(AFP File Photo)
Tuesday marked the one year anniversary of the day 51 protesters were killed and 435 were injured in front of the Republican Guard headquarters at Salah Salem Street, an event which was to lay the grounds for more violence.
The sit-in in front of the Republican Guard was to protest the military ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July 2013.
The shooting began at around 4am after dawn prayers. The protesters described the event as a “massacre by the army and the police.”
An American University in Cairo student said he attempted to go into Rabaa Al-Adaweya Square, close to the headquarters, that day 7am after news of the bloodshed at 6am.
“They fired tear gas and bullets at as we tried to get in, and they would not even let in ambulances,” the student said. “After they finally let us in, the military man who was giving the soldiers orders to shoot looked at us and said we are brothers. I grabbed an empty bullet from the ground and asked, would a brother do this?”
In a press conference the army claimed that the attack was prompted by the protesters.
Reports conducted by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International based on accounts from eyewitnesses, concluded that security forces shot at unarmed protesters and used “excessive”, and “intentional lethal force”.
