report continues to cause a stir

May 11, 2004: The Human Rights Watch report on human rights violations against gay men in Egypt continues to cause a stir in international circles. But accusations of torture loom over the American administration as well as over the Egyptian government. The report which was issued earlier this year is refusing to let the issue of human rights abuses against homosexual men (or those perceived to be homosexual) in Egypt go away.

Activist Steven Hunt from Chicago called for sanctions against Egypt just after the report was issued. In a mail circulated in March he said sanction were needed, "To counteract and to force official Egypt to cease and desist from its intolerable ongoing arrests and torturing of men suspected of having gay sex." His suggestions included measures such as, "A serious, focused and comprehensive world boycott of Egyptian commercial goods, products and paid services. A withdrawal of exchange students now in Egypt, and a halt to student exchanges in future to Egypt. Lobbying in Washington, DC, to withhold, and/or make conditional upon human rights performance, any further US fiscal aid to Egypt -- including the rescinding of approved funds already voted, earmarked for, or entrain to Cairo -- in program areas strategic to official Egypt. An advertising campaign to cut tourist and business travel to Egypt -- based on disapproval of Egypt's current antigay persecutions. An advertising campaign to close and preclude world-class exhibitions of Egyptian antiquities, artifacts and art forms -- denying to Egypt the foreign currency earnings and prestige there from, and the immediate setting up of an endowed, long-term, justice-for-gay-victims of Egyptian persecution Institute -- including semi-covert tracing of perpetrators if necessary. The Institute's specific mission -- to document, identify, locate, confront, and expose for redress all persons officially and personally responsible for participating in past, present and future arrests and torturing of men suspected of having gay sex in Egypt."

Some of these measures have long been proposed by Egyptian activists including those at GayEgypt.com who have been spearheading a boycott on tourism to Egypt since 2001.

Yesterday Christopher Curtis from PlanetOut Network reported that on Thursday U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman, D-N.J., sent a letter urging Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to eliminate all abuses against gay men. "Rothman co-authored the letter with Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Tom Lantos, D-Calif., and 41 other members of Congress, both Republicans and Democratics, signed it," said the report.

"We regard the repression, entrapment and torture of individuals based on their real or perceived sexual orientation to be clear human rights violations," Rothman and his colleagues wrote.

The lawmakers cited the 144-page Human Rights Watch report released on March 1, 2004, which detailed testimonies of men accused of being homosexuals.

The men in the report claimed they were bound, suspended in painful positions, burned with cigarettes, submerged in ice-cold water and subjected to electrical shocks on their limbs and genitals. However, recent allegations of torture against American troops, who currently occupy Iraq, are likely to take precedence in the minds of Egyptian officials and could seriously undermine the effectiveness of this latest demand by US representatives.

Addressing President Mubarak, the letter continued: "We sincerely hope Egypt will abide by the requirements of the treaties signed and laws in place, and that you personally will speak out against and work to prevent any future incidents of torture, including the torture of homosexual men."

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other organizations have been documenting torture in Egypt for more than a decade.

One of the most infamous abuses against suspected gay men occurred in May 2001, when Egyptian police arrested more than 50 men on the Queen Boat, a floating nightclub in the Nile. Egypt sentenced 23 men to prison terms because they were found guilty of practicing "sexual immorality," a euphemism for homosexuality. A total of 52 men were on trial and detained
for several months; 29 were acquitted.

Rep. Rothman hopes the letter will convince the Egyptian government to change. He is one of five Democrats on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, which awards foreign aid.

"Having representatives of the U.S. government send this kind of letter has to have some pull," explained Rothman's press secretary, Jeff Lieberson.

"Whether the Egyptian government is going to do anything is a possibility. It's worth seeing if President Mubarak is going to do anything," Lieberson said.