The ruling military council told reporters Wednesday that it did not intentionally kill Coptic protesters calling for equal rights last Sunday, blamed deaths on 'radical priests' and 'foreign conspiracies' against the nation “Today, we will show facts.” With these words, Major General Adel Emara, a member of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), started the international press conference held Wednesday afternoon to address clashes Sunday between the military police and Coptic Christian protesters and their Muslim supporters, which left 25, mostly civilians, dead and 329 injured. The press conference focused on what happened from the army's point of view, on the night of 9 October, which has become widely known as "Bloody Sunday". Responding to accusations from survivors and eyewitnesses to the bloody clashes that the army shot at peaceful protesters, General Emara insisted that military police could not have used live ammunition because he said that his soldiers are only armed with anti-riot gear. On the contrary, according to the SCAF account, Sunday's protest might have started in a peaceful fashion, but it turned violent when some - in the thousands-strong protest - attacked army soldiers and tanks with sticks, Molotov cocktails and swords without any provocation. SCAF showed video clips taken from TV coverage, including Egyptian TV and German TV, to prove its claim that protesters violently attacked military police first. Emara added that since the state TV Building is one of Egypt's most important strategic facilities, therefore, any threat of storming the facility or attacking, as he said he believed was the case on 9 October, would naturally be taken seriously by the armed forces. Emara said that his troops numbered a measely 300 military police soldiers at the TV Building - compared to thousands of angry protesters. He added that the army soldiers only wanted to defend the TV building, and themselves.. He also denied that army vehicles ran over protesters intentionally, as several videos circulating on the internet seem to show. Emara reasoned that soldiers, who were attacked by protesters, simply panicked because they had no live ammunition on them, and might have acted frantically. Major General Mahmoud Hegazy, who co-chaired the conference with General Emara, said that he could not confirm or deny the involvement of a third party in opening fire on his soldiers Sunday at the strat of the clashes. Hegazy attempted to quiet public accusations that the army discriminates against Christians in Egypt, and has failed to protect them against attacks from Islamic fundamentalists. He insisted that the Egyptian people were all respected as humans – regardless of religion – by SCAF, highlighting that the armed forces were composed of all sectors of the Egyptian people. SCAF representatives attempted to shift the blame for the deaths of Copts at Maspero on to those whom they referred to as "radical Christian priests", who allegedly incited the Coptic public, and planned violent protests against the state. SCAF members played videos for reporters that featured a man who appeared to be a Christian priest, based on his garb, making serious physical threats against the governor of Aswan, whom many Egyptians accuse of condoning the burning of a church in Upper Egypt late last month; an incident which triggred Coptic anger and led ultimately to the clashes at Maspero last Sunday. However, SCAF members faced some tough questions at the press conference. “Who killed those protesters?," an Australian TV reporter asked SCAF's spokespeople towards the end of the conference. "If the army did not kill the protesters, is it not considered a failure in intelligence, or a failure in tactics, or a failure to uphold your oath your to protect the people?,” he challenged the generals." Hegazy answered by saying that SCAF was still trying to determine who actually killed the protesters, insisting that what happened was not a failure in intelligence or tactics. Hegazy added that securing large protests was the responsibility of the organisers, giving examples of how previous protests had been peaceful in nature and ended with no injuries or deaths. The major generals declined to give the number of soldiers and officers killed during the clashes, although they showed a video clip of a badly injured soldier being carried on a stretcher. “We will not disclose the number of our martyrs in the armed forces on Sunday, just,” Hegazy answered questions. “We will not disclose [the number] to keep [up] the morale of our forces." Hegazy revealed that the armed forces had opened an investigation into the clashes, and that cooperation with the office of the prosecutor general was ongoing. The major generals closed the press conference by expressing their hope that what they described as "the sad events" of last Sunday could mark, in their opinion, a turning point in protecting the revolution. They urged the public to be vigilant against what they described as "foreign-sown conspiracies" that aim to destabilize the nation. Meanwhile, a group of political and human rights activists announced Wednesday that they are planning to hold a press conference Thursday to respond to the ruling military council's version of the bloody clashes that took place at Maspero, Cairo on 9 October. The activists response to SCAF has been called by The Revolution Youth Coalition, the Workers Democratic Party, The Popular Committees to defend the revolution, Revolutionary Socialists, the Popular Socialist Alliance Party and the National Front for Freedom and Justice. Activists will feature eyewitness accounts that they say contradict the army's assertion that its units at the scene were attacked by some in the protests, and that the army did not 'intentionally' run over peaceful protesters with armoured military vehicles. The activists' press conference is set to take place at the headquarters of the liberal Tahrir daily newspaper in Dokki on Thursday 13 October at 12pm.
