asylum seekers did not apply to the Sudanese refugees, given that some of them were illegal immigrants."

The minister of state for the parliament's affairs Mufid Shehab defended the operation of evacuating the refugees by force, stressing the demonstrators were the ones who attacked the security forces, and he once again expressed his regret over the victims demise.

Shehab announced that 26 Sudanese were killed and other 73 injured while 108 police men were wounded. He said that 2174 Sudanese refugees were transported to four centers and 1444 of them were released. He also stressed that his country security forces still hold 730 refugees.

The chairman of the committee in charge of receiving deportees, the Sudanese lt. gen. Ahmad Bashir said that the Egyptian authorities are preparing to deport some 600 refugees out of 2000 who were evacuated by means of force.

Cairo announced it will expel or evacuate the Sudanese whom the UNHCR refused their asylum request and who do not have legal residence papers in Egypt.

For his part a spokesman for the Sudanese embassy in Cairo said that the total number of the victims reached 27, adding that 12 children, 8 women and 7 men were killed during or as a result of these clashes.

Previous Stories:
  Sudanese FM regrets the killing of its refugees in Cairo   (1/2/2006)
  UNHCR regrets the death of Sudanese asylum seekers in Egypt   (12/31/2005)
  Sudan calls on its refugees to return home after 20 die   (12/31/2005)
  Ten killed in removing Sudanese refugees by force in Cairo   (12/30/2005)
  Egypt intervenes in Sudan and Chad tensions   (12/26/2005)

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