Egyptian army denies use of live fire on Christian protesters
BNO Newswire - Thursday, October 13th, 2011 at 3:03 PM
Egypt’s military rulers on Wednesday denied allegations that its soldiers fired on protesters during the recent clashes with Coptic Christians, local media reported.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has governed the country since the February ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, held a press conference on Wednesday to give its account of the renewed violence which left at least 26 people dead and 300 injured.
Major General Adel Emara insisted that the army did not use live ammunition against protesters, while other officials also produced video footage that they said supported this assertion, the Al-Ahram daily newspaper reported. A number of eyewitnesses previously claimed that gunshots were fired during the protest.
During the international press conference, the ruling military council also denied that the army intentionally used armored vehicles to run over protesters outside the state TV headquarters in Maspero. Video footage previously appeared online which showed this.
“The soldiers driving armored vehicles were trying to avoid protesters who were throwing stones and Molotov cocktali bombs at them,” Emara said. “We can not confirm or deny that army vehicles crushed protesters because this incident is still under investigation.”
Clashes erupted on Sunday between Egyptian security forces and Coptic Christian demonstrators when an estimated 10,000 Copts were marching in Cairo against religious persecution. The protest, which was organized by the Maspero Youth Union, was against an attack on a Coptic church on September 30 in the southern Egyptian province of Aswan.
The comments on Wednesday came a day after the Egyptian Cabinet announced that it has formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the deadly clashes.
Sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christian Copts have increased in the past year. There are around 8 million Christian Copts in Egypt, which represent about 10 percent of the population, and Sunday’s clashes were the worst since the revolution earlier this year.
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