The Bush administration slammed Egypt for shutting down a human rights monitor.
“We are deeply concerned at the Egyptian Government’s recent decree authorizing the imminent closure of the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid, a human rights NGO, as well as the conviction and sentencing of several newspaper editors,” the White House said in a statement this week. “These latest decisions appear to contradict the Egyptian Government’s stated commitment to expand democratic rights.”
Egypt currently receives about $1.4 billion in military assistance and another $400 million in civil assistance, part of the package it negotiated in the 1978 Camp David peace accords with Israel. The Bush administration has until now resisted efforts in Congress to transfer funds from the military assistance package to programs promoting democracy.
