* Washington threatened to withdraw military aid in earlier
row
* Orphan group queries why it was rejected
* Decision comes after NGO tensions had eased
(Adds Interpol statement, human rights activist statement)
By Yasmine Saleh
CAIRO, April 23 (Reuters) – Egypt has rejected a request
from eight U.S.-based civil society groups for licences to
operate in the country after a crackdown on their activities
sparked the first diplomatic spat with Washington since the
ousting of Hosni Mubarak.
In a move that may damage Cairo’s relations with Washington,
the Insurance and Social Affairs Ministry rejected the
applications because it believed the groups’ activities violated
state sovereignty, Egyptian state news agency MENA reported on
Monday.
It said the Carter Center for Human Rights, set up by former
U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Christian group The Coptic Orphans,
Seeds of Peace, and other groups had all had their requests
rejected.
It was not immediately clear if any of the groups were also
targeted in a previous crackdown on non governmental
organisations.
Washington threatened to withdraw $1.3 billion in military
aid until an Egyptian judge lifted a travel ban on several
American democracy activists last month and allowed them to
leave the country and avoid possible imprisonment.
“I don’t understand how a charity group like the Coptic
Orphans, which works with over 35 churches in Egypt to provide
medical and social aid, was rejected,” said the group’s lawyer
Negad al-Borai.
Sanne van den Bergh, field office director for the Carter
Center in Egypt, said the group had not been formally notified
of the decision to deny it a licence “but we are aware of the
media reports about it and we are looking into them”.
The precise nature of what the groups had been planning to
do if their licences had been granted was unclear, but some of
the democracy activists targeted in the previous dispute had
monitored Egypt’s parliamentary election. Egypt elects a new
president next month.
NGOS FRET
Under Mubarak, foreign-funded democracy and human rights
groups were allowed to operate in Egypt but were kept in legal
limbo by the government, which repeatedly turned down their
applications for licences.
Some NGO workers saw it as a deliberate policy to keep them
on a tight leash.
Separately on Monday, the Interpol General Secretariat said
it had refused a request from the Egyptian authorities to issue
international wanted persons alerts for 15 individuals linked to
several U.S.-based NGOs, saying such a move would violate its
regulations.
Twelve of the individuals concerned were American, two were
Lebanese and one was Jordanian, Interpol said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear who the individuals were.
Signalling a tougher line after Mubarak was ousted, Egyptian
police raided the offices of U.S. pro-democracy groups in late
December.
Prosecutors later charged 43 people including 16 Americans –
one of them the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
– with working for organisations that received illegal foreign
funding.
Tensions have since eased, but human rights campaigners say
they now fear the decision to deny them licences may signal a
new crackdown on their activities.
“This decision is moving illogically and in opposition to
the path of history as the entire world is magnifying the
importance of civil society,” Hafez Abu Saeda, the head of the
Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, said on Monday. “The
government insists on stifling civil work in Egypt.”
Most of the groups’ criticism is directed at the military
generals who took power after Mubarak who are due to hand it to
whoever wins the presidential election at the end of June.
The NGOs filed their applications for licences before the
raids in December – the imminent shift to a more democratic,
civilian administration may have left some hoping for a change
of heart by government officials.
(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed, Ashraf Fahim and Ali
Abdelatti, Writing by Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
