HRW: Egypt: Protesters’ Blood on the Military Leadership’s Hands

Violence, Delays in Transfer of Power Fuels Protesters’ Rage

Human Rights Watch, November 22, 2011

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  Bodies on ground after military police break up a peaceful sit-in on Sunday, November 20.
  © 2011 Anjali Kamat

With parliamentary elections a week away, the military rulers are facing a serious crisis of confidence because of their management of the transition. It has not yet learned the most basic lesson of the January uprising: that Egyptians have and know they have a right to peaceful protest, which repressing a demonstration with brute force cannot take away.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch

(New York) – Egypt’s military rulers should immediately order riot police to stop using excessive force against protesters and to reduce their presence in the areas surrounding Tahrir Square to a level that allows for the maintenance of security while permitting free assembly, Human Rights Watch said today. Riot police and military officers have shot live ammunition and rubber bullets into the crowd, beaten protesters and otherwise used excessive force in the demonstrations that began in Cairo on November 19, 2011, according to numerous accounts from witnesses.

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