Confirmed: Egypt forces fire live ammo on protesters
With over 33 people already confirmed dead and about 1,500 injured during Egypt’s revolution 2.0, the toll is expected to rise as the police have started using live ammunition on protesters. RT’s Paula Slier is in the eye of the Tahrir storm.
She reports that doctors say that many of those killed, died from live bullets. Tahrir’s main holding station has run out of coffins. It has issued a call for new coffins to be brought to the area.Paula says the situation is getting more tense, with protesters raking up pavements and throwing stones at security officers. Police have been firing rubber bullets and tear gas. Some demonstrators are writing the contact details of their families on their arms, so they can be identified if killed. Paula tweets that massive flags have gone up in the square as demonstrators rage, demanding the military step down.The military forces responded that they do not intend to occupy Tahrir square, they simply want to protect the Interior Ministry.As Paula Slier reports on Twitter, the military council says it deeply regrets the deaths of the protesters.RT’s correspondent reports that there are many more people on Tahrir Square today than at this time on Monday, and the mood of the demonstrators is also far more restive than before. More people keep arriving in the square.
It is a lot harder to walk around or even near the square as security has been stepped up, with marshals checking passports and other ID. But clashes are continuing in the side streets as army tries to flush out protesters from the square. People are chanting "Down with the Marshal!" – a reference to Mohammed Tantawi, the head of Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Paula Slier tweeted that one protester is holding up a banner saying, "Obey the will of the people or Egypt will burn."The crowd is demanding the ruling military generals step down. They believe that one dictator – Hosni Mubarak – was replaced with another, the army, which has been in control since February.People are saying they want the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to step down, because they are the ones really in charge.Some people are calling this a second revolution, while others say that this is the second phase of the first, which ousted former president Mubarak.Paula said via her Twitter page that she has been speaking to a group of protesters who told her they should not have left the streets in February.Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Egypt's rulers of levels of brutality which have at times exceeded those of Hosni Mubarak's regime. “Egypt's military rulers have completely failed to live up to their promises to Egyptians to improve human rights and have instead been responsible for a catalogue of abuses which in some cases exceeds the record of Hosni Mubarak,” Amnesty International said in a new report.Disorder has also flared in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria, where police fired teargas at protesters trying to storm the Security Forces building.
Political commentator Ralph Schoenman told RT the military is trying to contain the revolutionary uprising against the oligarchy’s continued control. “This junta is prepared to drown this movement in blood.” He doubts the military is going to fulfill its promises, saying the upcoming elections will be “formal and without any substantial content.”“People understand that you need to transfer power to the population, not effect cosmetic control by public figures who submit to the oligarchy’s continued stranglehold over the lifeblood of the Egyptians’ political and economic future,” Shoenman concluded.
