Correspondents Report with Elizabeth JacksonSunday 7:00 am on Radio National. Sunday evenings on Local Radio Digital.

Amnesty holds grave fears for activists

Lindy Kerin reported this story on Sunday, February 6, 2011 08:00:00

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Amnesty International is calling for the immediate release of a group of

human rights workers detained this week during security crackdowns in Egypt. Two Amnesty

International staff members were among a group of about 30 people arrested during a raid by security

forces on the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre in Cairo.

The secretary general of Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, says the staff members were in the capital

documenting human rights violations. He says he still doesn't know their whereabouts and he's gravely

concerned about their wellbeing.

Salil Shetty is speaking here with Lindy Kerin.

SALIL SHETTY: This is part of the general crackdown which the government had with international

journalists, human rights activists and essentially anybody who was systematically recording all of the

human rights violations which were being conducted by the security forces and by vigilante groups

which were let loose by the government.

So they simply didn't want us to be recording it because our message to them was clear, that Amnesty

International will be recording and documenting all violation and that they will be held to account.

Nationally and internationally, the leadership will be held to account, and they obviously don't want that

to happen so they've arrested our people.

I think it was also very strategic because they wanted to distract and take attention away from the main

subject which is to, you know, to make sure that there is a long-term change in the country. They want

the journalists and the human rights organisations to be focused on dealing with these - the crisis.

So yes, since yesterday they literally, you know, two of our staff have disappeared. We've asked the

government, they don't tell us where they are. We've heard some sort of rumour that they were in the

Hisham Mubarak, law rights, human rights centre which is where a lot of the human rights activists are

based and they were literally taken away from there.

One of them, a lady we don't even know whether she was actually taken, in which direction she was

taken. Even as of now we have no idea where both of them are and we've made appeals to the

government, to the international community and, you know, the families are so concerned and it's just,

they're basically missing, we have no idea where they are.

LINDY KERIN: And so what sort of response are you getting when you're making those inquiries about

where those staff members are?

SALIL SHETTY: I mean there's no response at all. We have a lawyer on the ground, they're refusing to

answer any of our questions, you know, it's completely, they say 'we don't know', no answer no

response.

And you know it's just unbelievable that Amnesty International are three million members, we're one of

the sort of biggest human rights movements in the world and they don't even feel obliged to even let us

know where two of our, you know, our very respected staff have just disappeared.

LINDY KERIN: You must be very worried about them.

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SALIL SHETTY: It's really bad, because you know, it's - there are our frontline staff and you know

obviously we are accountable to their families and we are unable to give any information and it's

unbelievable.

You know, they're not answering, they're not supplying to even the embassies you know one of them is a

French national and they're refusing to give any answers to anybody.

LINDY KERIN: And where is the other person from?

SALIL SHETTY: We are being a bit careful about, you know, giving all the details of each of these

people because some of them are at particular risk because of the country they come from.

LINDY KERIN: And some foreign journalists including a TV crew from the ABC here in Australia have

reported being attacked by pro-government supporters there. What do you make of those attacks on the

media?

SALIL SHETTY: It's a pretty premeditated, orchestrated attack. It's very targeted and you know the

names of the organisations and the media outlets which have been attacked.

You know, I come from India, even the Indian media organisations have been attacked, it's not just you

know, the Australian or the American or the so-called Western media. Anybody who is telling the truth

about what's happening, telling the truth to the world, they have been attacked.

And now, you know, the whole last two days for us, we've obviously been spending a lot of our time

trying to find out where our staff are, their safety, their security and so that works perfectly well for the

Egyptian authorities right now because instead of doing what we should be doing we are focusing our

energy on trying to track our staff down.

And that's very premeditated, they've done it in a very systematic way, that's exactly what they did in the

square. They sent their people armed and attacked the peaceful protesters so you know, it's pretty clear

what they're trying to do.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: That's the secretary general of Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, speaking to

Lindy Kerin.

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