One hundred days since the massacre in Rabaa

24th November marked one hundred days since the demonstrations in Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda Squares were violently dispersed, resulting in what Human Rights Watch described as the largest mass murder in the history of modern Egypt. This action resulted in the death, wounding and detainment of thousands of civilians.

On that day, which was Wednesday 14th August, the military and police forces not only resorted to using live ammunition in order to kill peaceful protesters, who had stayed more than 47 days in the Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda Squares, declaring their rejection of the military coup that overthrew the first elected civilian president chosen by the Egyptian people, but they also resorted to other means to cause death, such as burning bodies. Egypt witnessed for the first time in its history a form of crime where its citizens were burnt collectively, even those who had already been shot dead.

However, it did not stop at this. The military and police forces also chased people away, preventing them from taking the bodies of their martyred children and relatives to rest them in their graves. Even those who were given permission to take the bodies of their relatives could not do so until they had signed a document stating that the relative had committed suicide, otherwise the corpse of their relative would not be handed over.

The Egyptian people were left shocked by the crimes they witnessed on that day. And yet, when they came out to express their anger, they were greeted by the army and police forces opening fire on them, using aircrafts and tanks in a scene that reveals that there is a real war between Egyptian citizens and the security forces, which under the pretext of protecting the homeland is actually destroying the country and burning alive its children.

Two days had not passed before these forces committed a new crime against its own citizens; they arrested them without charge and subsequently killed them in cold blood while in deportation cars by asphyxiating them with tear gas and other poisonous gases, as though they were enemies of the country and not its children. But even if they had been enemies of the country, they would not have been treated the way they were.

The security forces subsequently committed a series of massacres, day after day, until it was no longer possible to keep count of the atrocities. All these actions were committed for the sake of power and for the benefit of those who have ruled Egypt for over sixty years, during which time the Egyptian people suffered all kinds of oppression, humiliation and enslavement while the country was turned into a huge prison, and became an insignificant and submissive follower in the international arena.

When the people revolted against these dictators during the January revolution and bravely overthrew them, they immediately plotted to restore their rule in order to reclaim their power and benefits. They needed this power so that they would not be subject to the rule of law and held accountable for their crimes.

When they returned to power after the coup against the legitimately elected president and parliament, they committed all sorts of crimes to silence the voices of the people and to prevent them from trying to regain their freedom, forgetting that once the people had tasted freedom, they would fight to restore it however high the costs.

The devastating massacre at Rabaa was a milestone in the history of modern Egypt. There is now a collective awareness among the majority of the people that the formation of the new state requires demolishing all the old institutions without exception, and rebuilding them once again. This is because the coup regime, which initially formed at the hands of the army officers back in 1952 and destroyed the state and all its institutions, then turned them into structures and buildings that have no value nor function other than to oppress.