Ismail Etman, member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and manager of the moral affairs department in the military, today assured the public that the use of force was not used with protestors. He claimed that the military went to Tahrir Square without weapons to clear out the remaining protestors, and demonstrators were not beaten. The ruling military council was under significant pressure from shop owners and civilian companies to end the sit-in in Tahrir, said Etman on CBC's Hona El-Asema show, hosted by Khairy Ramadan. Many of the political movements suspended their strike for Ramadan and very few of the protestors remained in tents, Etman said, adding that 111 “thugs” were arrested in the siege and will be transferred to public prosecution, not military tribunals. Arrests weren't indiscriminate and only those who attacked the military police were detained, Etman claims. Protestors removed bricks and cement from the Square and hurled them toward the military police, he said. Some of the alleged thugs carried pipes, chains, knives and sticks, and wore shirts that read “Al-Tahrir's Thugs,” he continued. Etman denied the claim made by some television programs that the military forces blockaded the Omar Makram Mosque early Tuesday morning. Etman called on Egyptians to mind the security needs of the country and to trust that the armed forces are not the enemies of the protestors.
