February, 02 2011, 12:49pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Brenda Bowser Soder,bowsersoderb@humanrightsfirst.org,O -202/370-3323, C - 301/906-4460
Human Rights First Calls on President Obama to Address Growing Chaos in Egypt
As Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak addressed the Egyptian people
yesterday, he told them that they had to choose between "chaos and
stability." - a false choice that Human Rights First is urging President
Obama to address.
WASHINGTON
As Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak addressed the Egyptian people
yesterday, he told them that they had to choose between "chaos and
stability." - a false choice that Human Rights First is urging President
Obama to address.
"The suggestion that a leader who has provoked chaos and disorder in
his country in order to cling to power could bring stability was
improbable. This morning, as gangs of thugs, some reportedly with
police and state security IDs, attacked protesters in Cairo's Tahrir
Square and elsewhere, President Mubarak's words are exposed as
completely without foundation," noted Human Rights First's Neil Hicks.
"President Mubarak has committed another act of vandalism against his
people and his country."
According to Human Rights First, if President Mubarak continues to
resist legitimate demands for basic rights and freedoms from his people,
the United States should begin to exercise the influence it has in
Egypt - especially through the security assistance it provides to the
Egyptian military - to push for change. President Obama, for example,
should re-enforce his demand that Egypt's transition process should
begin immediately by referring to the consequences that will follow if
it does not.
"The Obama administration must condemn the violent assault on
peaceful protesters and demand that these attacks be stopped and those
responsible for ordering them held accountable," Hicks concluded.
Human Rights First is a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in New York and Washington D.C. Human Rights First believes that building respect for human rights and the rule of law will help ensure the dignity to which every individual is entitled and will stem tyranny, extremism, intolerance, and violence.
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Despite the Pentagon's repeated failures to pass audits and various alarming policies, 81 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted with 200 Republicans on Wednesday to advance a $883.7 billion annual defense package.
The Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025, unveiled by congressional negotiators this past Saturday, still needs approval from the Senate, which is expected to vote next week. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday that he plans to vote no and spoke out against the military-industrial complex.
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