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What happened at the Abbaseyya sit-in? A second look.
The Abbaseyya sit-in before Friday. -We were at the sit-in,
And suddenly I found everyone running. The army attacked,
The army, and Interior Ministry forces, and there were snipers stationed with Central Security Forces (CSF) on 6th October bridge,
And suddenly they formed a cordon of barbed wire around the protesters,
And the thugs were running,
And right behind them was CSF, protecting them,
They were running and firing birdshot, and they had white weapons.
The amount of thugs on the Abbaseyya side was huge,
It was strange, and they were not Abbaseyya residents,
They were thugs - maybe they included thugs from Abbaseyya, infiltrators, but they also included people not from Abbaseyya, also beating people.
Abbaseyya residents aren't thugs, the people we're seeing here today are all strange, not from Abbaseyya at all.
As we were standing we found someone coming from the direction of the protesters with a car,
Shooting at Abbaseyya residents, in there among the homes,
This car, the person shooting with an automatic weapon,
He was shooting an automatic weapon, live bullets,
We started to see people dropping at that point,
May he rest in peace, Atef, fell in there, we couldn't get to him in time,
He was shot with a live bullet in there amidst the thugs,
And Osama, he was shot with a live bullet as well, but we got him, pulled him out, but he was shot very badly,
The people that appeared that day firing live ammunition,
It was the first time I see them at the sit-in,
And they included masked individuals shooting at us and them,
Meaning at the protesters and at the residents.
The injuries are all in the head, with glass or rocks,
And there are some open wounds in legs,
But we got five live bullet wounds, and not 9 mm bullets by any means,
We couldn't even do anything with First Aid,
No matter what did - there were injuries so horrible you can't imagine.
One guy, most of his hand was gone because of the wound.
At this point around 7 or 8 in the morning,
We found military vehicles - the big yellow trucks -
They were dropping people off and picking others up.
I mean, they dropped some people off and they ran in among the thugs, and others got in instead of them, and the vehicles left.
The people that got in were from among those who were in the battle from the start.
And those that got out would take up where they left off.
The fighting continued until 11 or 12,
And suddenly we found the CSF coming in,
By the last stop back there, facing us,
They stood there, doing nothing, watchng the thugs beat us and attack us - they did nothing.
They were throwing rocks from the top of buildings,
And birdshot, molotovs, flares, and these things,
And the CSF are standing there doing nothing.
-We can see you - we can see you!
-Good lord...
We started to hear word that people had died inside Abbaseyya,
Abbaseyya locals started telling me that one of them, a thug named Utta, was shot with a bullet on a rooftop,
Abbaseyya residents themselves testified that Utta was not shot by protesters, but rather at the hands of the same thugs that were shooting us in there,
His face was visible and people recognized him, so he was shot and fell,
That day I went into Abbaseyya after the clashes were broken up, and started listening to Abbaseyya residents,
Abbaseyya residents themselves are victims of the thugs from the area, they're really frustrated and don't know how to deal with them.
So they can't do anything about it, they can't confront thugs living in their neighborhood.
Afterwards people couldn't understand why this was happening,
Like why they were doing this... as if they were plotting to stage theses kinds of attacks on Friday,
Friday -I was online, on Facebook and Twitter,
And I found everyone calling for relief in Abbaseyya,
Saying there were thugs attacking in Abbaseyya, and that the military council (SCAF) was backing them, and the military police,
So of course I went down there immediately, I didn't think twice, I went down to see what people needed,
I wasn't in support of the sit-in, or its location, which is why I didn't participate,
But at the same time, it was wrong for them to be attacked just because they were protesting, or kill people there,
What made me go down there, is the people who were killed,
That people were killed made it obvious that this was planned by the police or the army, to attack the sit-in and kill people.
The march was peaceful, we had no aim other than to say down with military rule, and we demand a transfer of power as soon as possible,
Our goal was not to raid the Ministry of Defense or cause any problems for anyone.
My reason for going down there in the first place is the downfall of military rule.
That's the purpose behind me going there in the first place.
