Bush and Mubarak spar over human rights and democracy

At the World Economic Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, President Bush and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak both made public critiques of the other’s policies on democracy and human rights, BBC News reported on May 20.

In his address, Bush remarked that “too often in the Middle East, politics has consisted of one leader in power, and the opposition in jail.”

Mubarak has served as president for almost thirty years, and a sizable number of Egypt’s political dissidents are in prison.

Mubarak made similarly critical comments, declaring that the imposition of democracy from abroad only leads to chaos and instability – an obvious reference to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Adding to the air of animosity between the two, neither president was in the audience when the other gave his address.

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