Bahey eldin Hassan, the director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, participated in a forum yesterday titled “The Home Land Security and Prospects for the Future.” The seminar was held at the main headquarters of the Home Land Security Agency and attended by the Interior Minister, agency head Gen. Hamed Abdullah, senior officers with the agency and Interior Ministry, prominent press and media figures, legal experts, the April 6th group, and representatives from human rights organizations, among them Hossam Bahgat, the Director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
After a detailed presentation on the foundations, objectives, and structure of the agency, as well as the law establishing it, Bahey eldin Hassan made several observations:
1. The seminar itself constitutes a positive step toward transparency about the new agency’s mission. Since the agency was created to replace State Security Investigations (SSI), questions have been raised from many quarters, wondering if the new agency represents a break with the past policies and performance of SSI or is simply the same agency reconstituted under a different name.
2. While the seminar is a good first step, it is not sufficient. There should have been more transparency from the moment the agency was first established three months ago, including during the preparations for this meeting. The public would benefit from the publication of the papers presented at the seminar, a copy of which was obtained by the CIHRS.
3. The restructuring process itself must be transparent and cannot be approached as an internal security matter in which society has no stake. As is the case in every country that has experienced a similar transition phase, a party from outside the Interior Ministry should monitor the restructuring process. In a memo submitted, few weeks ago, to the Prime Minister and Interior Minister, the CIHRS proposed that an independent judicial panel supported by representatives of advocacy groups should closely monitor the restructuring and inform the public of its findings and assessments.
4. During the excellent presentations made at the seminar, it was stated that the agency hoped society would participate in providing security. This is a fine goal, but is difficult to achieve in practice unless society is included in a fully transparent restructuring process, which has not been the case thus far. On the contrary, the public has merely received brief messages meant to reassure it. Moreover, taking even one step towards the goal of societal involvement will be difficult without an internal investigation and evaluation of the policies and practices that led to the catastrophic violations by the former SSI and society’s generally negative perception of the police. In addition, a criminal investigation must be launched into complaints from victims and human rights organizations submitted over the last three decades at least. Reducing the crimes of the security apparatus to those committed in the week following the popular uprising of January 25 will help no one, including the security apparatus itself.
5. One practice that requires close assessment and self-critique is the network of institutional relationships built over the last decade between the SSI and organized gangs of thugs to suppress the opposition at particular political junctures, such as general elections and protests. Hassan raised a question about the continuation of these political practices by organized gangs in the past months, despite the dissolution of SSI. Does this mean that former officers—or even still serving officers—continue to manage these gangs to achieve certain political objectives? Does the Home Land Security Agency have another explanation for the perpetuation of these practices?
Hossam Bahgat raised several important questions. For example, what has become of the implements of torture used in SSI offices, which were taken over by the new agency last month? Asma Mahfouz, with the April 6th Youth group, wondered about the Home Land Security Agency’s understanding of terrorism, the so-called dangers of media bias, and other issues intimately linked to the mission of the new agency, which numbered among the tasks of the dissolved SSI.
The head of the agency, Gen. Hamed Abdullah, promised before the discussion began to respond to the proposal from the CIHRS to hold a meeting with human rights groups to discuss the policies and objectives of the Home Land Security Agency.
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