Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The Sisi Blair Alliance

 Human Rights Watch (HRW)in a 195-page investigation based on interviews with 122 survivors and witnesses has found Egypt's police and army "systematically and deliberately killed largely unarmed protesters on political grounds" in actions that "likely amounted to crimes against humanity".

Executive director Kenneth Roth said the deaths were "one of the world's largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history". Roth said the actions were not "merely a case of excessive force or poor training." "It was a violent crackdown planned at the highest levels of the Egyptian government," he said. "Many of the same officials are still in power in Egypt, and have a lot to answer for."

At least 817 protesters were intentionally killed.  The report recommends that several senior individuals within Egypt's security apparatus be investigated and, where appropriate, held to account for their role in the planning of both the Rabaa massacre and others that occurred last summer – including Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, Egypt's then defence minister and now new president. As head of the army at the time, Sisi had overall responsibility for the army's role at Rabaa, and has publicly acknowledged spending "very many long days to discuss all the details".

 Egypt's military and police leaders maintain that the dispersal was carried out as humanely as possible, and only turned violent because an armed group within the camp started firing on security officials, killing eight policemen. But HRW concluded that the camp's estimated 85,000 members were not given enough time to leave before troops started firing; were prevented for most of the day from leaving via safe exits; and used firearms "in only a few instances, which do not justify the grossly disproportionate and premeditated lethal attacks on overwhelmingly peaceful protesters". The report documents scores of incidents where unarmed protesters were killed, often by snipers shooting from nearby buildings or, according to multiple witnesses, from helicopters flying overhead.

Attempting to enter Egypt on Sunday to present the findings of the report, HRW's executive director, Ken Roth, and Middle East lead, Sarah Leah Whitson, were stopped and deported. The report's primary researcher, Omar Shakir, has since left the country, fearing arrest.

War-monger with the ironic title of peace envoy, Tony Blair (along with his lick-spittle lackey Alistair Campbell) is an  official advisor to the Sisi government having also supported the military coup that placed him in power.

From here 

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