10 dead in Cairo protest camp clearance

Yet another crazed dictator who we like to call our friend in the war on terror and our pursuit of freedom this time its the Fascist Egyptian Regime, on the rampage killing refugees.
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10 dead in Cairo protest camp clearance

Staff and agencies
Friday December 30, 2005

Egyptian riot police beat a Sudanese man during the forceful evacuation of thousands of refugees from their protest camp outside UN offices in Cairo. Photograph: Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images
Egyptian riot police beat a Sudanese man during the forceful evacuation of thousands of refugees from their protest camp outside UN offices in Cairo. Photograph: Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images


Ten Sudanese refugees, including a young girl, were killed today when Egyptian police fired water cannon and beat migrants with clubs to break up a protest camp in Cairo.

The clashes took place in the early hours after thousands of Egyptian riot police deployed around the ramshackle camp of plastic sheeting and cardboard where hundreds of people had lived for months.

In a standoff that lasted several hours, the protesters dismantled their camp outside UN offices on a main Cairo thoroughfare, but most refused to leave on the buses provided.

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While negotiations between police and protesters were still ongoing, the security forces began firing water cannon and then invaded the camp en masse.

Reporters at the scene witnessed police officers beating the protesters with sticks, often as they were being dragged away to the buses. An Associated Press reporter said at least two adults and a young girl, apparently three or four years old, were carried away unconscious. An ambulance officer said the girl was dead.

Egypt's interior ministry said ten Sudanese refugees were killed, but blamed the violence on the protesters.

"Attempts were made to convince them to disperse, but to no avail," the ministry said in a statement. "The migrants' leaders resorted to incitement and attacks against the police."

The ministry claimed the clashes caused a stampede in which 30 people, mostly elderly and children, were wounded. Twenty-three police officers were also injured.

Reporters on the scene disputed the official version of events saying the unarmed protesters made no attempt to run away.

Up to 2,000 refugees had lived in the camp for three months, demanding that the UN refugee agency resettle them.

The sit-in began in September after the UN high commissioner for refugees stopped hearing the cases of Sudanese asylum seekers, a decision which followed the signing in January of a peace accord that ended Sudan's 21-year civil war.

The UNHCR announced last week that it had reached a deal with some of the protest leaders, promising to resume hearing some cases and offering a one-off payment of up to $700 (£406) for housing. Most of those in the camp rejected the deal.

About 30,000 Sudanese people are registered as refugees in Egypt, with estimates of the number actually living in the country ranging from 200,000 to several million.

Egypt, which suffers from high unemployment and strained social services, offers the refugees little assistance, while the Sudanese complain of discrimination.