The Gaurdian:…

The Gaurdian:

The Rabaa massacre of 14 August 2013 was by far the bloodiest, with death toll estimates ranging from 800 to well over 1,000. Human Rights Watch called it a premeditated crime against humanity comparable to China’s Tiananmen Square massacre.

In the crowd on the morning of 14 August were two British students, Mahmoud Bondok and Salah Abdelshaheed. They were visiting their extended Egyptian families that summer and holidaying in Cairo when they joined the tented sit-in outside the mosque. Neither were supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood but both thought it was important to take a stand when an elected government was ousted by the army.

Bondok had not been able to sleep the night before and was awake at six in the morning when the attack on the sit-in began. “I was walking back from a shop when I saw a kid pointing to something up the road and running away,” he recalled. “There was a big army truck and then a smaller Humvee driving towards the square. But the time I ran back there, there was teargas falling like rain.

“We were outside a military building and we could see seven to 10 military men on the roof and they all had sniper guns and they started shooting at us. We hid under some steps and we didn’t know what to do. A guy just inches from me was shot in the neck. The bullet took a chunk out of the side of his neck, and he was bleeding profusely.”

Bondok’s friend from London, Salah Abdelshaheed, then aged 19, helped carry the wounded man towards the square where there had been an improvised clinic, but it soon became clear the area had already been taken over by the security forces

“People were falling all around us,” Abdelshaheed said. “A shopkeeper called us to into his store room where there were already 15 people hiding. It was a tiny room and people were lying on top of each other. One of the injured was lying on me and the blood was dripping down. Outside we could hear gunfire and screams. If you went outside, you would be killed. All we could do is just put pressure on to stop the bleeding of the wounded.”

Now back in London having graduated in civil engineering, Abdelshaheed said he was revolted by the UK’s invitation to Sisi. “Morally, it’s just wrong. You claim to be defenders of democracy, but when it’s in your interests you get into bed with the abusers,” he said. “Strategically, it’s stupid. Islamists are a big segment of society and you are saying to them just forget about democracy, no one cares. I used to argued with those voices in the mosque who argue against democracy, but now what can I say?”

يمكنك دعم الموقع من هنا
مؤسسة ندى لحماية الفتيات