Egypt: Hopes fade for US help to restore civil liberties

Egypt's decision to extend its oppressive Emergency Law for two more years drew a tepid response from Washington, prompting criticism that U.S. administrations - including that of President Barack Obama - only push for political reform in Egypt when it suits their geostrategic interest. "Obama has completely gone back on his promise to support democracy in the Arab world," Hafez Abu Saeda, secretary-general of the Cairo-based Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, told IPS. "He has obviously reached the conclusion that regional stability - i.e., keeping dictatorial regimes in power - is more in the U.S. interest than democracy." On May 11, Egypt's parliament, which is dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party of President Hosni Mubarak, approved a two-year extension of the longstanding and unpopular Emergency Law. The 30-year-old law, declared following the 1981 assassination of then president Anwar Sadat, gives the state wide-ranging powers of arrest and detention without charge. The government has traditionally defended the law by appealing to the need for "stability" and safeguarding "national security." Opposition figures and rights advocates, however, say the law has been used primarily to stifle political dissent.