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“It’s a Massacre”: Eyewitness Account of Attack on Peaceful Egyptian Protesters by Pro-Mubarak Forces

Web ExclusiveFebruary 02, 2011
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Cairo resident Salma al-Tarzi calls in a report from the streets of Tahrir Square, where violent clashes have erupted.

SALMA AL-TARZI: My name is Salma al-Tarzi. And right now I’m at the entrance of the square from the Egyptian Museum side. It’s a massacre. They’re coming in in government cars, buses, and in thousands. They have knives. They are throwing Molotov bombs. They are burning the trees. They are throwing stones at us. We managed to catch many of them. All of them are undercover police.

We don’t have a single ambulance. I’m walking down with a couple bottles of Dettol, to try and do whatever. There are people unconscious. There are hundreds and hundreds of wounded, a lot of head injuries from the throwing of the stones. A lot of people have broken arms and legs. Some people have crutches. Some people managed to get infiltrated with knives. It’s a massacre.

We’ve been cleaning the square. We’ve been keeping it perfectly intact for the past nine days. And now we are forced to break the pavement they have been keeping so impeccable, to protect ourselves. He’s forcing us to destroy the square, so he can say that we destroyed it.

More and more, this is not — this is not a demonstration anymore; this is war. I just want to tell them that there are 50,000 people here, demonstrators. I wouldn’t call that Hosni Mubarak is sending, his protectors or demonstrators. They are not. These are missionaries. But here there are 50,000 innocent people getting hurt and wounded and killed. Many of them are women and children. And they are all ready and prepared to stay here and die here, if this is what it’s going to take to make him leave, if this is what it’s going to take to make the world see that this guy is a criminal of war. This is a mass murder of an innocent people, unarmed innocent people, of women and children and people who are demonstrating for their rights.

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