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| Africa North |
| 5 Dead in Egypt as pro-Islamists Mark Rabaa Anniversary |
| 2014-08-15 |
| [An Nahar] At least five people were killed in sporadic violence in Egypt on Thursday after Islamists called protests to mark the first anniversary of a police crackdown that cost the lives of hundreds of demonstrators. On August 14, 2013, after then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi had removed Egypt's first freely elected Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, police set upon thousands of Morsi supporters at protest camps in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda squares, leaving hundreds of people dead. The assault was "one of the largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history", the New York-based Human Rights Watch ... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge.... said in a report released ahead of Thursday's anniversary. In Rabaa al-Adawiya at least 817 people were killed, HRW said, calling for investigations into likely "crimes against humanity". Official estimates say more than 700 people were killed at the two squares on that day. On Thursday, attempts by Morsi supporters to demonstrate were swiftly suppressed, reflecting their dwindling ability to stage protests amid violent repression that has left more than 1,400 people dead since Morsi's overthrow in July 2013. The pro-Morsi Anti-Coup Alliance had called for nationwide rallies under the slogan "We Demand Retribution". Four people were killed by gunshots across Cairo when Morsi supporters clashed with riot police and civilian opponents, a security official said. Earlier, a policeman was bumped off in a southern Cairo suburb by unknown assailants. The interior ministry blamed Morsi supporters for his death. Police fired tear gas during festivities with pro-Morsi demonstrators in three neighborhoods of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and in the town of Kerdasa, southwest of Cairo. Similar trouble was reported in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya. At least 14 people were maimed and around 70 enjugged Please don't kill me! nationwide, security officials and state news agency MENA said. Security forces were deployed around Cairo's main squares including Rabaa to thwart any attempts by pro-Morsi groups to hold rallies. In a conference call on Tuesday, HRW executive director Kenneth Roth said the Rabaa crackdown was a "widespread systematic attack on civilian population". He called for an investigation into the roles played in the assault by Sisi, Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim and Medhat Menshawy, who led the crackdown. Hazem al-Beblawi, who was prime minister at that time, brushed off the HRW criticism. "It was a sad decision yet necessary... I do not have the slightest doubt that what happened was right," Beblawi told Agence La Belle France Presse. "No disproportionate force was used... it only took so long because of the vicious resistance (of the protesters)," he added. The crackdown was launched after thousands of pro-Morsi supporters refused to end their sit-ins despite repeated warnings by the authorities. Qatar-based holy man Sheikh Yusef al-Qaradawi ...crackpot Egyptian Islamist theologian. He is best known for his program Shariah and Lifeon Al Jazeera, with an estimated audience of 60 million kindred souls worldwide. He is also well-known for IslamOnline, which occasionally advocates things like slavery and thumping the old lady with a rod no thicker than an inch, and has published more than 120 books, including Islam: The Future Civilization.Joe has long had a prominent role within the intellectual leadership of the Moslem Brüderbund. Some of his views have been controversial in the West, though less so among the rubes of the Mysterious East, and he was refused entry to the United Kingdom in 2008. In 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and from the Palestinian territories condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving Islam a bad name.... , who was born in Egypt and is seen as a spiritual guide by supporters of Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund, called for the prosecution of the "leaders of the military coup" for the "premeditated massacre" of the protesters. Qaradawi is himself wanted in Egypt and faces trial in absentia as part of the crackdown on Morsi's supporters. Gas-rich Qatar has also given refuge to a number of Brotherhood leaders who fled Egypt after Morsi's overthrow and has faced persistent criticism from the new authorities in Cairo. |
| Posted by:Fred |