US-funded democracy groups raided in Egypt

Offices of 17 NGOs raided to probe role of foreign hands in current protests

Egyptian security forces stormed the offices of 17 nonprofit groups around the country on Thursday,including at least three democracy-promotion groups financed by the US,as part of what Egypts military-led government has said is an investigation into foreign hands in the recent outbreak of protests.

In Cairo,heavily armed men wearing the black uniforms of the central security police tore through boxes,hauled away files and computers and prevented employees from leaving the offices of the two US groups,the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute,which are affiliated with US political parties and financed by the US government. The security forces also raided the offices of Washington-based Freedom House.

The raids were a stark escalation in what has appeared to be a campaign by the countrys military rulers to rally support by playing to nationalist and anti-American sentiment here. But for the military rulers to suggest that US government funding may have played a role in the recent unrest is remarkable,in part because the Egyptian military itself receives 1.3 billion in annual US aid.

General prosecutor amp; central security stormed NDI office in Cairo amp; Assiut, an employee of the National Democratic Institute wrote in a text message from inside its offices. We are confined here as theyre searching and clearing out office.

A man,who identified himself as an official with the public prosecutors office but declined to give his name,stood outside the offices of the International Republican Institute. He refused to answer questions about the raids but said,Dont worry,were not going to arrest them.

The raids come of the heels of an investigation by the Egyptian government into foreign financing for nonprofit organisations operating in the country. The military has suggested that such funding has played a role in fomenting protests.

The US Embassy did not immediately respond to the raids. Rights advocates have urged the Egyptian government to drop its investigation into foreign funding of civil society,which prosecutors have described as treason. A September report by state security prosecutors identified what it said were over two dozen unregistered groups receiving foreign funding in Egypt. By the countrys law,the violation is punishable with imprisonment.

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The Republican and Democratic institutes had been barred from operating in Egypt by the former president Hosni Mubarak but began operating after his ouster in February.

Meanwhile,in Cairo,a court acquitted five policemen of charges of killing five protesters and wounding six others during the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubaraks regime.

The raids and the acquittal of the policemen were certain to usher in a new low in relations between the ruling generals who took over from Mubarak and rights groups and activists who engineered the uprising that ousted him. DAVID D KIRKPATRICK amp; J DAVID GOODMAN