Violent clashes hit Cairo amid elections
Source: Agencies |
December 17, 2011, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
STONE-THROWING demonstrators clashed with troops wielding truncheons and electric prods in central Cairo yesterday, in the worst violence since the start of Egypt's first free election in six decades.
Military police tried to break up a sit-in by pro-democracy activists overnight and anger at their rough tactics blew up into clashes that quickly turned the streets around parliament into a rock-strewn battle zone.
In a pattern of spreading violence that has become a familiar refrain during nine months of army rule since president Hosni Mubarak's overthrow, protesters regrouped in growing numbers as resentment at security forces' behavior grew.
By early afternoon, troops were charging at protesters with truncheons and what witnesses said appeared to be cattle prods they used to give electric shocks to some demonstrators.
Ambulance sirens wailed and reports of beatings of well-known democracy activists buzzed across social media.
"Even if the sit-in was not legal, should it be dispersed with such brutality and barbarity?" presidential candidate and former United Nations nuclear watchdog director Mohamed ElBaradei said on Facebook.
The sit-in outside cabinet was a leftover of far bigger protests last month in Tahrir Square and nearby streets that left dozens dead and overshadowed the build-up to the first parliamentary election since Mubarak's fall in February. A health ministry official said 36 people had been injured in the clashes and five had gunshot wounds.
The six-week vote for the lower house of parliament has been mostly peaceful since it began on November 28.
A new cabinet is due on Sunday to hold a first full meeting since it was sworn in on December 7 and plans to weigh new austerity measures to address a wider-than-expected budget deficit.
Military police tried to break up a sit-in by pro-democracy activists overnight and anger at their rough tactics blew up into clashes that quickly turned the streets around parliament into a rock-strewn battle zone.
In a pattern of spreading violence that has become a familiar refrain during nine months of army rule since president Hosni Mubarak's overthrow, protesters regrouped in growing numbers as resentment at security forces' behavior grew.
By early afternoon, troops were charging at protesters with truncheons and what witnesses said appeared to be cattle prods they used to give electric shocks to some demonstrators.
Ambulance sirens wailed and reports of beatings of well-known democracy activists buzzed across social media.
"Even if the sit-in was not legal, should it be dispersed with such brutality and barbarity?" presidential candidate and former United Nations nuclear watchdog director Mohamed ElBaradei said on Facebook.
The sit-in outside cabinet was a leftover of far bigger protests last month in Tahrir Square and nearby streets that left dozens dead and overshadowed the build-up to the first parliamentary election since Mubarak's fall in February. A health ministry official said 36 people had been injured in the clashes and five had gunshot wounds.
The six-week vote for the lower house of parliament has been mostly peaceful since it began on November 28.
A new cabinet is due on Sunday to hold a first full meeting since it was sworn in on December 7 and plans to weigh new austerity measures to address a wider-than-expected budget deficit.
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