XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: cb@shaw.ca   
      
   A year ago, Egyptian security forces bulldozed the main protest   
   camp in Cairo, after the demonstrators had been rallying for   
   weeks against the removal of President Mohammed Morsi. The   
   Egyptian government this week disputed a Human Rights Watch   
   report that likened the security forces’ actions to crimes   
   against humanity.   
      
   Prior to dispersing the protesters, Egypt’s interim government   
   had declared a state of emergency and issued a nighttime curfew   
   in Cairo and elsewhere.   
      
   Human Rights Watch released a report on Tuesday that said its   
   researchers who visited area hospitals and morgues after the   
   incident, counted more than 800 people killed when the police   
   and army broke up the demonstration in Rabaa Square in eastern   
   Cairo on Aug. 14, 2013.   
      
   “While there is also evidence that some protesters used firearms   
   during several of these demonstrations, Human Rights Watch was   
   able to confirm their use in only a few instances, which do not   
   justify the grossly disproportionate and premeditated lethal   
   attacks on overwhelmingly peaceful protesters,” the group said   
   in a statement.   
      
   It said no police or army officers were held accountable and   
   urged other countries to withhold aid to military and law   
   enforcement agencies in Egypt until it adopts human rights   
   measures.   
      
   In response, Egypt’s State Information Service issued a   
   statement saying Human Rights Watch’s report “presents a highly   
   negative and biased account of the violent events that took   
   place in Egypt during the year 2013, and totally fails to   
   adequately report on the attacks carried out by the Brotherhood,   
   as a terrorist organization, and its supporters.”   
      
   Hundreds of supporters of Morsi and his political party the   
   Muslim Brotherhood currently are on trial for assaulting   
   security forces and other alleged violent acts last August.   
      
   The clearing of the camp came after the “failure of all   
   political and popular efforts aimed at persuading the protesters   
   to disperse peacefully” and after escalating complaints from   
   residents that the sit-ins were being used to launch non-   
   peaceful marches and criminal activity, the statement said.   
      
   The information service also noted that the Egyptian government   
   has set up a national independent fact-finding commission led by   
   former international judge and law professor Fouad Abdel-Moneim   
   Riad to investigate the violence in July and August 2013, and   
   that the Human Rights Watch report preempted its results.   
      
   http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/egypt-fires-back-at-protest-   
   report/   
      
          
      
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