An eyewitness account of the massacre of Sudanese refugees in Cairo

“Screams never stopped; the most acute were children’s. My eyes couldn’t follow where or where to look. It was cold. It was dark. Soldiers were brutal. They were just beating anyone anywhere, stepping over anyone and anything.” This quote is from an anonymous eyewitness account (reproduced below) of events that took place last Friday in Cairo, when Egyptian security police brutally broke up a three-month sit-in protest being held by Sudanese refugees in Cairo. News reports indicate that the number of people killed is approaching 30. As detailed in an October 2005 Pambazuka News article (http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=29957) the refugees were protesting against their appalling conditions and the constant abuse of their rights and had camped out near the Cairo office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), demanding protection from forced repatriation and protection of vulnerable groups. At that stage one of the protestors vowed: “We will wait here, we will die here. We have no other place to go.”

At 10:00 pm, Thursday, December 29th I received an SMS saying the Mohandesin area was turning into a military camp and that Sudanese refugees who had been sitting in for 3 months may be disbursed by force.

I arrived at 11:00 pm to find state security trucks and plain clothes police closing the roads of Batal Ahmed Abdel Aziz, Ahmed Orabi, and Gameet el Dewal streets.

Public white busses lined up all the way from Donuts House till Mustafa Mahmud square with a few state security soldiers sitting inside them. I was able to take down some of the bus numbers as I walked - 4129, 3696, 4107, 4136, 4335, 3416, 3534, and 3416.

In a few minutes all streets leading to Mustafa Mahmud were totally blocked. Police forces started cornering and then disbursing civilian pedestrians.

At 1:00 am, and it was really cold, security forces started flushing the refugees with three water cannons from three different sides. The first spray lasted for almost 6 minutes and was rather high. We could see the water reaching as high as the 4th balcony of the near-by building. Probably it aimed at destroying the top of their shelters.

Refugees met the water floods with cheer and dance. This was a reaction no one at the other side could understand and it rather provoked the ‘they deserve whatever happens to them - they are crazy’ type of thinking.

The few civilians who gathered to observe the scene from afar were mostly quite amused. I painfully heard comments such as “let them take a shower to become clean”, “Egypt has been more than patient with them”, “security forces should’ve got rid of them from day one”, “They (Sudanese) are disgusting”. Laughs interrupted such comments as the refugees were sprayed with water. Few stood silent with eyes wide open at the scene, while only one objected and explained that Sudanese had demands and rights to be met by UNHCR.

A police officer told a friend as he smiled that they badly needed a bath after three months. “We have orders to finish this tonight and we will,” he added.

We resorted to the 2nd floor of a café just across the park to be able to observe, take pictures, and make phone calls. Choosing the time to attack the refugees was more than well planned. Midnight Thursday in the New Year’s weekend. All the media I contacted were out of town for vacation. A handful of political activists arrived but were totally helpless. A couple of human rights activists were with us on the phone all night.

Almost an hour later another 5 minutes of continuous water showered the refugees. This time the water was low, strong and direct, straight at the people.

Water stopped and a negotiation round started with a delegated refugee committee, an Egyptian official, and a UNHCR official. The Egyptian said: “UNHCR will do nothing for you. We are authorized by the highest power in the state to disburse this sit in today.” The reply of the refugees was that: “We will die on the turf.”

I was able to step to the second security circle surrounding them. A public bus waiting in the area had five refugees at the back seat while a sixth one was being brutally beaten by 5 state security soldiers. From my position next to the bus I could see and hear him screaming as they beat him on his head and back with hands and batons, kicked him, and twisted his arm and wrist behind his back as his screams went louder and louder.

An officer standing next to us explained that he was trying to break the window and escape because he was drunk. At this point a man from the back seat opened the window and holding a baby girl of a few months old, cried: “We are not drunk, I am not drunk, he is not drunk, and this baby is not drunk. Her mother died here in this park.” They beat him to silence as well and continued with the sixth guy. A young man took a video of the scene on his cell phone and later Bluetoothed it to me.

Reporters, observers and the few activists who were there started to leave the scene as time passed with no further developments. It was very cold and my hands and nose were freezing. It was unimaginable to imagine wet people!

At around 4 am we managed to get to the building of Al Watany Bank of Egypt and only then we had a full clear view of the situation from high. In Mustafa Mahmud square, I could count 60 state security wagons, 6 ambulances, 10 armored cars and uncountable busses.

