Category: Human rights

Adjourning the 1956 POWs case to 27th January

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It is the first time to know that there is a lawsuite currently in front of the Egyptian courts concerning the 1956 Egyptian POWs who were killed by the Israeli IDF. It is a great thing. Anyhow the Compensation court decided to adjourn the lawsuite to the next January 27th,2009 .

Here are more details about the lawsuite :

  • Three families are sueing the Israeli government in specific : The prime minister and the defense and information ministers.
  • These families are the families of 1st lietenant Mamdouh Hussein and soldier Mohamed Amin and Mohamed Aliwa ; to the record this is the first time we know some of the names of the Egyptian POWs in 1956.
  • They are demanding L.E 60 Million as a compensation. 
  • The lawyer that is representing the families are Embassador Assam El-Din Hawas, the former Embassador of Egypt in Qatar ,FM assistant and the secretary general of the Egyptian society of the United nations.
  • Beside the Israeli confessions ,the lawsuite depends upon the Israeli confession aired in the Israeli TV in 1995,they should also consider the Al Jazeera report “The Way to Atlit”

This is a winning case I believe because we got the Israeli confessions themselves.I hope that the case won’t be adjourned like the rest of the POWs cases in front of the Egyptian courts.

It is not Said , it really happened

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Egypt’s oldest English spoken newspaper The Egyptian Gazette published a report today about the Egyptian POWs, it is short an interview with lawyer Farial Abu El-Nagaa whose brother enigneer El-Aidei was killed in the 1967 Egyptian POWs massacres. Mrs. Farial is among the 250 families suing the Israeli government in front of the Egyptain courts after the broadcast of the infamous “Rosh Shaked“.

Now what stopped me in this report today was its introduction :

AN Egyptian lawyer, whose brother was one of some 250 unarmed prisoners of war (POWs) said to be killed in Sinai peninsula by the Israeli army after the 1967 war, has said that while the Egyptians want peace with the Jewish state, the Israeli military involved in the slayings must be punished !!

Said to be killed !!??

Are You kidding me ?? All this and the national Newspaper that is following the newspaper believes that it was said and that they were only 250 !!

The 250 were those who were killed by Shaked but there were thousands who were killed by the rest of the Israeli forces !!??

From another hand the court decided to adjroun the case again this time to January 12,2008 !!The reason is that the court wanted to give enough time to the lawyers to get documents from the Egyptian Ministry of Defense or this is what it said. Hopefully the Egyptian ministry of Defense will cooperate with the lawyers of the POWs families

We can sue Israel abroad without the approval of the Egyptian government

Zeinobia 4 Comments

I made a quick interview with Ambassador Ibrahim Youssery on my Egyptian Chronicles blog and I did not forget to ask about the POWs case.

Ambassador Ibrahim Youssery took this stand this year to sue the Egyptian government in the court for exporting the Egyptian Natural gas to Israel despite the huge public refusal. Ambassador Youssery is a retired Ambassador since 1995 and currently work as international law lawyer. Already I should mentioned that he headed for three years as Head of the Egyptian Government committee for the revision of bilateral and multilateral treaties and the Deputy chief of the Egyptian delegation in the negotiation concerning the execution of the Taba award.

I asked him in the interview about several issues current causing buzz in Egypt whether from the exportation of the natural gas to Israel or the Salam 98 Ferry or the Um Rashrash case or the POWs Case. I asked him about the Egyptian POWs Case because I know from his long international legal expertise we can benefit.

Already my main question to him was about the possibility of suing Israel outside Egypt in international courts whether the ICC or the IJC

Here are the questions concerning the POWs

EC :The Egyptian POWs case is from the most important neglected cases in Egypt, as international law expert; can we go to the IJC or the ICC to sue Israel as citizens not as a state??

IY : We can peruse this matter by bringing it to international courts. There are some technical difficulties to engage the ICC, but the IJC has no jurisdiction here. I agree fully that the Egyptian POWs case is one of the most important neglected cases in Egypt. But we can always engage the Israeli criminals before any court (Pinochet , Mengistu, Sharon cases)

EC: Do we need the approval of the Egyptian state??

IY: We do not need the approval of the Egyptian state.

EC: Can the ICC investigate it without the approval of the Egyptian State??

IY: Yes the ICC can investigate it without the approval of the Egyptian State.

EC :If we go there, are the testimonies of the people of Sinai and the ex-POWs who witnessed the war crimes against our soldiers and officers plus the mass graves in Al Arish and across the rest of Sinai are enough to support our case and open an international investigation for War crimes, especially that there are some Israelis who confirmed our stories??

IY : Yes, the court can accept the testimonies of the people of Sinai and the ex-POWs who witnessed the war crimes against our soldiers and officers plus the mass graves in Al Arish and across the rest of Sinai.

EC: Why do you think the Egyptian government refuse to take it seriously despite it is a win case??

IY : The Egyptian government refuses to take it seriously despite it is a win case, because they don’t care a bit about people and they can not stand any American pressure.

As you can see we can sue Israel abroad in front of the ICC without the approval of the Egyptian State and we can win it with the testimonies of the witnesses and the evidence represented in the mass graves of our troops across Sinai

You can read the rest of the interview here folks

More info about Eyad

Zeinobia 4 Comments

At last I found some info about Eyad Abu El-Hassan thanks to Nawra Nagam who did a real scoop as Egyptian blogger and had some sort of an interview with Samr Kuntar in Lebanon last week.

Al-kuntar shared with Nawara what he knows about Eyad Abu El-Hassan.

Eyad is from Egyptian Rafah.He was arrested by the IDF in 1989 when he entered Gaza with Ayman Yunis. Both were young men whose ages were 20 years old. They were planning to do some sort of an operation against Israel. They were actng on their own. No one sent them or they knew someone there.

