EGYPT: Kuwait deports 17 ElBaradei supporters

The Egyptian ambassador to Kuwait, Tarek Farahat, said that "despite not being informed of any deportation decisions, Kuwaiti authorities have full sovereignty to extradite anyone living on its soil."

The deportations were criticized by local and international human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, which issued a statement saying Kuwait was enabling Egypt's repression by harassing ElBaradei's supporters.

"Kuwait's state security should stop arresting and deporting expatriate supporters of ElBaradei," read the statement. "Kuwait should immediately release all remaining Egyptian detainees and allow those deported to return to their homes in Kuwait."

Hassan Nafaa, the National Front for Change's general coordinator, expressed his bemusement at the Egyptian authorities' silence on the matter so far. The Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Youm reported on Sunday that Kuwaiti parliament insiders believe the Egyptian embassy in Kuwait is behind the deportations after it led local authorities to the activists' movements.

Following his return to Egypt on Feb. 18 after stepping down from his post as head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, ElBaradei formed the National Front for Change to pressure President Hosni Mubarak's regime for democratic reform. ElBaradei hopes that amending the constitution can help him and other independent candidates to run in the 2011 presidential elections.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: ElBaradei among some of his supporters. Credit: Victoria Hazou / AFP

"I make less than that sum per working day, so how can I spend it all on butane? I once had to wait for four hours to find a tube, which I had to pay 35 pounds [$6.31] for," Mohamed Tolba, a security guard, told The Times. 

Days after the butane crisis, the country confronted a shortage of diesel gas, which is used in tens of thousands of trucks, buses and cars as a substitute for the more costly benzene. The problem caused a transportation crisis for the myriad Egyptians who rely on fleets of privately owned minivans rather than public buses.

"For days, we used to have long queues of small buses and trucks desperate to get their vehicles fueled," Abdel Gawad Khalifa, a worker at a gas station told The Times. "We couldn’t fulfill the demands because the amount of diesel we were getting was way below the normal. I personally don’t exactly know why diesel was scarce, but I know for sure it was."

Officials blamed both crises on agents and wholesalers, who they said withheld large amounts of butane and diesel gas to increase prices. Most Egyptians, however, weren’t convinced; they blamed the government for creating the shortages.