Senior Egyptian interior ministry officials sanctioned the use of live ammunition against protesters in Suez during the opening days of Egypt’s revolution, according to a leaked fact-finding report commissioned by the president.
Under the watch of the interior ministry’s most senior representative in the region, police fired indiscriminately at crowds from the roof of a police station, according to the report, and senior police officers allowed their deputies to remove weaponry from official stores without presenting identification.
The report also describes how a military officer ordered plainclothes police to carry firearms through the streets even after police had been officially evacuated from the city.
These are the latest revelations from a tranche of a report commissioned by the president, Mohamed Morsi, that has been leaked to the Guardian newspaper.
First major protests
The new material covers the events of January and early February 2011 in Suez, the first large city to hold major protests against the rule of the then president, Hosni Mubarak. Earlier leaks documented allegations that the military were involved in torture, killings and forced disappearances during the uprising.
According to the new material, senior interior ministry officials were responsible for the order to use live ammunition to disperse large gatherings, resulting in the deaths of 24 protesters. It claims that high-level officials including Ashraf Abdallah – the ministry’s most senior representative in the region – remained in Suez for the opening days of the uprising, and were present in the city as gunmen stationed on the roof of a police station shot “extensively and indiscriminately” into crowds of demonstrators.
Extensive police brutality in Suez has long been alleged by residents and rights campaigners. But the report is significant because it is the first hint of an official state acknowledgment of the crimes. No police officer has ever been jailed for their treatment of protesters, nor has it ever been proven that their behaviour was sanctioned centrally.
“This report is incredibly important because it contains internal orders from the ministry of the interior,” said Heba Morayef, Egypt director for Human Rights Watch.
“That is incredibly important evidence that hasn’t come to light yet. The key question is whether or not police were ordered to arm themselves with live ammunition – and the report concludes that the ministry of interior classified the protest as riots, and that then justified an excessive response on the part of the police.”
Use of force
The chapter documents an "excessive use of force" in densely populated
areas, with police using tear-gas, birdshot and live ammunition. According to one witness, the scene resembled “war in the streets” – and overall the report creates an impression of a chaotic police response that was nevertheless sanctioned by central powers.
– ( Guardian service)