Egypt dealt with Sudanese refugees with wisdom and patience – FM
Jan 2, 2005 (CAIRO)– Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit affirmed on Monday that Egypt dealt with the issue of Sudanese refugees at Mustafa Mahmoud Square in Muhandisin with wisdom and patience, in its capacity as a host country of the regional office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
During a meeting with diplomatic editors, the foreign minister said Egypt’s decision to intervene to break up the protest was adopted after repeated breaches by the sitters-in of Egyptian laws adopted in conformity with the 1950 Geneva Convention governing the status of refugees, in addition to the difficult humanitarian conditions the refugees, who included children and women, had been enduring in the square.
According to the state-run agency MENA, Abul Gheit pointed out to the failure of efforts to convince the strikers to end the protest peacefully through mediation by prominent Sudanese figures from south and north Sudan.
Abul Gheit said Egypt’s diplomatic mission in Geneva sent an official memorandum to the UNHCR to be circulated to all missions there to express Egypt’s astonishment at the UN agency’s hasty issuance of a statement on the dispersing of refugees without waiting for the completion of investigations.
Abul Gheit pointed out that the director of the UNHCR office in Cairo had indicated that the statements by the UNHCR commissioner in Geneva did not include any accusations against Egypt.
The foreign minister said he also sent messages to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa, Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and European Union international policy and security chief Javier Solana, expounding the circumstances surrounding the break-up of the protest by the Sudanese refugees at Mustafa Mahmoud Square.
The foreign minister said similar messages were also sent to the foreign ministers of Sudan and Belgium in this respect.
Abul Gheit lamented the incident, saying the whole matter had started when a large number of Sudanese refugees gathered at the square early in September outside the UNHCR office in Cairo.
He said the United Nations had indicated that the terms of asylum seekers did not apply to the Sudanese refugees, especially as some of them were illegal immigrants.
Abul Gheit pointed out that the refugees had asked for resettlement in the United States or Canada or Australia, adding they refused to live in Egypt and demanded reopening of all closed files of Sudanese refugees.
The foreign minister said the Sudanese authorities showed an interest in the issue, with the Sudanese embassy in Cairo reviewing the outcome of a meeting organized with the sitters-in by Vice President Ali Osman Taha during his recent visit to Egypt.
He said the Sudanese vice-president issued directives encouraging the refugees to return to Sudan and forming a committee to receive them and assess their conditions.
(ST)