Adonis Diaries

The daily Akhbar El Yom newspaper has published excerpts from the ministry of justice’s report on foreign funding of NGOs.  Since summertime, there has been a witch hunt on April 6 Youth Movement claiming it received western foreign funding (viewed as foreign intervention and manipulation of Egyptian society).

The fact-finding committee, headed by judges Sameh Abu Zaid and Ashraf El-Ashamawi, discovered that a single Salafist association has received ($50 million)  from  two Gulf countries. The report named those two donations (from Qatar and Kuwait) as the biggest received by any Egyptian NGO in 2010 and 2011.

The report also concluded that the April 6 Youth Movement had not received any foreign funding, accusations that had stalked the revolutionary movement for months.

Mentioned in the report are donations of about ($15.5 million) received by the Mohamed Alaa Mubarak Charity Association from Oman and UAE until July 2011. The association was founded in 2010 by Heidi Rasaskh, the wife of Alaa Mubarak, the son of ousted president Mubarak, who is currently in prison facing charges of corruption. The association was founded as a tribute to their son, Mohamed Mubarak, who died in 2009. It is unclear how the association operates currently, after the ousting of former president and the detention of Alaa Mubarak.

The fact-finding committee also noted the foreign donations of  ($26 mn) received by the NGO, Caritas Egypt. Caritas has operated in Egypt since 1967, with a focus on women and children.

The report  included the donations of  ($11 million) from the American funding body USAID to NGOs working in the field of democracy development in Egypt. According to the findings, USAID funded the American Democracy Institute (ADI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) to the tune of ($6.7 mn). The report did not specify which Egyptian NGO’s received the remaining  ($4.25 mn).

The spokesperson for the April 6 Youth Movement, Mahmoud Afifi, tweeted that the group would not tolerate any unfounded accusations of receiving foreign money. He also thanked all those who trusted in the movement despite the defamation campaign.

The “We Are All Khaled Said Movement”, an influential campaign that played a major role in the January 25 Revolution, demanded that Major General El-Rowaini, member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the commander of the central military zone, apologise for accusing the April 6 Youth Movement of receiving foreign funding and working against the country.

Major General El-Rowaini accused the youth movement of receiving foreign funding in media statements in July. This move inflamed tensions further between revolutionary activists and SCAF and made the public call into question youth movements’ integrity.” End of quote

Note: You may read on this military council Black Box https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/black-box-of-egypt-military-and-supreme-council-of-armed-forces-scaf-a-pattern-of-abuse/