Well, the situation is as horrible as the time of the revolution against Mubarak. There is a blood shed in Tahrir square and other squares across the whole country. Here is the whole story:
As you might have been following, the SCAF (Supreme Council of Armed Forces), who got in charge after Mubarak stepped down, have been doing their best to restore the old regime, and to do some simple reforms instead of a real revolution. So, they were doing all kinds of military trials for protesters, they didn’t change the security forces leaders and mentality, they didn’t do cleansing of the judgemental system,..etc. Rage inside protesters kept rising. And above all that, they promised to give the authority to an elected government (parliament and president) in six months (starting in March). 8 months have passed, and then, lately they announced that the presidential elections would be after drafting the constitution, which would be after the parliament elections (that should start in 10 days, and last till March!!!!). So, according to that new plan, the presidential elections would take place in March, 2013 at least, and they will be in authority till then. They also changed the current temporary constitution to have all the authority (so for instance the coming elected parliament will not be able to form a government, or change the current one,..etc). Also, they drafted some “above constitutional rules” that included some articles allowing them to not share the army’s budget with the parliament or anyone, and prevent anyone whosoever to question/interrogate any SCAF member,…etc, and many other similar articles.
So, with that, rage increased a lot, and all protesters called for a big protest last Friday. There were 2 main demands; leaving authority completely by April 2012 at most (by doing presidential elections right after the parliamental one), and withdrawing that “above constitutional” document. There were about 2 millions (all those who started the revolution against Mubarak, including the Muslim Brotherhood and others). Very few of them decided to sit-in that night. Because of their few numbers, later at night, and on Saturday morning, the security forces got instructions to crack into that sit-in. They used ULTRA extreme violence. Rubber bullets and serious tear gas bombs were used. A couple people were dead. The news and videos of that extreme violence did spread very rapidly, and so, thousands of other protesters joined. The security forces continued that ultra violence. All witnesses said that they (the forces) were doing real revenge against the protesters that defeated them 10 months ago (during the revolution against Mubarak). So, they were targeting people’s eyes (there are a lot of photos and videos for that), as well as their heads. Reports say that at least 30 are dead, and 1000 are injured, including at least 20 people losing one of their eyes. The state-run tv did the exact same way as what they did during Mubarak’s time and the revolution against him. They said that these in Tahrir were thugs trying to stop the parliamental elections. SCAF members in the media said that the security forced didn’t use any violence whatsoever against protesters, and that they didn’t even have any bullets or any weapons with them, except the normal tear gas that is used world wide to stop such thugs and such violence from these people. The story is continuing so sadly right now. More and more people are killed, but more and more people are joining. The leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood (who are usually able to get a lot of people) are meeting tomorrow to decide whether they should participate in this or not. Initially, they, as well as most other parties, were in favor or stopping this, and calming things down in order to not give the SCAF any excuse to delay the parliament elections, but now that that massacre is happening, they are starting to change their position.
Some videos and photos to show evidence for what I reported above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ7FHUtxePw
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1941764522684 (the soldier here is telling the officer “oh, you did hit his eyes, awesomeeee”)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150368983387301&set=p.10150368983387301&type=1&theater (that guy lost one eye during the revolution against Mubarak in Jaunary, and he lost the other one yesterday).
Now, those in the square have the only demand of the SCAF stepping down to a government with total authority, then do parliament elections as planned, then presidential elections, and of course stopping that blood shed.
Best,
A.
ZNetwork is funded solely through the generosity of its readers.
Donate
