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| Africa North |
| Morsi supporters fired first at Rabaa, but police response 'out of proportion': NCHR |
| 2014-03-06 |
| [Al Ahram] Egypt's government-appointed human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. organization has announced its findings of a six-month investigation into last August's bloody dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in, concluding that while supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Timeprinciple, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... fired first, security forces on the scene responded with excessive force, "firing out of proportion" and leaving over 600 dead. The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) presented the report at a presser in Cairo Wednesday, where Nasser Amin, a human rights lawyer and a member of the council's fact-finding committee, offered what he said was a detailed account of events on 14 August, when security forces dispersed the pro-Morsi camp in the Cairo district of Nasr City. According to the council's report, police were present at the sit-in at roughly 6am. Warning shots were fired around 7:20am to inform protesters of peaceful exits and warning them not to attack the police. Amin pointed out that the interior ministry did not provide the council a copy of its dispersal plan for 14 August and that the fact-finding committee had to reach its own conclusions. The festivities first began at 8:10am, with police firing teargas and protesters hurling stones and Molotov cocktails, Amin said. Around 11am the first gunshot was fired on Al-Tayaran Street, by the Republic Guard headquarters, killing a police officer who had been calling on protesters to leave via a secure and safe exit. "The scene dramatically changed after that, and gunshots were excessively fired from all sides," said Amin. Between 1 and 2:30pm was what Amin described as a cease fire, during which pro-Morsi groups tried to enter the sit-in. They were barred from entering by security forces, who by then had managed to again clear the safe exits. At this point in the presser, Amin screened video footage showing alleged gangs at Rabaa Al-Adaweya. "The presence of gangs was dangerous because it made civilians a target as well," said Amin. Behind him, the video footage showed protesters hiding from gunshots. The report accused "extremist members" from the protest camp of using civilians as human shields, which led to deaths and injuries. No video footage of the police in action during the dispersal was screened at the presser on Wednesday. When members of the audience pointed this out and criticised the council, Amin responded that the footage of the Islamist protesters was the "only footage they could find." Another video that Amin screened was one of Moslem Brüderbund leader Mohammed El-Beltagy. The footage showed El-Beltagy speaking on the stage in Rabaa Al-Adaweya, reportedly during the midday cease fire, when he announced that over 300 people had been killed. Amin referred to this footage as a "very important testimony" regarding the commission's body count from the dispersal because the day's "most aggressive battle" occurred before the cease fire. The battle after the cease fire lasted only an hour, he said. According to the report, 632 were killed in the dispersal, all of them civilians with the exception of eight coppers. |
| Posted by:Fred |