Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its extensive report Tuesday 12 August, after a year-long investigation, on the Rab’aa Square killings last year August. Executive director Kenneth Roth and Middle East director Sarah Lead Whitson were detained yesterday at Cairo International Airport before being denied entry into the country. They were due to present the report at a press report entitled All According to Plan.
Roth commented on the authorities’ decision to deny him and his colleague entry:
“We came to Egypt to release a serious report on a serious subject that deserves serious attention from the Egyptian government… instead of denying the messenger entry to Egypt, the Egyptian authorities should seriously consider our conclusions and recommendations and respond with constructive action.”
You can download and read the report here after watching a summary video below:
[kad_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRW3Q6OtNiw” width=480 height=320 maxwidth=480 ]
After reading the report, some questions remain:
1) Who were the armed protestors at Rab’aa and Nahda, regardless of their number? Were they armed out of self-defense or were they provided arms by groups or entities?
2) Were the protestors at the sit-in really notified of the dispersal in a timely fashion?
