After releasing its 188-page report based on a yearlong investigation, Human Rights Watch (HRW) is urging the UN to launch an inquiry into the killing of hundreds of Egyptian demonstrators at two protest camps in Egypt last year. HRW claims that six incidents involving killings by security forces of supporters of President Morsi was “systematic” and authorized by top officials.
HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth said in a released statement that “in Rabaa Square, Egyptian security forces carried out one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.” 817 people were killed in and around the square. Roth added that “it was a violent crackdown planned at the highest levels of the Egyptian government. Many of the same officials are still in power in Egypt, and have a lot to answer for.”
The protests started when Al-Sisi led a military coup d’état against President Mohammed Morsi’s coalition government. The order by Egyptian officials to clear the protest grounds led to killings that the HRW report claims “amount to crimes against humanity.” During the period of the protests, Egyptians were divided over the justification of the coup d’état. Al-Sisi, then the army chief, is being singled out as the “principal architect” of the killings.
The report argued that the U.N. Human Rights Council should investigate it because “given the widespread and systematic nature of these killings, and the evidence suggesting that they were part of a policy to use lethal force against largely unarmed protesters on political grounds.”
HRW wants those implicated in the killings and courts that applied the principle of universal jurisdiction to be charged with criminal charges.
The Egyptian government has not reacted to the report.
HRW: Al-Sisi “principal architect” of crimes against humanity
