A recent report by Egypt's National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) on the violent dispersal of a pro-Muslim Brotherhood camp in Cairo last year has raised questions in some circles over the stance of rights groups on the current crackdown against the Islamist group, from Cairo writes Adam Hayaty... There is a perception that several rights groups are displaying caution when criticizing alleged abuses committed against Muslim Brotherhood supporters. These right groups seem to be under pressure, particularly as the Muslim Brotherhood has been designated a terrorist group and there are claims that it stands behind much of the violence that has hit the country since the removal of President Mohammad Morsi in July 2013. The state-sponsored NCHR - which includes a number of renowned human rights figures - issued a report in March which seemed - to some - to put the blame on the Muslim Brotherhood for events at the Rabaa protest camp, where police efforts to disperse protesters in August 2013 resulted in the loss of more than 600 lives, according to official estimates and more than 2,000 according to the Brothers. The report said: "There were cases of torture [committed by protesters]... protesters possessed arms... used human shields during the dispersal... Clashes started when one of the protesters shot a police officer dead... the dispersal took place on the basis of a warrant from prosecutors... the government had to disperse the camp so as to extend sovereignty over its territories". The report was sharply criticized by a number of political forces and activists. The spokesman of the liberal-oriented 6 April Youth Movement, Khalid al-Misri, said that the NCHR had failed to play the role assigned to it in investigating what happened "in the massacre of Rabaa." The Islamist-oriented Strong Egypt Party criticized the report, saying it provided justification for the "biggest massacre in modern Egyptian history." The report has come at a time when the Egyptian authorities are undertaking a large-scale crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood. More than 1,000 Brotherhood supporters have been killed and thousands jailed since Morsi's overthrow. More than 400 army and police personnel have been also killed over the same period. Some leading rights groups have been seen as adopting a rather sympathetic approach towards the security agencies. For instance, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights - which was founded in 1985 and played a leading role in exposing violations before and after the 2011 ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak - issued a statement that largely blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for clashes that took place near the Unknown Soldier Memorial in Cairo's Nasr City district. The statement said: "Supporters of the deposed President [Morsi] attempted to block the road. Police forces tried to prevent them. Clashes erupted between the two sides; police forces fired tear gas. Supporters of the deposed president responded by using stones, birdshot and live ammunition". Similarly, following the dispersal of the Rabaa camp, the Arab Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) issued a statement stressing the "outstanding performance" of security forces. Ahead of the dispersal, the Interior Ministry held meetings with a number of rights groups to discuss the process. The ministry invited representatives of two groups, the National Union for Human Rights (NUHR) and the Egyptian Union for Human Rights, to escort police forces as they dispersed the sit-in. The NUHR announced that "police forces exercised the maximum self-restraint", while some of the protesters "fired live ammunition at the police." A number of rights groups, however, have been keen to criticize both sides. Ten rights groups issued a statement condemning the "police and army's excessive and lethal use of force with pro-Morsi protesters outside the Unknown Soldier Memorial in Cairo". Meanwhile, the statement stressed that the "Brotherhood has not abandoned the use of violence to attain political goals" and recalled the "crime the Brotherhood committed" during Morsi's one-year rule. Likewise, when 15 groups issued a statement criticizing the Republican Guards Club events, they "strongly condemned the excessive use of force on the side of police and army forces" and "strongly condemned the Muslim Brotherhood's incitement to violence and killing rivals." The performance of the Muslim Brotherhood while in power and its confrontational course following Morsi's ouster left a large number of political and rights bodies with a negative view of the Islamist group. Moreover, the government designated the Brotherhood a terrorist organization and blamed it for several bloody attacks on security and army personnel. These factors may have contributed to the rather cautious approach currently followed by human rights organizations in Egypt.
