CAIRO: Egypt's ruling military council said on Monday that Egyptian protesters used “excessive force” against its troops in the ongoing violence that has left 14 dead and over 700 injured. General Adel Emarra, a member of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), told reporters that the military has not used any force against protesters in the past three days and called the soldiers heroes. “No human being can tolerate what these heroes have tolerated during clashes with protesters,” he said. “They employed complete self control and were viciously attacked by protesters who claim to be peaceful.” According to Bikyamasr.com eyewitness accounts of the ongoing violence, both the military and protesters have thrown rocks at one another, with the military also employing rubber bullets, live ammunition and attacking with batons. On Saturday, Bikyamasr.com Editor-in-chief Joseph Mayton, during his 13-hour detention by the military, confirmed at least 25 beatings of protesters who had been detained by the military and taken to the Cabinet building under arrest. Emarra asked reporters if peaceful means throwing Molotov cocktails, knives, gas containers and rocks against the troops and said “the troops were only armed with anti-riot equipment and that they have stopped using tear gas, which is internationally accepted to disperse crowds.” The general condemned the burning of the Egypt Scientific Institute and accused protesters of throwing “fire bombs threw the windows of the building” and accused them of injuring the fire department trucks' driver. He claimed the driver remains in critical condition. “There is a systematic and methodical plan to burn down not just institutions in Egypt, but the state itself,” he argued. He yelled that “this would never happen. Egypt is a 7,000-year-old country and these attempts will never succeed.” Footage of protesters throwing rocks and internal interviews of teenagers detained by the military confessing that they were paid to throw rocks and Molotov cocktails at the army was then shown. The general, however, admitted that the video showing a woman dragged by four soldiers and beaten after her dress was opened revealing her bra, was in fact real. He promised an immediate investigation into the incident and asked the Egyptian people to also “think about the circumstances behind the image and why was that taking place.” The video has sparked massive outrage among the Egyptian population over human rights violations at the hands of the military in the violence. When asked by a female reporter to issue an immediate and general apology to Egyptian women for the manner in which they have been treated at protests and their elimination from public life since the military came to power, the general said, “we will look into it” and then changing the subject. The woman received a small round of applause for her question inside the press conference. The general was completely defending the actions of the soldiers, confessing there were no direct orders to disperse the sit-in on Friday and that it was “circumstantial,” arguing instead that there was no dispersal of the sit-in at the Cabinet. “The violence when a protester attacked a soldier and was taken inside the Cabinet building and beaten,” he said. He continued to argue that once the protesters saw the beaten protester they began to throw rocks at the military and attempted to break into the Cabinet building and destroy it. The recent spate of violence began around two in the morning on Friday after the protester, an Ultra – a hardcore football fan – was reportedly abducted by security near the nearly three-week old sit-in in front of the Egyptian cabinet building. The man was reportedly beaten up and tortured by his captors and upon returning his face was “nearly unrecognizable,” a protester told Bikyamasr.com on Friday. As of Monday afternoon, a tense calm has begun to take place across downtown Cairo, but anger at the SCAF press conference has been massive, with online activists accusing the military council of outright lies that deny the reality and videos posted online of the past three days of violence. “We salute the brave and finest soldiers of all, our heroes, who honorably did their service and held their positions in front of the repeated attacks that did not stop for over two days,” Emarra added. ** Nicholas Nazari and Joseph Mayton contributed to this report. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/IX720 Tags: featured, Occupy Cabinet, Protesters, SCAF, Violence Section: Egypt, Latest News
