EGYPT DECLARES MONTH-LONG STATE OF EMERGENCY
Cairo, 8 Shawwal 1434/14 August 2013 (MINA) – Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour on Wednesday declared a month-long state of emergency as political violence rages countrywide.
In a statement, the presidency said the army was tasked with helping police “take whatever steps necessary to maintain security and order, protect public and private property and secure people’s lives.”
Declaring a state of emergency allows security forces to arrest citizens and carry out searches of homes and vehicles without judicial permission.
The move came hours after security forces violently dispersed two sit-ins staged by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo and Giza in the early hours of Wednesday, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
Meanwhile, BBC report that security forces say 95 people have been killed. But the Muslim Brotherhood, which backed the protests, says hundreds have died.
Mohamed al-Beltagi, a leading figure of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party, Wednesday, said more than 300 people had been killed in the forcible dispersal of two sit-ins staged by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
“Bullets are raining down on our heads,” al-Beltagi told supporters who remained inside the besieged protest site. “More than 300 people have been killed.”
The 17-year-old daughter of Mohamed el-Beltagy was among the dead, reports say. Asmaa al-Beltagi was shot in the back and chest, her brother said.
A cameraman working for Sky News, Mick Deane, has also been killed – as has a reporter for Gulf News, Habiba Ahmed Abd Elaziz.
Shortly after dawn on Wednesday morning, armoured bulldozers moved deep into the main protest camp outside the eastern Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque.
Officials say the other protest camp, at Nahda Square, has also been cleared.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the violence. He urged “all Egyptians to concentrate their efforts on promoting genuinely inclusive reconciliation”, his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Egypt’s forces meddle with treatment of dead bodies to conceal death toll
Egypt’s security forces have interfered with the treatment of dead bodies in a field hospital they have stormed in one of the main pro-Morsi camps, the spokesman of deposed President Morsi’s party has said.
The forces stormed the hospital set up by protesters in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square with the aim of concealing the death toll, spokesman of Freedom and Justice Party Murad Ali said late Wednesday.
Ali put the death toll at 1,000, with over 10,000 injuries.
Security forces also torched the main stage from where speakers used to address the supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, Ali said.
Eyewitnesses said the forces entered the hospital and took dead bodies there to an unknown location, while arresting medical staff.
Muslim Brotherhood official Gehad El-Haddad confirmed the hospital storming.
Eyewitness lawyer Ahmad Mafrah said ambulances were shot at while trying to go into the square to reach the injured.
Egyptian troops have set fire to the field hospital in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square with all the dead bodies within, the field hospital coordinator claimed.
“The hospital was totally burnt by security forces with all the dead bodies inside after a warning for the injured to get out,” Omar al-Farouk told Anadolu Agency.
“Those who refused to leave were arrested,” he said.
Earlier today, security troops stormed the field hospital as they tightened their control on Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, where thousands of supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi had staged a six-week sit-in.
Ibrahim Yamani, a doctor in the hospital, said the troops stormed the hospital “under a barrage of bullets”.
“I saw two injured people being killed by the security forces in cold blood,” he claimed.
There was no immediate comment from Egyptian authorities to the accusations. (T/P09/E1).
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
