Rights groups called on Monday for accountability over the deaths of hundreds of people killed in a single day 10 years ago when Egyptian security forces dispersed a protest against the ouster of the country’s first democratically elected president. The clearing of the Rabaa al-Adawiya sit-in in Cairo on Aug. 14, 2013, marked the escalation of a crackdown against supporters of overthrown Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Mursi. The crackdown later expanded to include activists and politicians from across the political spectrum. Amnesty International said: “States with influence on Egypt must echo the demands of survivors, victims’ families and human rights defenders for truth, justice and reparation.” The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a leading independent group, said in a report that it had obtained information from an official investigation of which only the executive summary was made public, showing that authorities had considered less lethal ways of dispersing the sit-in.
SOURCE: REUTERS