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At Least 22 Dead In Cairo Clashes As Protests Move Into Third Day

Last updated (GMT/UTC): 21.11.2011 14:13

By Kristin Deasy

Hundreds of protesters have faced off against security forces in Cairo's central Tahrir Square as part of a fresh wave of protests challenging the country's ruling military authorities.

Protesters clashed with security forces over the weekend in violence that officials now say left at least 22 people dead and some 1,750 people wounded.

Medical sources, however, said Cairo's main morgue had received 33 corpses. It was not immediately clear whether all the victims were protesters or whether the death toll also included police officers and army soldiers.

The resurgence of protests in Egypt reflects growing public anger over the slow pace of reforms following the February ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak and concerns that the country's provisional military rulers will try to retain power.

The violence also comes little more than a week before Egyptians are scheduled to start voting in key parliamentary elections on November 28.

The European Union has condemned the bloodshed, with foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton calling on authorities to end the violence.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi has called for calm, urging all political forces to press forward with the democratic process. Arabi expressed "grave concern" about the deadly clashes in Tahrir Square. He called for "utmost restraint, while stressing the right of expression and peaceful demonstration."

Reports say hundreds of army soldiers and police used tear gas, rubber bullets, and batons to disperse protesters over the weekend.

Twenty-four-year-old Sabry Khaled, a dentist from the northern city of Giza, was shot twice in the back with rubber bullets during the demonstrations in Tahrir Square, the center of the protests that led to the end of Mubarak's 30-year rule.

He tells RFE/RL that people are fed up with the country's military rulers.

"They are sick of the SCAF [Supreme Council of the Armed Forces] violations. They [are] saying that SCAF is even worse than Mubarak -- that it's the same as the Mubarak regime when it comes to dealing with peaceful protests," Khaled says. "They hate everything about the military rule. We're chanting all the time, 'Esqat Esqat Hukm-ul- Askar,' which means, 'Down with military rule.'"

For months, rights groups have been criticizing Egypt's military leadership over its treatment of opposition activists.

Human Rights Watch issued a report in March condemning the "brutal" tactics being used to repress dissent, such the reported use of torture on detainees and the trial of civilians in closed military courts.

Protester Ahmad Aiyad, a 23-year-old entrepreneur, joined the crowds at Tahrir Square on November 20.

"What's really tragic is that people are being shot and killed on national television [and] people are not moving," Aiyad says. "And I don't think that people [in power], the government, or the military council, is acknowledging what's happening. ... [It's] like they're saying, 'We didn't kill anyone' and it's on TV. It's live. Everybody can see it in the world. I don't know. We [protesters] are not getting enough support."

Although Egypt's ruling military denies any attempt to maintain power past the proposed transfer to civilian rule, protesters are leery.

Flyers are circulating among them calling for the withdrawal of the constitutional proposal. The protesters say the draft constitution would allow the provisional military rulers to retain too much power even after a new civilian government is elected.

Others demand that presidential elections be held no later than April 2012.

Aiyad says the violence has protesters in Tahrir feeling like they are back at "square one" when it comes to political reform. But he's still hopeful that this time around, things will end differently.

"The people in the square are so determined [that] they are not moving," Aiyad says. "Right now, as soon as I'm finished work, I'm going back there and I might stay the night. The problem is, we need a way out, which we don't have at the moment. We hope that some sort of a leadership will arise. I don't know, but right now we are just working on a scenario.

"People on the policymakers level are...trying to come up with solutions...like forcing the national government to resign, like giving us a new national government that can actually implement our demands, that can actually accomplish what we have revolted for."

In a statement read out on state-run television, the government said the unrest will not derail the elections. The staggered ballots to the lower and upper houses are to be held from November 28 through mid-March.

with agency reports

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/cairo_egypt_ violence_protests/24396899.html

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At Least 22 Dead In Cairo Clashes As Protests Move Into Third Day