Massacre in Cairo: Egypt junta crushes Mursi supporters

At least 235 dead as forces smash protest camps; Brotherhood claims toll is higher.

CAIRO:

Egyptian security forces crushed a protest camp of thousands of supporters of deposed president Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday, shooting dead scores of people in the bloodiest day in decades in the Arab world’s biggest country.

The health ministry said 235 people were killed and over 2,000 others were injured, both in Cairo and in clashes that broke out elsewhere in the country. Muslim Brotherhood said the death toll was far higher in what it described as a ‘massacre’.

While dead bodies wrapped in carpets were carried to a makeshift morgue near the Rabaa al Adawiya mosque, the army-backed rulers declared a one-month state of emergency, restoring to the military the unfettered power it wielded for decades before the pro-democracy uprising in 2011.

Thousands of Mursi’s supporters had been camped at two major sites in Cairo since before he was toppled on July 3, and had vowed not leave the streets until he was returned to power. With the assault on the camps, the authorities have ended the six-week stand-off with a show of state force that defied international pleas for restraint.

In a rare sign of unease from among the Brotherhood opponents, Mohamed ElBaradei quit his post of vice president in the army-backed government, saying the conflict could have been resolved by peaceful means. “The beneficiaries of what happened today are those who call for violence, terrorism and the most extreme groups.”



After the assault on the camp began, desperate residents recited Quranic verses and screamed “God help us! God help us!” while helicopters hovered overhead and armoured bulldozers ploughed over their makeshift defences.

“At 7am they came. Helicopters from the top and bulldozers from below. They smashed through our walls. Police and soldiers, they fired tear gas at children,” said teacher Saleh Abdulaziz, 39, clutching a bleeding wound on his head. “They continued to fire at protesters even when we begged them to stop.”

After the shooting, wounded and dead lay on the streets near pools of blood. An area of the camp that had been a playground for the children of protesters was turned into a war-zone field hospital.

Seven dead bodies were lined up in the street, one of a teenager whose skull was smashed.

The government insists people in the camp were armed. Several television stations, all controlled by the state or its sympathisers, ran footage of what appeared to be pro-Mursi protesters firing at soldiers.

However Reuters journalists and other Western media have not witnessed such incidents. Crowds appeared to be armed mainly with sticks, stones and slabs of concrete against rifle-wielding police and troops.

At a makeshift morgue at the camp field hospital, a Reuters reporter counted 29 bodies, with others still arriving. Most had died of gunshot wounds to the head.

A 12-year-old boy, bare-chested, lay out in the corridor, a bullet wound through his neck. His mother was bent over him, rocking back and forth and silently kissing his chest. One of the nurses was sobbing on her hands and knees as she tried to mop up the blood with a roll of tissue.

The violence forces tough decisions for Egypt’s Western allies, especially Washington, which has refused to label Mursi’s overthrow a ‘coup’.

“The United States strongly condemns the use of violence against protesters in Egypt,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “We extend our condolences to the families of those who have been killed, and to the injured. We have repeatedly called on the Egyptian military and security forces to show restraint.”

“We also strongly oppose a return to a State of Emergency law, and call on the government to respect basic human rights.”

Turkey urged the UN Security Council and Arab League to act quickly to stop a ‘massacre’ in Egypt. Iran warned of the risk of civil war. The European Union and several of its member countries deplored the killings.

Outside of Cairo, state media said Mursi supporters besieged and set fire to government buildings and attacked several churches. Those reports could not be independently confirmed.

Brotherhood leader Mohamed El-Beltagi said his 17-year-old daughter had been killed in the clashes. Among the other dead were at least two journalists. A Reuters photographer was shot in the foot.

Beltagi warned of wider conflict, and singled out the head of the armed forces who deposed Mursi on July 3 following mass protests calling for his resignation.

“I swear by God that if you stay in your homes, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will embroil this country so that it becomes Syria. Al-Sisi will push this nation to a civil war so that he escapes the gallows.”

The government issued a statement saying security forces had shown ‘self-restraint’, reflected in what it said were low casualties compared to the number of people “and the volume of weapons and violence directed against security forces.”

Nine hours after the start of Wednesday’s operation, crowds of protesters were still blocking roads, chanting and waving flags as security forces sought to prevent them from regrouping.

By late afternoon, the campsite where Mursi’s supporters had maintained their vigil for six weeks was empty. One man stood alone in the wreckage reciting the central tenet of Islam through a loudspeaker: “There is no God but Allah.” He wept, and then his voice broke off into silence.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2013.