Updated: Sign on: Call for U.S. accountability in Egypt
August 31, 2013
The Ad-Hoc Committee for U.S. Accountability in the Middle East and North Africa is an initiative of social justice lawyers, activists and academics who have participated in first hand investigations of U.S. complicity in political and structural state violence throughout the MENA region. We are seeking individual and organizational endorsements for the following statement. Sign on: international@nlg.org or use the online form:
Condemnation of U.S.-Backed Egyptian State Repression
Ad Hoc Committee for U.S. Accountability in the Middle East and North Africa
August 19, 2013
The Ad Hoc Committee for U.S. Accountability in the Middle East and North Africa condemns the August massacre of hundreds of protesters and prisoners by the U.S.-backed Egyptian military. While currently directed at the Muslim Brotherhood, this dramatic escalation of state repression is designed to liquidate the Egyptian Revolution and restore the military-police state of the Mubarak regime. We also condemn all assaults on Egypt’s Christians, Shiites and other minorities. The sectarian campaign only serves to block revolutionary momentum and, as in the past, further the interests of the repressive state.
The US-backed Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) continues today to wield both undue political and economic power. The State “security” apparatuses continue to be used to repress all forms of political dissent, resulting in the death, arrest, imprisonment and torture of Egyptian revolutionary activists. The week of August 12, 2013 saw the murder of over one thousand Egyptian civilians, protestors and pedestrians, including the slaughter of over 50 Muslim Brotherhood prisoners held in detention on August 18, 2013.
Equally alarming is the resurgence, over the past few weeks, of the intelligence apparatus that was removed from domestic Egyptian life and affairs after — and as a result of — the January 25th revolution.
The remobilization of Islamophobia and the rhetoric of “war on terror” as a means of justifying the recent slaughter of those opposed to Military rule or Mubarak-era remnants threatens the Egyptian struggle for justice and accountability for all victims of state violence at the hands of the military, from Tahrir, Maspero, Mohamed Mahmoud, Port Said, the Presidential Palace battles, to the massacres at the Republican Guard.
We are further concerned that the Sissi-SCAF justification of state violence under the rhetoric of “fighting terrorism” will serve as a pretext for the expansion and legitimization of the U.S.-led global “war on terror” that has victimized millions around the world, including the people of the United States.
We condemn all forms of U.S. complicity in Egyptian state repression and continue to support popular Egyptian demands for an end to U.S. military aid that has for decades financed illegal killing, torture, and imprisonment under the regimes of Sadat, Mubarak and SCAF. While we do not equate the Mursi presidency with the regimes of Mubarak, Sissi and SCAF, we acknowledge and condemn all crimes committed against the Egyptian people under the elected Mursi administration as well, including but not limited to the imprisonment, threats, and incitement of sectarian violence against the opposition. This does not however justify the gross crimes committed by the Sissi-SCAF regime.
• We condemn the illegal use of lethal violence against protesters using U.S. financed ammunition and teargas, which has left hundreds dead in recent weeks.
• We condemn all unjustified arrests and round-ups of individuals suspected of being members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
• We condemn the arrests and threats made against human rights workers, attorneys and all activists seeking to expose state crimes.
• We condemn Egyptian military collaboration with the U.S. and Israel in targeting the Palestinian people.
• We stand in solidarity with those opposed to the reimplementation of Emergency Law and the National Security Police, pillars of the Mubarak regime, under the dangerous pretext of “fighting terrorism.”
• We call for solidarity against all human rights infractions.
• We support the Egyptian call for an immediate transfer of power to a popularly supported civilian government.
Accordingly,
1. We demand Egyptian authorities immediately end all state violence and ensure the protection of the human rights of all Egyptians, including all prisoners.
2. We demand the U.S. government account for its role in and be held accountable for its complicity and/or collaboration in political and structural violence committed by the Egyptian State apparatus.
3. We demand an end to U.S. Aid to the Egyptian Military.
4. We demand the release of all Political Prisoners.
5. We demand an end to all sectarian attacks.
We believe that revolutionary mobilization around the principles of the Jan 25th Egyptian Revolution — “Bread, Freedom, Social Justice, and Human Dignity” — is ongoing, and represented by the continuing struggle of workers and other activists throughout the country. U.S.-financed state repression under SCAF seeks to undermine the continuation of the true revolutionary process.
Ad-Hoc Committee for U.S. Accountability in the Middle East North Africa
Suzanne Adely, National Lawyers Guild, Int. Committee Co-Chair, 2012 NLG Egypt Delegation, 2013 IADL Turkey Delegation
Audrey Bomse, National Lawyers Guild, Member of NLG 2011 Tunisia Egypt Delegation
Lamis Deek, National Lawyers Guild, Human Rights Lawyer, NLG Egypt Delegation Palestine Delegation for Political Prisoners
Michael Letwin, Former President, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325, NLG Egypt Delegation Palestine Delegation for Political Prisoners
Corinna Mullin, Activist and Academic, NLG Tunisia Egypt Delegation
Charlotte Kates, National Lawyers Guild, Palestine Delegation for Political Prisoners
Signatories
Atef Said, Human Rights Activist Sociologist, Egypt-USA
Azadeh Shahshahani, President, National Lawyers Guild, NLG Tunisia Egypt Delegations
Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, PhD, Ass. Professor, Race and Resistance Studies, Senior Scholar: Arab Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative (AMED)
Monami Maulik, Migrant/Human Rights Organizer
Immanuel Ness, Professor, Brooklyn College, City University of New York.
Noha Arafa, Esq., Delegate, Assoc. Legal Aid Attorneys
Green Shadow Cabinet of the United States
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)
Campaign for Peace and Democracy
Devorah Hill, author and educator
Kiana Karim, M.A. Candidate, Gallatin School, New York University
Rogers Turrentine
Wayne Heimbach
Manijeh Nasrabadi, activist, writer, scholar
Selma James, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network UK
Sara Kershnar
Jill Stein, Green Party Presidential Nominee, 2012
Tom McVitie
Dick Reilly, Hammerhard Media Works
Ben Manski, President, Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution
Andrew Ross, New York University
Dianne Post, Attorney
James Marc Leas, National Lawyers Guild, Co-chair Free Palestine Subcommittee, member 2009 and 2012 Gaza Delegations
Pham Binh, The North Star Website
Dennis Kortheuer, PhD, California State University, Long Beach
B. Ross Ashley, NDP Socialist Caucus, reproclaimed Fourth International
Dr. Stephen Oren
Sherry Wolf, International Socialist Review
David Letwin, Gaza Freedom March, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Jose Palazon, CC. OO.
Bernadette Ellorin, Chair, Bayan USA
Dr. Sarah Marusek, amiddleeastblog.wordpress.com
Joe Catron, International Solidarity Activist, Gaza, Palestine
Richard Greve
Julio Vernia
Tikva Honig-Parnass, author
Roger Dittmann, US Federation of Scholars and Scientists
Joanne Landy, Co-Director, Campaign for Peace and Democracy
Sign on here to endorse the statement:http://knowyourhumanrights.org/2013/08/12/sign-on-call-for-u-s-accountability-in-egypt/#form
