Egypt
Sentenced 509
to Death in
2014, Obama
Releases Jets,
Amnesty Report
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
1 with video
-- In
Egypt in 2014,
509 people
were sentenced
to death.
On March 31,
2015, on the
very day the
UN belatedly
criticized
airstrikes in
an IDP camp in
Yemen, and
Doctors
without
Borders and
the Red Cross
complained of
the blockades
that prevent
medical
supplies from
getting in, US
President
Barack Obama
said he is
releasing
tanks, jets
and rockets to
Egypt, which
is part of the
military
offensive and
blockade.
On
April 1, Inner
City Press
asked Amnesty
International's
representative
at the UN
Renzo Pomi
about the
death
sentences, and
the Obama
administration's
decision. Video here.
While Pomi had
no direct
comment
linking the
two issues,
Amnesty
International
was fast in
reporting
civilian
casualties
from the
Saudi-led,
Egypt-involved
offensive on
Yemen.
(And,
Amnesty notes,
in 2014 "the
USA continued
to use the
death penalty
in
contravention
of
international
law and
standards,"
citing the
cases of Edgar
Tamayo, Askari
Adullah
Muhammad, Paul
Goodwin and
Ramiro
Hernandez
Llanas.)
In
Amnesty's
study of
executions in
2014, Pomi
told Inner
City Press,
only
"judicial"
executions
were
considered.
This
apparently
means, by a
state or
recognized
entity such as
in Gaza. ISIS
is not
counted,
though its
executions
have led to
others. Are
all states
judicial? We
hope to have
more on this.
The White
House read-out
began,
"President
Obama spoke
with Egyptian
President
Abdelfattah
al-Sisi today
regarding the
U.S.-Egyptian
military
assistance
relationship
and regional
developments,
including in
Libya and
Yemen.
President
Obama informed
President
al-Sisi that
he will lift
executive
holds that
have been in
place since
October 2013
on the
delivery of
F-16 aircraft,
Harpoon
missiles, and
M1A1 tank
kits."
The
NSC specified
that
"President
Obama has
directed the
release of 12
F-16 aircraft,
20 Harpoon
missiles, and
up to 125 M1A1
Abrams tank
kits that have
been held from
delivery."
The timing is
strange. Or
perhaps not.
Amid
continued
airstrikes in
Yemen, on
March 30 came
reports of an
airstrike on
an internally
displaced
persons camp
in Haradh.
Inner City
Press
immediately
sought
confirmation
(and comment)
from the UN.
On
March 31, UN
High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights Zeid
issued a
statement on
Yemen
including
this:
'I
am shocked by
Monday’s
airstrike
against the
Al-Mazraq camp
for internally
displaced
people in
Harad, in the
north of
Yemen,' Zeid
said. There
are different
accounts as to
how many
people were
killed in the
airstrike, but
UN human
rights staff
in Yemen have
verified at
least 19
fatalities,
with at least
35 others
injured
including 11
children. This
camp, home to
some 4,000
people, was
established by
the UN in 2009
and recently
received at
least 300 new
families
displaced from
Sa'da."
Meanwhile UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon was in
Kuwait,
talking about
"a deeply
moving video
entitled
'Clouds over
Sidra.'
It is an
amazing
virtual
reality
production of
the starkness
of life in the
Za’atari
Refugee Camp
through the
eyes of a
beautiful
young girl by
the name of
Sidra."
Ban speaks on
this virtual
reality - but
remains silent
on the
inconvenient
reality of the
airstrike on
the real IDP
camp in Haradh
in Yemen.
, 
