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I have no words to describe the gratuitous brutality displayed by the Egyptian army in this video.

THE INTRODUCTION to the video reads:

Kasr al-Aini events [the street on which the violence has been centered], 17/12/2011
To those defending the military council
To the oblivious who believe that the army and people are one hand
To El-Ganzoury [current 'Prime Minister' of Egypt], did you speak the truth?
And finally, are those the Earth’s finest soldiers?

Thanks to Dalia Rabie from The Daily News Egypt for the translation.

The brutality of the Egyptian military

The brutality of the Egyptian military

Some context:
(I strongly suggest you check out some of the links below for more detailed information)

  • Early Friday morning a protester from the sit-in outside the Egyptian cabinet was arrested and beaten by military police.
  • The situation escalated until the military took to the rooftops of nearby buildings and began hurling rocks, petrol bombs, and whatever else they could get their hands on – including office furniture, and in one case, a stream of urine – onto the protesters below, who of course responded with their own missiles.
  • Military police broke up the sit-in using their standard crowd-control tactics: if it moves, beat it; if it doesn’t move, beat it till it does.
  • Cue hours of cat-and-mouse fighting that pitted protesters armed with rocks, molotov cocktails, and hard hats, against a national army armed with all of the above plus, you know, guns.
  • Early today the military stormed Tahrir Square, destroying field hospitals, arresting doctors and patients, burning tents, and attacking media outlets that were covering the violence. [These are the events shown in the video.]
  • At least nine people are confirmed dead and over 350 injured, and at time of writing the violence shows no sign of ending.

For more detail check out recent posts on The Arabist and by Egyptian blogger Zeinobia, and this piece by al-Jazeera.

A few photo sets: OccupyCabinet evacuation and Compilation of photos showing army brutality.

The government has denied the army engaged in any unnecessary violence. Sadly, people believe this shit.

Activism + Politics


 

About The Author

Nick Rowlands

Nick lived in Egypt for six years, working as a tour leader, EFL teacher, city guide editor, and online guidebook writer. He's currently in San Francisco searching for his centre. He (kinda sporadically) blogs at Delicious Chaos, and you can follow him on twitter.

Archived Responses to Graphic video of Egyptian army brutality

  1. Shirlsays says:

    from comments i read, seems the same old thing. If US gets involved, they are getting into something that is none of thier business and if the dont, it is because there is nothing in it for them. MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!

  2. Furuna says:

    It’s not horrible. You get to choose who you vote for. In this case it appears that revolution brought the same sh*t. Blame the voters not police or military that follow orders…

    • Andy says:

      You sir are an idiot, they didn’t vote for anyone. The military assumed control after they ejected an autocratic tyrant, they protest because they want fair and free elections. You can hardly blame those who demand secular democracy whilst saying it is fine that police and military obey orders to harm the citizens. It clearly is horrible, if you think otherwise that probably says something about you doesn’t it.

  3. TP says:

    I have a question regarding the picture here shown; do Egyptian soldiers use AllStar sneakers? Who is that guy kicking the girl?

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