WASHINGTON: A US official voiced outrage Tuesday after an adviser to Egypt’s military said that some protesters facing down troops in Cairo should be "thrown into Hitler’s incinerators."
Retired general Abdel Moneim Kato’s "anti-Semitic comments are outrageous, offensive and clearly unacceptable," Hannah Rosenthal, the US special envoy against anti-Semitism, wrote on Twitter.
Kato, who advises the military, faced criticism from human rights groups and dissidents after saying that some protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square were "street kids who deserve to be thrown into Hitler’s incinerators."
Presidential hopeful and former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said such statements showed "a deranged and criminal state of mind."
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said Kato’s comments "incite hatred and justify violence against citizens."
Protests have flared for five days against Egypt’s military, which took charge after the uprising that overthrew president Hosni Mubarak. Thousands of women rallied on Tuesday in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the revolution.
The military said it regretted attacks on female demonstrators and pledged action after footage of soldiers stripping a veiled woman and beating others set off a backlash.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday voiced shock over the incident and accused Egypt’s rulers of a "systematic degradation" of women that "disgraced the state."