But whether those sitting in there were as they said Salafis or Abu Ismail supporters or anything like that,
Whoever they are, if their aim is to bring down military rule, then I'm with them.
This is our goal.
Secondly, whoever they are, making a legitimate demand, on any inch of their homeland, it's their right, no one has the right to attack them.
There was at least 2 kilometers between us and the Ministry of Defense,
I mean why would I go to the Ministry of Defense anyway?
We weren't going there, we weren't targeting the Ministry of Defense or anything like that,
We were totally far from there. It was planned provocation on their part so they could start attacking.
Naturally I went down there on Friday, to do something, because I felt like... for me to sit at home while people are dying,
This is not something anyone should tolerate.
These people are justified. So I went down there thinking if only I could try and help the injured, or anything, just participate.
The last march to arrive was the women's march,
One guy was standing by the barbed wire fence separating the protesters and the army,
He lost his balance and fell inside, so soldiers grabbed him, dragged him inside and kept beating him senselessly,
Of course the protesters were chanting "let him go" but they wouldn't,
So the protesters started throwing rocks at the army,
It started with just one person, of course, then people followed suit,
Then soldiers responded with rocks, and it continued between both sides.
We arrived there with the march around 3 pm,
More or less - and the attacks started around then as well, 3 or 3.30.
Around 'Asr (afternoon prayer).
They were throwing tear gas, and the army attacked us, we started running,
At that point, while we were running, we were being shot at our backs, sounded like live bullets and birdshot,
I saw with my own eyes one guy next to me got shot with a live bullet and fell.
The tear gas canisters were horrible, it was one of the ugliest things I ever witness. I've been to million-man marches, but... I was outside of Egypt during the revolution.
It was the first time I smell the gas... at one point I said the shahada [Muslim declaration of faith, typically recited in near-death experiences],
I was convinced I was done for entirely. All of us, when the tear gas was fired at us,
You could tell we were all running very slowly, from all the intoxication, and the burning in the face,
We couldn't breathe... nothing, I mean... we were running corpses.
The scene was... masses of people running, lots of blood - tons of it,
Most of the shots were to the head,
Severe injuries... I mean... I can't describe it, but I mean so bad that the wound soaked one's clothes, hands, legs, totally...
I suddenly found myself in the hospital, I wasn't conscious of what happened, couldn't remember anything at all,
Apart from the moment when I was shot,
So I asked my friends what happened to me,
And they told me, 'you were with us when we were fetching the wounded,'
'And you got hit in the face by a rock thrown from one of the building rooftops,'
'So we took you to the hospital,' and so on... that's it, that's what happened to me, what I know.
After we were bombarded with huge amounts of gas, the army removed the barbed wire, and attacked the protesters,
The protesters ran faster than I've ever seen any protesters run,
I mean even in other battles with Interior Ministry forces, protesters would stand their ground and throw stuff, or something,
No here the protesters completely ran, left the tents behind,
And there were people inside the tents, and the first tent was the field clinic,
The army invaded it to capture the protesters,
They charged at the tents, the first one being the field clinic,
I witnessed them attacking all the doctors in there.
And they even beat all the casualties, and they disappeared, we didn't see them again.
What happened - this was probably the finale of the events -
Two army tanks, coming from the other direction, I mean al-Nour mosque is here, and there's a street here,
From this direction, two tanks were coming,
In each tank there were two soldiers back to back,
They were carrying weapons - I believe automatic rifles, not sure - I'm not very familiar with types of weapons,
Each soldier was firing it at an alarming speed, huge amount of bullets,
We were standing there empty-handed, without even rocks.
Some people ran in the direction of al-Nour mosque; I ran towards Salah Salem street.
After I ran in that direction I ran into the military police, so I climbed over a fence,
And I saw the military police had attacked, firing live bullets and birdshot,
In unbelievable amounts, and they were two battalions,
We were forced to go back to where the APC was to climb back over the fence,
So we climbed back over and found 3 or 4 APCs racing and shooting live bullets
And battalions, two of them, chasing after protesters,
Outside of Abbaseyya square, the APCs started coming from the direction of Salah Salem street, from the central command,
And the CSF trucks started going onto the bridge in the opposite direction,
From the direction of the Police Academy. And we were pretty much surrounded from all sides,
People didn't know where to run to.
