By Omnia Al Desouki
CAIRO: The ruling military council denied that army forces used live ammunition against Maspero protesters on Sunday, or that personnel intentionally used armored vehicles to run over civilians.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, General Adel Emara said, “Soldiers driving armored vehicles were trying to avoid civilians who were throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at them.”
He also said they can neither confirm nor deny whether the army vehicles that crushed protesters were in fact driven by army personnel or civilians who got hold of the APCs. These issues are still under investigation, he said.
Deadly clashes broke out between army forces and protesters on Sunday night when a march to Maspero — demanding Coptic rights and condemning an earlier attack against a church in Aswan — was itself met with violence.
Eyewitnesses, activists and rights groups say army forces began a sudden and violent crackdown as soon as the march arrived to Maspero, where protesters were crushed to death by APCs and shot with live ammunition.
Twenty-five people died and more than 300 were injured during the worse violence since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.
The general told journalists, however, that the army’s doctrine does not permit soldiers to use armored vehicles to crush individuals, adding that this is not even allowed against an enemy.
Emara, along with General Mahmoud Hegazy, narrated the army council’s version of Sunday’s events.
“At 4 pm on Oct. 9, around 1,600 protesters gathered in Shoubra, where beforehand there had been incitement by public figures and religious Coptic men,” said Emara.
At the same time, around 500 “civilized” Coptic protesters were standing in front of Maspero, under the protection of 300 lightly armed soldiers. “They were only armed with riot gear and protesters outnumbered them,” added Emara.
A video was shown with sound bytes of a prominent figure, George Ishaq, speaking to a talk show, saying “The blood of Copts is not cheap,” referring to a previous day when forces dispersed a sit-in by Copts.
The video also showed a priest saying that if the Aswan governor is not dismissed, he will be killed.
Referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawy, head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the priest said, “Tantawy knows well what we [Copts] can do. We will show them an unprecedented march that the country has never seen, ending inside Maspero.”
General Emara later said that as much as some of the Coptic demands are legitimate, their method of achieving them resulted in inciting and mobilizing large crowds into violence.
The generals said that some of the protesters at Maspero had Molotov cocktails, gas canisters, swords and knives which were used to attack the army.
Eyewitnesses say that when the violence broke out, protesters were attacked by army forces and thugs simultaneously.
SCAF maintains that soldiers outside Maspero were only armed with riot gear, and showed some videos to prove as much. But at the same time, Emara said soldiers exercised the utmost “self-restraint.”
When civilians began setting army tanks and nearby cars on fire, chaos broke out, they said. “Thank God the soldiers didn’t have live ammunition or else it would have been a real catastrophe,” said Emara.
However, the generals did not offer an explanation for how some protesters were killed with live bullets. Nor how many of the dead were crushed under APCs.
Running over protesters cannot be described as “systematic,” they said, neither can it be attributed as an act by Egypt’s military.
They did say that some tanks ended up running over civilians in their flustered attempts to flee attacks from protesters.
The generals commented on one video showing gunshots coming from people on the Sixth of October Bridge above Maspero. Another video showed a protester standing over a tank and throwing a heaving rock at the soldiers inside. Images also showed a military police officer stabbed in the stomach being carried away.
The videos, however, were blurry and unclear due to bad lighting.
“None of you experienced what it is like to face death. I want you to think about how those soldiers must have felt,” the general said in an attempt to explain why some soldiers may have fled the scene in their APCs and run over protesters in the process.
SCAF generals said that investigations will show who was responsible for the violence, but refused to name who may be held accountable. Instead, they said that Egypt has a lot of enemies, both inside and outside.
“We are not circulating conspiracy theories, but there is no doubt that there are enemies of the revolution,” Hegazy said.
One reporter said if the names of those behind the attack are not revealed, people will continue accusing SCAF; to which the generals replied that “an accusation of that kind is not even worth responding to.”
They assured reporters that once investigations are complete, the names of those who incited the bloody events will be announced along with the appropriate legal action.
“We have facts that no one can question: military police did not fire at anyone,” said Emara, adding that regardless of religion, race, color or gender, Egyptians are treated equally by the military, which is a neutral entity.
Referring to earlier demos, the army generals said that they had previously announced that the security of large protest is the responsibility of protesters.
They also firmly warned against any attack on Egyptian state TV, saying that any response to that action would be legitimate.
Initial state TV reports claimed that three army soldiers were killed. That report was later denied however, and until now, it is unclear how many, if any, soldiers died.
Rights groups and analysts accuse state TV of sectarianist coverage which quickly escalated events. The Minister of Information has denied such accusations, but a complaint has been filed against him with the prosecutor general.
At the conference, the generals said that the armed forces did suffer casualties, but as has been policy since January 28 — when the army appeared on the streets after police and central security completely retreated — they will refrain from announcing the number of deaths to avoid demoralizing the troops.
Tear gas was used, Emara said, as an internationally accepted method of riot control.
The generals ended the conference by saluting their soldiers for protecting the revolution and Egypt.
While sending condolences to the families of the victims, they did not mention what steps will be taken to help the injured or to ensure this kind of chaos is never repeated.
While the violence has raised doubts about the safety and security of upcoming parliamentary elections, Emara said, “We will ensure that the elections will be fair and transparent and secure, no matter what.”
