 | It's an annual display of eye-rolling and teeth-gnashing, as predictable as robins returning for the spring. |
| Have you ever noticed that you always know when you've seen the first robin of Spring, but never when you've seen the last robin of Fall? |
| So we'll never know when the Egyptians finally join the civilized world? |
CAIRO - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit lashed out at Washington on Saturday over its annual human rights report, which was critical of the situation in Egypt. ‘The State Department’s report and its allegations over the human rights situation in Egypt are inappropriate, since the United Nations has not given any state the right to be the guardian of the rights situation in the world,’ he told reporters.
| Tell that to the Belgians. |
‘Those who wrote the report have no idea about objective realities in the countries mentioned,’ said Abul Gheit, adding that the document is based on ‘imprecise and incomplete information.’
| Once again we point out all the miseries and fallings, and once again they tell us to mind our own business. |
‘The report overlooks the numerous recent positive developments in the field of human rights that have taken place in Egypt,’ he said.
| I can't think of one, but perhaps someone can ... |
The minister, whose country receives 1.8 billion dollars in US aid a year, underlined the ‘importance of US-Egyptian relations’ and identical views over the key principals of human rights.
| Like free elections .. er, no .. like fair trials .. oops, no .. like respecting religious minorities .. oh definitely not that one ... |
He admitted, however, that there were occasionally differences of opinion over the application of these principles.
| "Like for example, we kill our religious minorities when they step out of line, and you don't." |
Relations between the two countries were strained by the imprisonment in 2005 of opposition politician Ayman Nur and by US insistence on greater political openness in Egypt. Subsequently, however, Egyptian and international activists have noted a slackening of US rhetoric on democracy in Egypt, though the State Department’s Tuesday report was still highly critical. The report said ‘the government’s respect for human rights remained poor, and serious abuses continued in many areas,’ noting ‘torture and abuse of prisoners and detainees; poor conditions in prisons and detention centers; impunity; arbitrary arrest and detention.’ |