Killers attempt to honor their victims?
Last Monday, the ‘heroic’ military-backed Egyptian government started building a structure in the heart of Tahrir Square in memoriam of the Mohamed Mahmoud massacre.
Ironically, those who died in the massacre were gunned down by police forces during the military-run interim period that followed the January 25 Revolution. The military-backed government attempted to carry out a naïve political move to win back the hearts of the people. Despite General Abdelfattah El Sisi’s attempts to “save the country,” many people detest the existence of the military anywhere near politics and power.
I don’t know whether their move should be classified as naïve or disrespectful.
This was the second attempt at building a memoriam; a sculpture was built in Rabaah Al Adawiya, where scores of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) members, pro-Morsi and anti-military protestors were killed after the army and police forces dispersed their sit-in using force.
The sculpture in Rabaah contains two arms, which depict the army and police forces, protecting a sphere, which symbolizes the Egyptian people. Although I do not support the MB, I believe that the choice to build a sculpture like that in that specific location is appalling.
On Aug. 19, five days after the dispersal of the sit-in, Human Rights Watch described the dispersal as “the most serious incident of mass unlawful killings in modern Egyptian history.”
So, the army and police carried out a grave violation of human rights, killed thousands and then built a sculpture where those people were killed. Is this how they reflect their protection of the people? Where is the logic? How respectful or rather disrespectful is this move to the lives lost in Rabaah?
As if that move did not spark enough controversy, the army-backed government attempted to construct another sculpture to commemorate a few more victims.
The Mohamed Mahmoud clashes initially started on Nov. 19, 2011, when protestors took to the streets demanding the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) to step aside from the Egyptian political sphere, including governance, the prohibition of ex-Mubarak regime members from running in elections, the end of military trials for civilians.
The clashes continued for weeks, killing tens, injuring hundreds and deliberately causing many to lose their eyes.
During ousted President Mohamed Morsi’s rule, a fact-finding committee was formed to look into the killing of protestors from Jan. 25 to June 2012, including the period in which the Mohamed Mahmoud clashes took place.
The committee found evidence that forces deployed by the Ministry of Interior (MOI) and Armed Forces killed protestors during the Mohamed Mahmoud clashes by asphyxiation, which is deprivation of Oxygen, and using expired tear gas.
Despite the committee’s findings and the still-existent anger at the police and army for the clashes, the MOI expressed that it would ‘commemorate the Mohamed Mahmoud Clashes,’ and the army-backed government started building the before-mentioned structure. Their logic baffles me.
While they could have been attempting to gain the respect and sympathy of those irritated by their current stance in the political arena, they did the exact opposite.
Hours after workers started building the structure, hundreds of protestors destroyed it. They did not, and hopefully will not, allow the killers to manipulate the deaths of their victims to win the respect of the aggravated.
