Probe Urged Of Refugee Deaths at Cairo Camp
Reuters
Sunday, January 1, 2006; A16
CAIRO, Dec. 31 -- Rights groups on Saturday demanded an inquiry into the conduct of Egyptian police after at least 23 Sudanese refugees were killed at a squatter camp in Cairo.
The Egyptian government said it regretted the deaths at the camp early on Friday morning but defended the way the police had ended a three-month sit-in by about 3,500 Sudanese, who were demanding resettlement in the West.
On Saturday night, Egyptian and other sympathizers gathered near the deserted encampment for a vigil in memory of the dead, some of them children crushed to death when police fired tear gas and water cannons into crowds of Sudanese.
"We've come to stop the killing of poor people," said Mohamed Sallam, one of the people at the vigil.
New York-based Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation into the deaths, which took place near the Cairo offices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The United Nations had said the Sudanese were mostly economic migrants, not people in danger of persecution if they went home.
"President Hosni Mubarak should urgently appoint an independent commission to investigate the use of force by police against Sudanese migrants," Human Rights Watch said.
"The high loss of life suggests the police acted with extreme brutality. . . . A police force acting responsibly would not have allowed such a tragedy to occur," said Joe Stork, deputy director of the group's Middle East division.
Eleven Egyptian groups blamed the Interior Ministry for the events and also called for an inquiry.
The ministry "knows no way to deal with people, whether citizens or refugees, other than by beating, crushing, extrajudicial killing, or transfer to illegal detention centres," the groups said in a joint statement.
Presidential spokesman Soleiman Awad said Egypt had no choice but to intervene and said the UNHCR office had asked authorities three times to break up the sit-in.
Sunday, January 1, 2006; A16
CAIRO, Dec. 31 -- Rights groups on Saturday demanded an inquiry into the conduct of Egyptian police after at least 23 Sudanese refugees were killed at a squatter camp in Cairo.
The Egyptian government said it regretted the deaths at the camp early on Friday morning but defended the way the police had ended a three-month sit-in by about 3,500 Sudanese, who were demanding resettlement in the West.
On Saturday night, Egyptian and other sympathizers gathered near the deserted encampment for a vigil in memory of the dead, some of them children crushed to death when police fired tear gas and water cannons into crowds of Sudanese.
"We've come to stop the killing of poor people," said Mohamed Sallam, one of the people at the vigil.
New York-based Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation into the deaths, which took place near the Cairo offices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The United Nations had said the Sudanese were mostly economic migrants, not people in danger of persecution if they went home.
"President Hosni Mubarak should urgently appoint an independent commission to investigate the use of force by police against Sudanese migrants," Human Rights Watch said.
"The high loss of life suggests the police acted with extreme brutality. . . . A police force acting responsibly would not have allowed such a tragedy to occur," said Joe Stork, deputy director of the group's Middle East division.
Eleven Egyptian groups blamed the Interior Ministry for the events and also called for an inquiry.
The ministry "knows no way to deal with people, whether citizens or refugees, other than by beating, crushing, extrajudicial killing, or transfer to illegal detention centres," the groups said in a joint statement.
Presidential spokesman Soleiman Awad said Egypt had no choice but to intervene and said the UNHCR office had asked authorities three times to break up the sit-in.
posted by Hanan Elbadry at 7:48 AM
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