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In their first conference, Nubians request right of return from Mubarak and confirm that their homes in “exile” are on the verge of collapse
Nubian activists denied that they are calling for secession from Egypt, but at the same time they asked that President Mubarak grant them the right to return to their land and property, saying that the homes which were built in “exile” after the High Dam was built—to which 17,000 Nubian families were moved in 1964—are on the verge of collapse because they were built on loamy land.
These statements were made during the first Nubian conference ever, “Nubia between Resettlement and Development,” which was organized by the Egyptian Center for Housing Rights in cooperation with the Nubian Follow-Up Committee in Alexandria and the Association for Nubian Tradition in Aswan. The conference began last Thursday, despite attempts by security services to keep it from happening.
In her statement, Manal al-Tibi, the director of the Egyptian Center for Housing Rights, stated that the main goal of the conference was to take the Nubian issue out of the narrow framework of Nubian society and bring it to the attention of Egyptian society as a whole in order to garner the greatest level of action and support for the legitimate demands of the Nubians. She also stated that it is the right of individuals and organizations in any society to defend their rights as guaranteed by international human rights agreements. Al-Tibi went on to say that the Nubian issue has always been addressed from the viewpoint of national security and the maintenance of the borders, while completely ignoring the rights of this group, which was established and thriving before exile. She added that the Egyptian state committed a crime against this peaceful Egyptian group when it uprooted them from their lands. The director of the Egyptian Center for Housing Rights pointed to the suffering and displacement the Nubians have had to endure thanks to the development mega-projects the Egyptian government has implemented along the Nile, beginning in 1902 and up through the construction of the High Dam in the early 1960s. She added that the time has come for the Nubians to obtain some of the fruits which the state has begun to reap from development in the region—such as the construction of resettlement villages around the High Damn Lake in projects carried out by the Egyptian government with the help of the international assistance agency FAO—which thus far have been of no benefit to the Nubians.
Source: Al-Dustour
April 21, 2007
By: Haitham Gabr and Samar Nour
Written By: AD2
Date Posted: 4/29/2007
Number of Views: 320
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