Three more people died in Cairo yesterday, a medic said, as violence which has killed dozens raged into a fifth day despite promises by Egypt’s military ruler to speed up the transition to democracy.
Clashes broke out in Mohammed Mahmud street, just off Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square, where thousands of protesters rallied again to demand an immediate end to military rule.
Riot police erected barricades, shooting tear gas and birdshot, which ricocheted off concrete buildings, sending dust and chips of cement into tear gas-filled air, according to an Agence France-Presse reporter.
Shadi al-Naggar, a doctor at the Omar Makram field hospital, said three people had died in the latest violence, which pits security forces against demonstrators throwing stones and petrol bombs.
“It looked like live bullets, but I didn’t get a chance to examine [them] before they were taken away to the hospitals,” he said.
“One of them had his skull crushed,” he said.
A 10-year-old child was among the latest casualties, hit in the head by a live bullet, Father Fawzi Abdel Wahib said at a church turned into a field hospital, although it was unclear if the boy had died.
“He was taken to the Qasr al-Aini hospital. He probably won’t make it alive to the hospital,” Abdel Wahib said.
The health ministry said in a statement issued yesterday by the state news agency MENA that a total of 32 people had died since the clashes began on Saturday. It gave a toll yesterday of two dead.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay yesterday called for an independent probe into the killing of demonstrators by Egypt’s military and security forces.
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who served as defense minister under former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, but took power when Mubarak was ousted in February, pledged in a rare televised address on Tuesday night to hold a presidential election by the end of June — six months earlier than scheduled.
Tantawi said he was also ready to transfer power immediately, via a referendum, “should the people wish it.”
However, many among the tens of thousands of Egyptians attending an anti-military rally in Tahrir Square during Tantawi’s address said they did not believe a word he said.
“We can’t trust what he says. The ball has been in SCAF’s court for months, and they didn’t do anything,” said Ibtisam al-Hamalawy, 50, referring to the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
Heba Morayef, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Cairo, described the latest bloody confrontations as “very worrying.”
“[Tantawi’s] speech shows that the military is not ceding anything, and at the same time the ongoing violence is strengthening the protesters resolve,” Morayef said.
Observers yesterday said that, while people demonstrating in Tahrir Square might not represent the majority of the Egyptian population, their influence was unquestionable.
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