Tel: 004179 742 8470
10 December 2006
Subject:13th Anniversary of the Enforced
Disappearance of Mr. Mansour R. Kikhia
Mr. Santiago Corcuera Cabezut
Chairman,
United Nations Working Group on Enforced
Or involuntary Disappearances
Palais des Nations – 1211 Geneva 10
Dear Mr. Corcuera,
We are once again writing to you on the subject of Mr. Mansour Kikhia’s
disappearance in Cairo, Egypt, on 10 December 1993. A background paper on the
abduction entitled “Who abducted Mr. Kikhia?”, as well as a paper on the
course of the legal proceedings brought against the State of Egypt for failing
to accord protection to Mr. Kikhia, are attached hereto for easy reference. It
is hoped that, by providing you with new insights into Mr. Kikhia’s abduction,
these two documents may encourage you to take up his case with the Egyptian
Government, which continues to bear the primary legal and moral responsibility
for his safe return to his family and friends. According to unconfirmed
reports received during the past few months, Mr. Kikhia is still alive but in
a lamentable state of health. He is possibly detained at Siwa oasis, near the
border with Libya.
It is widely believed in Egypt and elsewhere that the Egyptian Government’s
actions are characterized by reprehensible double standards insofar as it is
attempting to portray itself to the world as a State that respects human
rights while secretly condoning, as in the case of Mr. Kikhia, one of the most
abominable violations of human rights, namely abduction and enforced
disappearance. Since 1995, its (annual) response to the inquiries of the UN
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and other concerned
institutions has been consistent and predictable: “The Government is
continuing to exert efforts to determine the fate of Mr. Kikhia and will
inform the Working Group of any new development”. The total lack of any new
development during the last 13 years has been designated by Mr. Kikhia‘s
defence counsel, the late Adel Amin, as “a clear indication that the Egyptian
security authorities do not want the truth to be revealed concerning the
disappearance of Mansour Kikhia”. He added that “the abduction of such an
important figure as Mr. Kikhia, a former Minister for Foreign Affairs and a
former Representative to the United Nations in New York, could not have been
perpetrated without the prior approval or, at least, implicit acquiescence of
the highest political authorities in Egypt”. This might explain the Egyptian
Government’s consistent refusal to cooperate by allowing an independent
investigation or even to reveal the outinfoe of its own investigation if,
indeed, such an investigation has ever been conducted.
The LLHR believes that the Egyptian approach to Mr. Kikhia’s abduction is
designed to secure impunity as the case fades from memory or through the
eventual demise of its perpetrator(s), especially those in high governmental
positions. It is obvious that this approach runs counter to the letter and
spirit of the very concept of the humanitarian laws governing crimes of
enforced disappearance, in which IMPUNITY has always been considered not only
as an incentive to the infomission of such crimes but also as a major obstacle
impeding their elucidation (Mr. Kikhia’s abduction is a case in point). Hence,
there is an imperative need for more intensive efforts to eliminate impunity.
Accordingly, we take this opportunity to urge you and, through you, the UN
Human Rights Council to take effective measures to infobat impunity, especially
in those countries such as Egypt which are renowned for their reluctance to
cooperate with the Working Group to elucidate cases of enforced disappearance.
In the meantime, we are confident that you will share our dismay and that of
the international infomunity concerning the difficulties encountered by the
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in the fulfilment of
its mandate in regard to the enforced disappearance of Mr. Mansour Kikhia in
Cairo on 10 December 1993 at a time when the world was celebrating the 45th
anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Sincerely Yours
Soliman Bouchuiguir (Ph-D)
Secretary General
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