They were driving and shooting really fast.
After they were gone, we found the bullets on the ground, live bullets, casings, and unused ones.
There were civilians with them, and I saw them with my own eyes,
They were dressed in civilian clothing. I saw them in a video afterwards, getting out of the soldiers' vehicles,
I mean there's one of them in a red t-shirt, whom I saw, amidst the army.
They were carrying stuff - I don't know exactly what type of weapons they carried, but they had something in their hands.
[Chants] Here are the thugs, here are the thugs.
After I returned, from the bridge above the metro line, I saw the army go down to Ghamra with an APC,
Right before they went down there the scene was... I mean... thugs, spread out throughout the street, with hedgerows, and other sinister weapons,
They were threatening people all around them. They were with the army.
They started chasing us. We got into the metro,
The shooting stopped for about two minutes,
And then we found the army surrounding us from every side,
We tried to exit the metro from a particular direction, and the army had closed in on us and was throwing rocks,
So by the time we reached the exit from the staircase, the army had already entered from that direction.
We ran to the other side - by then everyone was scared to death, the gates were closed and we were going under them,
The first train wouldn't stop,
The second one, there were people knocking on it, I don't know if someone stood in front of it or not, but it stopped, and we got in,
We walked maybe three minutes, from the Demerdash station,
And we found the soldiers standing - I was told this station didn't have a fence, I think - we saw them standing elevated a bit, throwing rocks,
They were throwing the rocks at the metro train. Which carried ordinary people, apart from us.
People standing watching, ordinary people waiting to get in, women even, they threw huge rocks at them,
And they started threatening them with knives, and "we'll do this, and that",
Why, I don't know. They were standing on Ghamra bridge, up there, people watching as well,
They started throwing rocks at them too, and threatening them,
The army vehicles that were coming from the direction of Rameses,
Not from the Abbaseyya direction, but rather from Rameses,
The kids welcomed them - they didn't run, they welcomed them,
The army didn't do anything to those ones.
Those who were running from the army, would go into popular neighborhoods,
And anyone who went into these locales, would be beaten, or killed, beaten senselessly - everyone knows.
Any one of the protesters would be attacked. If he had a beard, he would be ruined.
So I saw the army soldiers as they beat anyone and everyone,
I saw them grab an ambulance, beat the driver and the person in the passenger seat,
They opened the back door and beat the casualties,
Six or seven CSF cops would gang up on a single person so we couldn't even see them being beaten,
I saw a boy taken Wednesday morning, thugs took him,
After 15 minutes they brought him back beaten to a pulp, in pieces - I have a video of him that I took,
His body was completely torn apart.
We took him to the hospital.
Demerdash Hospital refused to admit him,
He was taken to another hospital, I don't know which,
We found out later that he works as a journalist for Masrawy.net
People were standing between him and the army to prevent anyone from crossing,
The army did not mention this nor recognize that people were standing peacefully from the start, or anything.
I mean the whole thing was definitely set up for us to be attacked,
So it's not a question of why protesters went there, or left Tahrir for Abbaseyya, or whatever.
I had reached the entrance to the bridge,
I was going to get on the metro and leave, but I wanted to see what the situation was like in the Ghamra neighborhood,
I saw APCs with soldiers celebrating on top of them,
Celebrating their victory over the Egyptian people.
And residents applauding them,
Women ululating in their balconies.
It was a bizarre scene. As if they were returning from the October war after defeating the Zionists.
People need to be more aware than this, they need to understand that we are in the right,
We are not illegitimate. And they need to understand that either way, sooner or later it will be their turn.
Whether it's the people sitting at home,
Or those dismissing the matter, saying "It's in Abbaseyya, nothing to do with us,"
People need to understand that it will be their turn eventually.
Because when injustice spreads, it leaves no one untouched.