Egypt blasted for refusal to open probe into Sudanese deaths

May 2, 2007 (CAIRO) — Several rights groups on Wednesday blasted Egypt’s decision not to investigate the deaths of more than two dozen Sudanese refugees when police stormed their camp here in 2005.

A United Nations human rights panel last week called on Egypt to reopen an investigation into the Sudanese refugees’ deaths, but Egypt’s Foreign Ministry immediately rebuffed the request.

“The signers express their feelings of anger and rejection of the Foreign Ministry’s statement,” said the groups in a statement sent to The Associated Press.

In a report, the U.N. Committee on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers said an Egyptian inquiry had been closed without clarifying the circumstances leading to the deaths.

The committee also expressed concern that eyewitnesses were not heard from during the investigation.

But the Foreign Ministry stressed that the U.N. committee did not have jurisdiction to ask for the investigation to be reopened.

Thousands of riot police wielding batons and water cannon stormed a protest camp of refugees and asylum seekers near the Cairo offices of the U.N. refugee agency on Dec. 30, 2005, killing more than two dozen refugees and injuring hundreds in the in the midnight crackdown.

Egyptian security officials said 25 Sudanese, including women and children, died in the operation, which was criticized by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The Interior Ministry blamed the violence on the squatters’ refusal to leave.

The protesters had demanded resettlement in a third country, complaining of harsh living conditions in Egypt and discrimination against them.

Egyptian human rights activists criticized the police action and accused the UNHCR of failing in its role to protect refugees following the incident.