CAIRO: The Egyptian military has committed serious human rights crimes and violations against protesters, as more documentation of the violence emerges on social networking websites, showing video footage of harsh and excessive use of force against the protesters, including women and elderly people. Women have been beaten and stripped of their clothes, assaulted and threatened with rape prior to being detained. Activists say the military is escalating their violence and attacks. The number of missing people is increasing, as the death toll reached 10 on Saturday evening and the count of injured nears 400, according to official estimates from the Egyptian Ministry of Health. One woman in particular was seen in a video receiving a grave beaten by many soldiers. Her shirt snapped open, publicly reveling her skin and bra. She and a companion were running from the troops when she fell. Her companion tried to help her but received an equal beating. She was beaten with heavy wooden batons, and the soldiers in the video were seen kicking her in the chest. One soldiers slammed his heavy army boots with tremendous power on the woman, who seemed to have passed out. The still image of the woman, bear chested in her bra and laying on the ground while a soldiers foot remains in the air, heading to her body, made headlines on Egypt's press on Sunday and gave talk shows hosts and their guests much to talk about on Saturday night. Egyptians woke up to an unpopular fact– the military is not good for us. Newspapers like al-Tahrir enlarged the image, putting it as the headline of its front page. The military and the prime minister said the image is not real, calling it “Photoshopped.” Activists responded by releasing the whole video that shows the full reality of the beating. Another video showed an elderly woman with gray hair being dragged by four soldiers, with no consideration for her age. She was man handled and dragged from her clothes by the young soldiers. Other clips show military officers using live ammunition on protesters, while the other soldiers ran after their prey. Activists said many women were arrested and kept in the Egyptian cabinet building on the street of the sit-in. Since, the military had the street rebuilt in a matter of hours, paving the ground again and fixing the sidewalks, making it hard to imagine how much of a mess it was less than 14 hours ago. The soldiers were also featured setting the protesters' tents on fire, tearing them apart with their own hands in anger. The violence erupted after a man was kidnapped from the sit-in in front of the Magles al-Sha'b building in downtown Cairo. He returned, badly injured and almost deformed by the beating he suffered at the hands of the soliders. Other protesters were angered at the attack, especially as rumors of kidnappings circulated over the last week. Some people remain missing. The military spilled gasoline on the sit-in's tents and set it ablaze. Protesters who were trying to flee the fire were beaten badly and chased in the surrounding streets. The military was filmed on roof tops of buildings throwing large pieces of rocks and marble at the protesters below. Eyewitnesses reported that the army used Molotov cocktail bottles, fire crackers and water hoses on the protests. Ghada Kamal Ahmed Abdel Khaleq, an activist with the April 6 Youth Movement, gave her testimony of what happened to her while she was in detention in a video. She said she was trying to rest as the military attacked the street. As she looked back at the running wave of soldiers, she spotted a women being hit by soldiers. Abdel Khaleq stopped and ran back to “relive her from some of the batons– I thought I could lay on her”, she said, but she was not given a chance. She was surrounded with soldiers, who were not shy about using their batons on a woman. She received many hits on her head, cracking her skull open, necessitating stitches. After the beating, she was taken inside the Cabinet building to talk to the officers. One officer, who identified himself with a fake name, wanted her for himself. She said he pushed back the soldiers and told her he recognize her from the street and that she was insulting them. “I will show you how much of a man I am tonight, you are mine” he told the bleeding woman. “Dyng is okay, we go out knowing that could happen, but for a woman to be threatened by rape and sexual violence, that is much harder,” she said. Women have repeatedly reported being molested, kicked and hit in sensitive areas and groped by soldiers who see it as a chance. Abdel Kahleq was rescued by a doctor who came inside to take away those who were in need of immediate medical help. He choose to take the women first. Abdel Kahleq says there were about 8 women there, some injured. She had to whisper to the doctor to communicate to him that the officer wanted to keep her overnight. She was taken out after the doctor insisted that she had to join the other women in the clinic. As Abdel Kahleq was leaving, the officer told her he will shoot her if he sees her again outside in the street. Other videos and testimonies continue to emerge, a clear picture is forming of what really went on during the clashes. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/UkW2g Tags: featured Section: Egypt, Human Rights, Latest News