At 4:45 am the troops were lining up properly and the first circle of formations moved closer to surround the refugees. Their warm up exercise echoed in the empty city as they said: “Ho- ho- ho- masr!” and singing “Ya ahla esm fel wegood yaa masr” meaning “To Egypt, who has the most beautiful name ever, whose name was created to be eternal, for Egypt we live…and for Egypt we die.”

Refugees lined up and started warming up too but saying “Allah Akbar”, “La ilaha ella Allah” and “Hasbona allah wa neama al wakil”, meaning “There is no god but Allah and only him we delegate to handle our injustice.” The Christians chanted Halleluiah. The few civilian audience started cheering for the Egyptian army.

At 5 am sharp the 3 water cannons flushed them again and right beside the water line security forces timely attacked the refugee campus with batons and shields. After 1 minute the water stopped. Soldiers destroyed the rest of their makeshift homes and pulled up their front line of luggage, throwing it away as other soldiers made their way in.

Refugees fought back with wood sticks, plastic empty water jars and gallons, and their hands.

The left side (the side of Radwan Ogeil store) fought back very bravely and was able to force soldiers to retreat out for three times, but on the other two sides soldiers were breaking in. Sounds of sharp metal hits were heard loudly. I guess these were the wooden sticks on the metal shields. Also sounds of screams, mainly women and children, echoed.

After 10 minutes, a whistle was heard and all forces pulled out of the garden. Lines were reorganized. Extra troops were added to the Al Ogeil store side and in a couple of minutes a signal was given and they lashed back in.

This time was fierce. The street lights were cut off. Screams never stopped; the most acute were children’s. My eyes couldn’t follow where or where to look. It was cold. It was dark. I am sure the garden was muddy after all this water. Soldiers were brutal. They were just beating anyone anywhere, stepping over anyone and anything.

Every 2 or 3 seconds a refugee would be dragged out of the horror circle, beaten all the way out. Another 3-4 soldiers would take grip of the refugee so the first soldier could go back to hunt another one. The soldiers receiving the refugee beat him more with batons on his back, bringing him down to his knee, slapping the back of his head, dragging him to a bus where other soldiers took care of the next stage. All the way through, obscenities could be heard.

This happened to men and women equally. Sometimes when the victim was a woman I saw a child trying to hang to her leg as the soldiers dragged the mother.

I saw four refugees carried by soldiers from their arms and legs, often dropping midway totally motionless and I could swear they were dead.

The most horrible was the EGYPTIANS! Civilians who cheered as if they were cheering for the ‘army forces’ freeing Egypt! As forces advanced in battle; the audience cheered, whistled and clapped. They were amused!

Resistance was weakening on Al Ogeil side and soldiers were breaking fully in when my host, standing beside me in the balcony said: “We are entering from the left side.” I looked back at him in shock. This is not “we”. He said: “I mean the Egyptians.” These are not Egyptians. He said “whatever.”

I started shaking.

As the refugees were dragged out in bigger numbers they forced them to sit on the ground in groups, casually beating them till soldiers would come pick them up and put them in busses.

A friend later told me he saw an officer spitting on a bus as it moved away with refugees!

Resistance fully collapsed. As fewer refugees were left inside the garden facing at least 2500 soldiers, the screams became sharper, louder and desperate.

Everything was over at 5:30 am sharp.

When I took control over my body, I picked up my car and followed 6 of the white public transportation busses carrying almost fainting refugees and state security forces to Dahshur State Security Camp in Fayoum road. They arrived there at exactly 7:15 am. The camp is almost 40 kms outside Cairo. Distance could be more or less, I was so tired and so not well. The wagon numbers were 3686, 4107, 6132, 4335, and 3696. I missed the numbers of the first bus.

Returning back to Cairo I went directly to the battlefield. Let the pictures speak.

So far 20 people died. There is news that those who were taken to the state security camp are all released. And some are released from Turah. No news yet from Dahshur.

Individuals, groups, lawyers, and associations are protesting in the same place tomorrow Saturday 12 noon at both the brutality of the Egyptian government and the disgraceful role of UNHCR.

We shall not close the file of the massacre committed by the Egyptian regime against the Sudanese refugees in Egypt. Send letters of protest and condemnation to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ([email protected]) and the Egyptian embassy in your country.

Write to UN Secretary General demanding an international investigation.

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For a full list of those to be deported see the link below.