New York, US - Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Office of the Public Prosecutor in Egypt to conduct a 'transparent investigation' into the use of lethal force against protesters in the country and the military involvement in the abuses. The call came after Egypt's health ministry said clashes between anti-military protesters and security forces have left at least 28 protesters dead and over 1,700 injured, as at Tuesday.
The New York-based rights group said in a statement issued in New York that Egypt’s military rulers should immediately order riot police to stop using excessive force against protesters, and to reduce their presence in the areas surrounding Tahrir Square in Cairo, where the protesters have converged, to a level that allows for the maintenance of security while permitting
free assembly.

HRW quoted witnesses as saying riot police and military officers have shot live ammunition and rubber bullets into the crowd, beaten protesters and otherwise used excessive force in the demonstrations that began in Cairo on 19 November.

“With parliamentary elections a week away, the military rulers are facing a serious crisis of confidence because of their management of the transition,” the statement quoted Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW, as saying.

“It has not yet learned the most basic lesson of the January uprising: that Egyptians have and know they have a right to peaceful protest, which repressing a demonstration with brute force cannot take away,” she said.

Confrontations between protesters, the Central Security Forces (CSF), Egypt’s riot police, and the military police raged for a fourth day in the Tahrir square area on Tuesday.

The protests, the biggest in the country since January's revolution, has already forced the resignation of the cabinet of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, which will now be replaced by a unity government.

On Tuesday night, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in Egypt (SCAF), Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawy, reassured that the 28 Nov. legislative polls will hold as scheduled, and that presidential elections would take place not later than 30 June, 2012.

Pana 23/11/2011