Thread: Egyptian police 'killed almost 900 protesters in 2011 in Cairo'

Egyptian police 'killed almost 900 protesters in 2011 in Cairo'

Leaked report commissioned by president is the first time Egyptian police and senior officials have admitted killings in 2011

Patrick Kingsley in Cairo and Leyla Doss
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 14 March 2013 13.13 EDT



Protesters demonstrate in Tahrir Square in 2011. Leaked papers reveal police killed almost 900. Photograph: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/REUTERS

Egyptian policemen were to blame for the deaths of more than 800 protesters during Egypt's 2011 uprising, according to a leaked report commissioned by president Mohamed Morsi.
At least 846 protesters were killed during the uprising in early 2011, but Egypt's interior ministry – which controls the police force – hasrepeatedly denied responsibility. Only two policemen have been jailed for their behaviour during the revolution.
According to the leaked report police were responsible for most of the deaths – many at the hands of police snipers shooting from the roofs surrounding Tahrir Square.
The report's findings are significant because the Egyptian establishment has previously been reluctant to admit the full extent of police responsibility. While the 16-man committee that wrote the report is nominally independent it was set up by the president himself, and contained members of the judiciary and the military. The report may also have implications for the April retrial of Hosni Mubarak and members of his regime.
"It's a very big deal," said Heba Morayef, the head of Human Rights Watch in Egypt. "So far we've never heard the interior ministry or the government or the presidency recognise that the police are responsible for the abuse."
Karim Ennarah, a researcher on police reform at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), said: "Everyone knows that police officers killed demonstrators. But [so far] there has been no political will to acknowledge that. This is supposed to have more weight."
But for Egypt's human rights campaigners, the real test of the government's commitment to police accountability is whether the report is ever officially published. "Whether or not Morsi publishes it is the test of his commitment to police accountability and police reform," said Morayef, who said that Morsi had initially been willing to address police reform after being elected last summer, as shown by his formulation of the committee that wrote the report, but that his enthusiasm had since markedly faded. "He didn't need to bother with this committee in the first place. Clearly his failure to publish it represents a shift on his part."
The interior ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday afternoon, but a former police colonel admitted that the leaked findings rang true.
"Of course police did use live ammunition and arms, especially on January 28 [2011]," said Mohamed Mahfouz, who now works as a spokesman for Officers but Honourable, a group of police officers campaigning for reform of the police and the interior ministry. "Most of the killers were definitely police officers. We all saw this through videos and with our own eyes. Denying this would be ridiculous."
He added: "Justice has not been served as most police officers have not been sentenced to prison. Police officers who kill should be arrested like any other citizen."
No serving police officers responded to a request for comment, but several interviewed by the Guardian over the past weeks have been reluctant to admit the full extent of police brutality during and since the 2011 uprising.
Many are currently on strike, demanding better weapons – and complaining of being used as unwilling pawns by the government in the suppression of recent protests demanding the fall of the current regime. The strike has exacerbated Egypt's security vacuum, with the military forced to maintain order in Port Said, and Islamist groups threatening to set up vigilante groups. Allies of the president have also mooted replacing the police with private security firms.

Egyptian police 'killed almost 900 protesters in 2011 in Cairo' | World news | guardian.co.uk

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