In the jail both young men had to choose which team they will belong to , Fatah or Hamas. Ayman Chose Fatah where as Eyad chose Hamas.

Al-Kuntar believes Ayman was released because he chose Fatah where as till now Eyad is in jail because he chose Hamas.

Whether he chose Hamas or Fatah, Eyad is the repsonsbility of his country. Egypt should work with all possible way to return him back just like Hezbollah did with Al-Kuntar taking in consideration that according to Al-Kuntar all what Eyad did was traspasing the border.

Eyad now is 39 years old , he left Egypt as young man and now he is officially a man.

By the way I am still surprised with this official and unofficial silence in the media , even the independent and opposition newspapers ignored him.

Already I wonder where his family is all that time. If he is really from Rafah,then he is from a tribe and tribes there care for their members and do not stand still like this.


Samir Kuntar and the Egyptian POW

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The free Lebanese POW Samir Kuntar said in an interview for Hezbollah’s  TV Channel Al-Manar that there was an Egyptian POW in the Israeli prison called Eyad Mathour “Sorry If I wrote it wrong” and that that POW was in the prison for the last 22 years !!

Shocking is not it !!?? I thought that Sheikh Mahmoud El-Sawurka was  our last POWs beside our prisoners for

Samir Al Kuntar
Samir Al Kuntar

criminal charges in the Israeli prisons.Correction our last POWs were the two students captured by the IDF on the borders during the second intifida and they were exchanged with the high price which was the infamous spy Azzam Azzam.

There are difference between the Egyptians who are in the Israeli prisons for criminal charges and the POWs jailed for political reasons during the Israeli occupation to Sinai. This does not mean that we should abandon our prisoners in the Israeli prisons but we need to know if we have any more POWs there.

22 years I think is very long period. Already I am astonished not because no one mentioned this man in the media but also Sheikh El-Sawurka did not mention him !! Sheikh Sawurka remembers very well Samir.

The Egyptian Government is obliged to present a justification to Samir Kuntar’s statements about this Egyptian POWs.

Already if this is true then it is bad for Egypt who has relationship with Israel that gives her the right to demand its POWs

Another important testimony from important witness.

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He is a native Egyptian from the tribes of Al Arish.His testimony is very important because not only he is witness to what happened in 1967 and the occupation years afterwards , but he also was a victim of the IDF war crimes for many year.Shiekh Mahmoud El-Sawukra

Sheikh Mahmoud El-Sawurka , the most famous Egyptian prisoner in the Israeli prison , who spent 22 years in the Israeli prisons witnessing all horrors and crimes that took place against the Arab political prisoners . Even his body became a map for the physical torture and abuse he saw on the hands of the Israeli forces.

Regarding the POWs massacres in Al Arish , the old Sheikh fragile sheikh still remembers the burial places of the Egyptian Soldiers remains , where the great locals of Al Arish buried our soldiers ; after all those years.

He also shared terrible memories about the massacres that took place in Al Arish

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This is a war crime

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Oh boy we are in the sad June with its terrible memories regarding our slayed POWs and Civilians in the desert Sinai and here we are with this new scandal , which I am not surprised at all to know about.

Thank Goodness that people now speak and confess

Please check this confession for an American Soldier regarding what the U.S army does with the Iraqi and Afghani civilians dead bodies .

There should be an international investigation about these crimes.These are war crimes by all measures

Al Jazeera English – Focus – Egypt Veteran’s Fight For Justice

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Al-Jazeera international report about the story of  two 1967 war veteran and what they suffered from mistreatment against all international and ethic laws in Atlit prison

Please read the testimony of Amin Mohamed Darwish

Al Jazeera English – Focus – Egypt Veteran’s Fight For Justice

Here is another testimony for an old Palestinian man Fares Salih ,it includes what happened in Gaza , it is very interesting concerning the looting and killing the Israeli soldiers and officers did in Gaza

A remembrance day again and again for the POWs

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I won’t stop and I won’t give up simply because our great men were and are not less than anyone else

The Armenians celebrate the Armenian Genocide remembrance day on the 24th of April ever year

The British celebrate their remembrance day on the 11th of November every year

The Jews celebrate the Yom HaShoah on the 19th of April every year

And We Must celebrate our POWs who were killed in 1956 and in 1967 on the 5th of June Every year

 

[tags]POWs, Egyptian Pows, 1967, 1956, Yom HaShoah, Remembrance day, Armenian genocide[/tags]

The red cross denial is no proof

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I don’t believe the red cross and I don’t care what they say because I have got my people’s testimonies and they can’t be liars , my people for the great people of Sinai ,from Al-Arish who buried the POWs by their hands  and know the place of mass graves till our day

My people from the POWs who survived ,whether those who managed to escape or those who survived the hell of Atlit

If they don’t believe my people I don’t care

They got the Israeli confessions of General Biro in 1956 stating clearly as sun what he did from war crimes  against not military but also Egyptian civilians

They can prove if they want , but they don’t same like the Egyptian regime

Today Egyptian Foreign minister talked in TV on air about this report and he was so nervous and angry in a strange way I don’t why , he kept speaking for himself the revenge of those POWs was taken in 1973 war , well he was speaking for himself not for the majority of the Egyptian people

he received the report of the red cross and sent it to the assembly to be discussed and soon officially the scenario of what happened in 1995 from closing the discussion about the POWs will happen

I promise I will not close it

Link to FilBalad.News | الصليب الأحمر : لا دليل على قتل أسرى أو مستسلمين مصريين

[tags]Egyptian POWs, 1967, 1956, red Cross, foreign Minister, tv, media, Israel, Biro, history, politics, human rights, war Crimes[/tags]