Sudan, Washington's global hegemony, Mamdouh Hamza and Iraq fire the imagination of Egypt's pundits this week, writes Gamal Nkrumah Shivers of anxiety ran through the Egyptian press this week about the political future of Sudan. Barely veiled suspicions about the real motives behind keeping Darfur in the international spotlight inundated the Egyptian press this week. Speculation about the hidden agenda of United States policy-makers abounded. Sudan, the pundits feared, was fast metamorphosing into another embittered and embattled Iraq. The national dailies Al-Ahram and Al-Gomhuriya focussed throughout the week on the crisis in Darfur. Both papers highlighted the visit by US Secretary of State Colin Powell to Egypt and his discussions with Egyptian officials about the situation in Sudan. Sudanese sovereignty, the pundits feared, was being eroded. The two papers consistently featured articles about Sudan throughout the week. It would be equally wrong to pretend that there was no humanitarian crisis in Darfur, the pundits concurred. But military intervention in Sudan, like in Iraq, would only aggravate matters, most commentators concluded. More of the same violent measures will only worsen those problems. The prospect of the UN sanctions and the possible prosecutions of war against Egypt's immediate neighbour to the south was both disturbing and disconcerting for most commentators. Other mainstream national dailies also busied themselves with Sudanese affairs. "Mubarak assures Al- Beshir of Egypt's support for peace efforts in Darfur," ran a headline in Sunday's edition of the national daily Al-Akhbar. "A high-powered Egyptian delegation closely examines developments with the Sudanese leadership," it added. The paper disclosed that Egyptian troops were to be deployed in Darfur under the umbrella of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, stressing that Egypt applauded Sudan's decision to accept the UN Security Council resolution. The opposition daily Al-Wafd devoted large sections of its Friday edition to Sudanese affairs, and especially to the crisis in Darfur. "The Sudanese government is in a predicament," warned Iglal Raafat, historian and professor of African Studies at Cairo University and who is also the head of Al-Wafd Party's Sudan Committee in an extensive interview published in the paper's Friday edition. Raafat observed that the proliferation of weapons in Darfur began soon after the devastating war between Chad and Libya which left an indelible mark of political chaos and ethnic rivalry on many of the tribes and ethnic groups located along the Chadian-Sudanese border. There are 13 tribes that are found in both Chad and Libya, and they don't always pay much attention to international borders, Raafat noted. She pointed out that, "in the new world order, human rights concerns reduce the sovereignty of poor and weak countries which in turn encourage foreign intervention by big powers in the domestic affairs of poor and weak states." She concluded that other restive and traditionally marginalised parts of the sprawling country are closely examining developments in Darfur and are seriously considering taking up arms against the central government in Khartoum. The mystery surrounding the detention in Britain of Mamdouh Hamza was widely covered in the Egyptian press this week. The independent weekly Sawt Al- Umma ran a front page headline urging President Hosni Mubarak to the files of Ibrahim Soleiman. The paper also devoted two inside pages, the second and third, entirely to the riddle of the Hamza arrest. "The whole of Egypt supports Mamdouh Hamza," ran another front page banner. "Mamdouh Hamza's money in prison went instead to Abu Hamza due to a mix-up in names," the paper facetiously reported how the British authorities mistook Hamza for Abu Hamza El-Masri, the notorious militant Islamist cleric charged with inciting terrorism and currently incarcerated in England. On a lighter note, Sawt Al-Umma splashed the photographs of two very contrasting women on both the front page and the back page of the paper: one draped in a dreary black niqab coquettishly dipping her toes in the inviting Mediterranean, and the other sunbathing in a cheery lilac bikini. The paper relegated the article on the novel appearance in Egypt of the women-only beaches to its back page. Instead of looking into how the beaches are run, the articles focussed instead on who owns them. Apparently, the Coptic Christian tycoon Naguib Saweiras pulls the financial strings behind these beaches meant to attract devout Muslim women. The national daily Al-Akhbar highlighted Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit's trip to Sudan and his meeting with Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al- Beshir to discuss the political and humanitarian crises in Darfur. In a message to Al-Beshir, President Mubarak stressed Egypt's support of peace efforts in Sudan. The Editor-in-Chief of the independent daily Al- Ahrar Salah Qabadaya wrote a thought-provoking column in Al-Akhbar in which he speculated about the real cause of the crisis in Darfur. "I could not find anyone who would tell me the truth about the presence in commercial quantities of oil in western Sudan and in particular in Darfur," wrote Qabadaya. "But I did realise that there are quite a few big arms dealers who trade weapons in Africa south of the Sahara. Arms dealers are making a killing in Darfur, as they did in southern Sudan," he concluded. Powell's stopover in Cairo last week received much scrutiny in the Egyptian press this week. While official papers looked more favourably on Powell's visit, opposition papers were more critical and eyed the visit suspiciously. "Egypt is a friendly country and Washington approves of the political reform process outlined by President Mubarak," ran a front page headline of last Friday's edition of Al-Ahram. "Egypt is the real target behind the vicious intrigue surrounding Sudan. [The Israeli Secret Service] MOSSAD and the CIA are stoking the fires in Darfur," ran a front page headline in the sensationalist weekly Al-Osbou. The paper's Editor-in-Chief Mustafa Bakri wrote in a column entitled "Between Iraq and Sudan" that "US Secretary of State Colin Powell came to Cairo with a stick in one hand and a carrot in the other." He said that even though Powell failed to understand Egypt's position on Sudan, that the Egyptian authorities warned against a reckless US escapade in Sudan. If the occupation of Iraq is bad, military intervention in Sudan will be much worse." Al-Akhbar 's Editor-in-Chief Galal Dowidar in his column on Sunday's edition of Al-Akhbar analysed the arguments in America in the run up to presidential elections in November. He noted the strong criticisms levelled against the Bush administration, and especially its decision to invade Iraq. "It now looks certain that the US presidential elections will not be favourable to US President George W Bush. Unless, a big surprise changes the course of the election campaign." Dowidar stressed that the US hand-over of limited sovereignty to an interim Iraqi administration did not make the troubled country any more secure. The fast deteriorating security situation in Iraq was cause for serious concern, he stressed. The inauspicious arrival of August, when Egyptians generally flock to the country's seaside resorts, received scant attention this year. The fellah (peasant) of Kafr Al-Hanadwah, however, created by cartoonist Amr Fahmi apologised profusely to his fans explaining that he is enjoying a summer break with Fahmi and Al-Akhbar 's satirist Ahmed Ragab. Not to be outdone, the opposition Nasserist Party's paper Al-Arabi plastered the photograph of Mamdouh Hamza on the front page of its Sunday 1 August edition. "This country is hopeless," he was quoted as saying. Apparently the paper ran an exclusive about the meeting in Hamza's home in the Cairene suburb of Doqqi between the British ambassador and Hamza less than 48 hours before the departure and the arrest of the latter in London. Indeed, there was more than a hint of a Judas. The paper's Editor-in-Chief Abdallah El-Sinnawi wrote an intriguing full-page investigative report in which he tried to piece together the puzzle of Hamza's arrest. El-Sinnawi's report entitled "The Last Supper" was replete with conspiracy theories. In much the same vein, "The predicament of Hamza's wife: the best solicitors in London are Jewish," ran another provocative Al-Arabi front page banner. The paper also launched a scathing critique of the way in which the country is governed. "Who exactly runs the country," asked El-Sinnawi in his back page column. "And, what exactly is the role played by Gamal Mubarak?"
