CAIRO: Nine human rights groups refuted in a recent joint report the army’s claims that no live ammunition was used against protesters in Tahrir Square while forcibly dispersing an open sit-in during the early hours of Saturday, resulting in the death of at least one and the injury of 72 others.
Adel Umara, member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), said during a press conference Saturday evening that the initial autopsy report showed that the protester was shot in the mouth.
However, news agencies and independent media outlets cited medical sources as saying that at least two people died during the incidents, the report said.
Other sources said that the number of deaths was six, including a 7-year-old girl shot dead, the report added.
“The identical testimonies collected through interviewing a number of eyewitnesses and some of those wounded during the crackdown clarify that the army’s denial of shooting protesters is totally untrue,” the report stated.
Earlier on Friday afternoon, eight men claiming to be army officers dressed in military uniform joined tens of thousands of protestors in Tahrir, calling for the resignation of head of SCAF and Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawy and the prosecution of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
The protesters also called for halting the prosecution of civilians before military courts.
The SCAF, that took power after Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, had previously warned that anyone protesting in military uniform would face trial in a military court.
According to the joint report, most protesters left the square by the evening except about 2000 who decided to hold an open sit-in until their demands are met.
Some eye witnesses said in media statements that the situation escalated when the military police attempted to arrest the eight men as protesters tried to protect them.
Other eye witnesses told the rights groups that a military police general accompanied by three soldiers stepped inside the area where the protesting officers stayed inside a tent. The witnesses added that several protesters kicked the general out and chased him to a side street where they attacked him.
At about 1 am, police central security trucks arrived at the square near the Egyptian museum. Military armored vehicles were seen by others approaching the square from Kasr El-Aini Street, which appeared to be indicators of a plan to evacuate the square by force. The forces continued to gather for about 30 minutes, witnesses said.
At 3 am, the army and the police cordoned off Tahrir Square before commandos approached the garden in the middle of the square where most protesters were located.
A few minutes later, the army vehicles quickly entered the area as the commandos intensely fired bullets into the air at the same time when a group of them attacked protesters who ran away within 10 minutes.
A small number remained at the garden where the army soldiers dismantled the tents and arrested dozens of protesters and kept them inside the central police forces trucks. Most of the eight army officers were detained and taken to an unknown location.
On his part, Umara claimed that the people who stayed after curfew were thugs, not affiliated with whom he described as the “honorable youth” of the January 25 Revolution.
Umara said that after the square was cleared from protesters at 4:30 am on Saturday, “a large number of protesters came to Tahrir at 5:30 am with two automatic weapons and Molotov cocktails, and they attacked three military vehicles."
The rights groups, meanwhile, acquired footage from Al Jazeera Live satellite TV channel taken from a building in the square showing some men in military uniforms violently beating and kicking a protester after he fell on the ground.
An ambulance appeared in the video trying more than once to approach the wounded protester then moved away after the army soldiers ordered the driver to leave. Yet the rights groups could not verify the footage.
At around 4 am, after protesters were dispersed, some attempted to gather again in Talaat Harb Square in an attempt to go back to Tahrir and check on their colleagues who decided to stay.
Eye witnesses, according to the report, unanimously indicated that commandos and paratroops suddenly show up and started shooting towards the ground and into the air before they opened fire at the protesters who attempted to flee a few minutes later.
The protesters added that they kept running to the streets surrounding Talaat Harb square while military police vehicles chased them. Others said that paratroops ran after them while opening fire. The two sides were throwing stones at each other.
“Based on these testimonies, it seems that most deaths and severe injuries took place in the course of this chase,” the report said.
The rights groups described the crackdown as being similar to “the bloody police attacks against protesters in January resulting in a number of interior ministry leaderships being prosecuted before criminal courts.”
“All indicators…[proved] the invalidity of the claims mentioned in the press conference…where [the army] insisted that the soldiers who evacuated [the square] did not carry have any kind of live ammunition in their possession…while maintaining utmost degree of self control as ordered by the armed forces,” the report said.
The rights groups said that a number of protesters kept empty cartridges that they collected after the shooting stopped. Other activists took pictures of blood on spots on the ground on Talaat Harb Street and near Hoda Shaarawy Street downtown.
The nine organizations called on the government to publicly announce the true number of deaths shot during the crackdown, especially in view of medical sources indicating that there were more that the one announced.
Protesters, meanwhile, returned to Tahrir Square after the curfew was over at 5 am.
Meanwhile, the SCAF stated that the eight people were detained and under investigation, but the council couldn’t confirm whether they were in fact military or merely imposters.
The military police also arrested 42 protesters. They were accused by the military prosecution of violating the curfew and challenging the commands of the military ruler of preventing gatherings, ordering them to remain in custody for 15 days pending investigation. Eleven were released on Sunday. –Additional reporting by Heba Fahmy
