U.N.’s Ban ‘alarmed’ and Clinton ‘concerned’ as Egypt’s unrest enters 4th day

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned excessive use of force by Egypt’s security forces as hundreds of demonstrators demanding an end to military rule clashed with police in Cairo for a fourth day, raising the death toll to 11 people since Friday.

Police and soldiers using batons drove stone-throwing protesters out of Cairo’s Tahrir Square, hub of the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February, early on Monday, a Reuters witness said.

“The death toll since clashes erupted (Friday) has risen to 11, including one person killed today,” Deputy Health Minister Adel Adawi was quoted as saying by the state-run MENA.

Ban Ki-moon “is highly alarmed by the excessive use of force employed by the security forces against protesters, and calls for the transitional authorities to act with restraint and uphold human rights, including the right to peaceful protest,” the U.N. Secretary-General’s office said in a statement.

Before dawn Monday, security forces mounted a charge and cleared hundreds of demonstrators away from the area, according to videos posted on the internet, The Associated Press reported.

Protesters fled down side streets, away from sensitive areas where parliament, the cabinet offices and Interior Ministry are located. Security forces have previously cleared the square briefly only to pull back when protesters return in force.

At least 10 people have died in the past three days of clashes as protesters demand that the generals who took charge after Mubarak’s overthrow quit power. The violence broke out just after the second stage of elections that Egyptians hope will bring stability and civilian rule.

“Down with Tantawi,” protesters chanted late on Sunday, referring to Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi who heads the army council and was Mubarak’s defense minister.

Youths had earlier hurled rocks and petrol bombs at lines of security forces. Riot police appeared to have moved to the front line instead of soldiers.

Deep concerns over violence

Top U.S. diplomat Hillary Clinton called on Egyptians to refrain from violence. “I urge Egyptian security forces to respect and protect the universal rights of all Egyptians, including the rights to peaceful free expression and assembly,” a “deeply concerned” Clinton said in a statement, according to AFP.

“We call upon the Egyptian authorities to hold accountable those, including security forces, who violate these standards,” Clinton said, expressing condolences for the families of those killed or injured.

“Those who are protesting should do so peacefully and refrain from acts of violence.”

Troops in riot gear have been filmed in recent days beating protesters with long sticks after they had fallen to the ground. A Reuters picture showed two soldiers dragging a woman lying on the ground by her shirt, exposing her underwear.

Local human rights watchdogs on Sunday accused the Egyptian military of systematically targeting female political activists, and demanded that Egypt’s military rulers admit to violations committed against demonstrators, a report carried out by Egypt’s daily al-Masry al-Youm said on Monday.

In a joint statement, five human rights organizations accused military rulers of exercising “unprecedented violence against protesters, with the targeting of female activists being a distinctive feature of the proceedings to disperse sit-ins, as depicted in pictures and video clips showing protesters being arrested, beaten, dragged and stripped of their clothes.”

The statement was signed by Nazra for Feminist Studies, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the Women and Memory Association, al-Masry al-Youm reported.

Urging an end to bloodshed

Meanwhile, thousands marched towards Cabinet headquarters on Sunday to call for an end to the violence. Political figures announced that they were working on an truce between protesters and the army forces to end the bloodshed, Egypt’s daily al-Ahram reported.

MP Amr Hamzawy, MP Mustafa Al-Naggar as well other new and potential members of parliament including, potential MP Ziad al-Eleimy and activist Wael Ghoneim, were among those brokering the deal.

The violence has overshadowed a staggered parliamentary election, the first free vote most Egyptians can remember, that is set to give Islamists the biggest bloc.

Some Egyptians are enraged by the army’s behavior. Others want to focus on voting, not street protests.

The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will retain power even after the lower house vote is completed in January, but has pledged to hand over to an elected president by July.

“The military has failed in everything except for its stunning success in making people hate the revolution, its history and its revolutionaries,” prominent columnist Ibrahim Eissa wrote in an editorial in the independent pro-revolution newspaper, al-Tahrir.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the ruling military council on Sunday called the clashes part of a “conspiracy” against Egypt. It said its forces had the right to defend the “property of the great people of Egypt.”

A hard core of activists have camped in Tahrir since a protest against army rule on Nov. 18 that was sparked by the army-backed cabinet’s proposals to permanently shield the military from civilian oversight in the new constitution.

Bouts of violence since then, including a flare-up last month that killed 42 people, have deepened frustrations of many other Egyptians, who want an end to protests. They see the military as the only force capable of restoring stability.

“There are people who wait for any problem and seek to amplify it ... The clashes won’t stop. There are street children who found shelter in Tahrir,” Ali al-Nubi, a postal worker, told Reuters, adding the army should have managed the transition better.

The Health Ministry said 10 people had been killed in the violence since Friday and 505 injured, of whom 384 had been taken to hospital.

Results of 2nd round of vote

The latest bloodshed began after the second round of voting last week for parliament’s lower house. The staggered election began on Nov. 28 and will end with a run-off vote on Jan. 11.

The Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties repressed in the 30-year Mubarak era have emerged as strong front-runners.

Turnout in the second round of Egypt’s parliamentary election reached 67 percent, according to Abdul Moez Ibrahim, the head of the supreme election committee. Ibrahim was speaking at a news conference on Sunday, al-Masry al-Youm reported.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) claim to have received 40 percent of the votes.

“The FJP list has secured about 40 percent of votes in the second round of Egypt's staggered parliamentary election,” a party source told Reuters on Sunday.

The list led by the FJP achieved more votes than it did in the first round, where they got about 37 percent of the votes.

Official results have not been released but party representatives watch the count and their predictions after the first round were broadly accurate. The third and final round of voting takes place in January.

The military has been the most powerful institution in Egypt since army officers seized power in a 1952 coup that toppled the monarchy.

Nearly 60 years later, the military continues to have the last word on policies, a position of power that has left many activists not entirely certain that the generals who succeeded Mubarak would voluntarily return to their barracks.

“The military council uses every opportunity to show itself as the land's strongest institution,” said Mohammed Abbas, an activist who defected from the Muslim Brotherhood to side with youth groups more active in protests. “We are making it easier for the generals by our divisions and isolation,” he told AP.

(Additional writing by Abeer Tayel)