{"id":154780,"date":"2023-08-23T19:19:45","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T17:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/egypt-raba-massacre-reverberates-10-years-later\/"},"modified":"2023-08-23T19:19:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T17:19:45","slug":"egypt-raba-massacre-reverberates-10-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/egypt-raba-massacre-reverberates-10-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt: Rab\u2019a Massacre Reverberates 10 Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Egyptian<\/a>\u00a0authorities have failed for a decade to hold anyone accountable for the\u00a0largest mass killing in Egypt\u2019s modern history<\/a>, Human Rights Watch said today. The Rab\u2019a massacre, a likely crime against humanity, took place in Cairo on August 14, 2013, and kick-started a mass repression campaign targeting government critics, precipitating one of Egypt\u2019s worst human rights crises in many decades.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Despite overwhelming evidence compiled by Human Rights Watch and calls by the\u00a0United Nations<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0international<\/a>\u00a0human rights organizations for an investigation, the authorities have\u00a0failed<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0investigate or prosecute<\/a>\u00a0anyone<\/a>\u00a0for the killings of hundreds of protesters that day. Security forces violently dispersed the sit-in at Rab\u2019a al-Adawiya, the main gathering of protesters demanding the reinstatement of then-President Mohamed Morsy. Hundreds of protesters who participated in the sit-in remain imprisoned, convicted in\u00a0grossly unfair mass trials<\/a>, and some have been sentenced to death. Many others fled into exile.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rab\u2019a massacre precipitated a devastating campaign of arrests, sham trials, torture, and exile that has all but removed any space for critical dialogue and pushed many reformists out of the country,\u201d said\u00a0Adam Coogle<\/a>, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cAddressing what happened in Rab\u2019a does not only concern Rab\u2019a victims and their families but is also crucial for the prospect of human rights and democracy in Egypt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The army overthrew and arrested President Morsy on July 3, 2013. He\u00a0died in detention<\/a>\u00a0in 2019\u00a0in abusive conditions.<\/a>\u00a0After the coup, Morsy supporters staged large protests throughout Egypt and gathered in two main squares in Cairo, Rab\u2019a, and al-Nahda. Human Rights Watch documented that security forces unlawfully fired on masses of largely peaceful protesters on August 14, to disperse Rab\u2019a, killing at least 817 people and more likely over 1,000. These mass killings most likely constituted\u00a0crimes against humanity<\/span>\u00a0and require an international investigation, Human Rights Watch said.<\/p>\n

National courts of other countries should also investigate and prosecute those implicated in the massacre under the principle of universal jurisdiction. \u201cUniversal jurisdiction\u201d refers to the authority of national judicial systems to investigate and prosecute certain of the most serious crimes under international law no matter where they were committed, and regardless of the nationality of the suspects or their victims.<\/p>\n

In December 2013, then-interim President Adly Mansour established a\u00a0fact-finding committee<\/a>\u00a0to collect \u201cinformation and evidence\u201d on the events that accompanied the June 30 protests, including the Rab\u2019a dispersal. The committee, which included law professors and former government executives, lacked any judicial powers. The committee released an executive\u00a0summary<\/a>\u00a0on November 26, 2014, in which it largely blamed protest leaders for the casualties in Rab\u2019a by allowing arms inside the sit-in. The committee also found fault with the unarmed protesters because it said they remained at the sit-in knowing that some protesters were armed. But the committee noted that security forces failed to target only people who were armed. The full report is yet to be made public.<\/p>\n

On March 6, 2014, Egypt\u2019s National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) released a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0on the Rab\u2019a dispersal saying that some protesters were armed and resisted security forces, which it said compelled them to use lethal force. However, the report also said that there was a \u201cdisproportionate response\u201d and \u201cexcessive use of force by security forces,\u201d and that security forces failed to maintain a safe exit for protesters willing to leave or to provide medical aid for the wounded.<\/p>\n

Both the fact-finding committee and the NCHR said that victims who did not participate in violence should be compensated. The NCHR also called for an independent judicial investigation.<\/p>\n

On July 26, 2018, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi approved\u00a0Law No.161 of 2018<\/a>\u00a0on the \u201ctreatment of the armed forces\u2019 senior commanders,\u201d which empowers the president to grant military commanders ministerial status and \u201cdiplomatic immunity\u201d when traveling outside the country, most likely aimed at shielding them from accountability.<\/p>\n

In addition to the failure to investigate security forces\u2019 involvement in the mass killing in Rab\u2019a, Egyptian authorities failed to adhere to article 241of the Egyptian Constitution, which required them to pass a\u00a0transitional justice law<\/a>\u00a0that \u201censures revealing the truth, accountability, proposing frameworks for national reconciliation, and compensating victims, in accordance with international standards.\u201d The constitution required the authorities to issue the law during the first parliamentary session of 2016.<\/p>\n

Since August 2013, Egypt\u2019s security forces have repeatedly committed human rights abuses with impunity, with routine\u00a0arbitrary arrests<\/a>,\u00a0enforced disappearances<\/a>, and\u00a0torture<\/a>\u00a0of real or suspected political activists as well as ordinary citizens, under the guise of fighting terrorism. To escape the government\u2019s abuse, many dissidents were forced into exile, with the government using tactics such as refusal to provide or renew their\u00a0identity documents<\/a>\u00a0to pressure them to return to near-certain prosecution in Egypt.<\/p>\n

The government continued to escalate its use of the\u00a0death penalty<\/a>, in many cases following unfair proceedings and mass trials. Under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi\u2019s government, Egypt ranked among the\u00a0top three countries<\/a>\u00a0globally in number of executions and death sentences in 2020, according to Amnesty International. In recent years, Egypt\u2019s National Security Agency has killed dozens of alleged \u201cterrorists\u201d across the country in what are most likely\u00a0extrajudicial executions<\/a>\u00a0that authorities later characterized as \u201cshootouts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s repression has led to the deterioration of the rights of various groups, including\u00a0journalists<\/a>, who have been prosecuted solely for their work, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, who are\u00a0targeted<\/a>\u00a0for their sexual orientation or gender identity. The authorities have also used vague \u201cmorality\u201d charges to arrest\u00a0social media influencers<\/a>\u00a0and sexual violence\u00a0witnesses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the well-documented abuses by Egypt\u2019s security forces, including in\u00a0North Sinai<\/a>, concrete steps by the international community to establish a UN human rights monitoring mechanism on Egypt are long overdue. The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union and its member states, despite calls by the\u00a0European Parliament<\/a>, and Egypt\u2019s other international partners, have also failed to impose any targeted sanctions against Egyptian officials and entities credibly implicated in serious human rights violations, including for the Rab\u2019a massacre.<\/p>\n

Following the Rab\u2019a massacre, in August 2013, the European Union\u00a0decided<\/a>\u00a0to suspend exports of weapons and goods that could be used for internal repression. However, more than a dozen countries including Bulgaria, Cyprus, Belgium,\u00a0the Czech Republic<\/a>,\u00a0France<\/a>, \u00a0Hungary,\u00a0Italy<\/a>, Romania, and Spain\u00a0breached this suspension<\/a>\u00a0and continued shipping military equipment to Egypt. In July 2013, the African Union\u00a0suspended<\/a>\u00a0Egypt after the military coup but restored its membership in 2014 despite its lack of progress on rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout justice, Rab\u2019a remains an open wound,\u201d Coogle said. \u201cThose responsible for the mass killings of protesters shouldn\u2019t count on being able to shield themselves from accountability forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).<\/i><\/p>\n

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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Central Africa Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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