Commemorating the Massacres of Peaceful Protesters to the Military Coup in Egypt:
Rabaa and El-Nahda squares August 14 2013, Nasr City July 27 2013
August 7 2014
Ottawa
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Egyptian Canadian Coalition for Democracy (ECCD) is holding a series of events to honour those who lost their lives while peacefully camping in two open squares to protest the military take-over of President Mohamed Morsi and his government under the orders of Field Marshal Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, July 3rd 2013.
Egyptian Canadian Coalition for Democracy also honours the journalists who were deliberately targeted while covering the tragic events unfolding at Rabae and El-Nahda camps and other protests.
List of events commemorating Resilience Day, August 14th 2013:
Toronto
When: Saturday August 16th, 2:00 pm -5:00 pm
Where: Dundas Square, Toronto, (Yonge and Dundas)
Contact Person: Yasmeen Youssef (647-287-5010)
Vancouver
When: Saturday August 9th, 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm, Candle Vigil
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
Contact Person: Tarek Ramadan (604-721-4555)
Calgary
When: Thursday August 14th, 6:00 pm-9:00 pm
Where: Calgary City Hall, 800 Macleod Trail Southeast
Event Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/440557646086910/
Contact Person: Mohamed Hassanin (403-470-3687)
Ottawa
When: Thursday, August 14, 4:00pm - 8:00pm
Where: Andrew Haydon Park, 3169 Carling Avenue, (Stage) 4:00pm - 8:00pm
Event Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/243588912518653/
Contact Person: Sherif ElKholy (613-295-3994)
Montreal
When: Friday August 15th, 5:30 pm
Where: Rally from Place Emilie Gamelin, Montréal, Corner Berri & Maisonneuve - Metro Berri UQAM to Old Port of Montreal at
When: Sunday August 17th, 3:00 pm
Where: Rally from Israeli Consulate to Egyptian Consulate in Montreal, at 3:00 pm
Contact Person: Ashraf Fouad (514-984-3235)
Background Information
On June 30 2013, exactly one year after Mohamed Morsi was democratically elected as president, large numbers of disenchanted people gathered in Tahrir square demanding the departure of Morsi. Three days later, General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, at the head of the armed forces forcefully deposed Morsi under the pretext of responding to the call of the people.
Supporters of the deposed president replicated by occupying two squares — Rabaa al-Adawiya in Nasr city, Cario and al-Nahda in Giza — to protest his ouster, vowing to remain until Morsi was reinstated.
On July 27, 2013 about 100 protesters gathered in Nasr City, were mowed down by special police forces under the pretext that they were attacking police headquarters. Political analyst Larbi Sadiqi writes ‘July 27, 2013 will go down in the annals of history as an infamous day not dissimilar to June 4, 1989, when the Chinese government used disproportionate force in Tiananmen Square, snuffing out a peaceful protest with violence’. And he rightly predicted that this was just the beginning as Internal and external reconciliation attempts failed to resolve the crisis peacefully.
On 14 August 2013 Egyptian security forces raided the two camps of protesters in what was described by Human Rights Watch as the most serious incident of mass unlawful killings in modern Egyptian history.
By 8:00 the smaller Al-Nahda camp — near Cairo University in Giza — was cleared of protesters, but it took about 12 hours for police to take control of the main sit-in site near the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque that has served as the epicenter of the pro-Morsi campaign. The police in riot gear used tear gas, rubber bullets, birdshot and live ammunition to disperse the protesters while being supported by bulldozers to clear barricades and covered by armored vehicles and snipers on rooftops.
According to the Egyptian Health Ministry, 638 people were killed on 14 August, of which 595 were civilians and 43 police officers, with at least 3,994 injured. The Muslim Brotherhood and National Coalition for Supporting Legitimacy (NCSL) claimed that number of deaths from the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque sit-in alone at some 2,600.
Among the dead was Asmaa, 17 the daughter of Mohamed el-Beltagy, a prominent figure of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Egyptian state television aired images purporting to show weapons confiscated from the sit-in protester's camps, including automatic rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition. However, various journalists and news agencies discredited these claims as multiple independent journalists had visited and inspected the camps for weapons prior to the attacks, finding none of the purported weapons caches.
During the dispersal, journalists covering the event were targeted. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, it was the deadliest day for journalists in Egypt since the organization began keeping records in 1992. Veteran Sky News camera operator Michael Deane, 61, was killed although he was wearing a helmet that clearly identified him as a journalist. Also killed was Egyptian journalist Habiba Ahmed Abd Elaziz, 26, working for Gulf News publication XPRESS newspaper,and Egyptian reporter Ahmed Abdel Gawad, who was with the Al-Akhbar state-run newspaper and was an editorial manager for the Muslim Brotherhood television satellite channel Misr 25, as well as Rassd News Network (RNN) photojournalist Mosab El-Shami. Among the journalists most seriously injured were Al-Wataneditor Tariq Abbas, who was shot in the face, and Al-Masry Al-Youm photojournalist Alaa al-Qamhawy, who was shot in the foot. Among the detained journalists were Al-Jazeera journalist Abdullah al-Shami and Al Jazeera Media Network's Mubasher Misr photographers Emad Eddin Al-Sayed and Abdulrahman Al-Mowahhed-Bellah, and Freedom and Justice Party (Egypt) journalist Radwa Al-Selawi.
On 10 December 2013, thirteen Egyptian and international human rights organizations urged Cairo's interim authorities to probe the mass killing of protesters in the capital on 14 August. To this day, there has been no independent investigation.
References:
"Egypt: Security Forces Used Excessive Lethal Force". Human Rights Watch. 19 August 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
"Global condemnation of Egypt crackdown". Al Jazeera. 15 August 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2013
"Charred bodies lie in Cairo mosque, unrecognized by Egyptian state". Al-Ahram. 15 August 2013. Archived from the original on 19 August 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
More Information:
Nasr City: El Sisi's Tiananmen?
Abdel Fattah El Sisi, the chief of the Egyptian military, has made two costly miscalculations By Larbi Sadiki.
Last Modified: 28 Jul 2013 15:18
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/07/2013728115713723250.html
Who is Egypt Rabaa-Al-Adwaya
By Ramsy Baroudi
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2013/08/24/Who-is-Egypt-s-Rabaa-al-Adawiya-.html
The Egyptian Canadian Coalition for Democracy
About ECCD: Egyptian Canadian Coalition for Democracy (ECCD) is a politically independent, non-affiliated pan Canadian organization with chapters in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Vancouver, Kingston, and St. John, which advocates for democracy and human rights in Egypt.
For more information:
www.eccd.ca
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Samaa Elibyari: +1 (514) 288-8609
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