Cairo Massacre – 370 days on
By John A. Akec*
Jan 5, 2006 —
370 Days On…
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Remember, on cold
Very sad morn
Three thousands and more
Sudanese children, women, and men
Encamped on a pavement
By UNHCR in Cairo
‘Find us a new home in a new country’
They cried
‘Here we count next to nothing’
********
Three whole months
They persisted
And insisted
And on that cold
Very sad morn
Exactly five days
After Christmas
Its sparkling lights
Hardly off memory and sight
On thirtieth day
Two thousand
And five
In the year of our Lord
Unknown to them
They were encircled
By cruel rite police
********
Armed to teeth
With tear gas,
Guns and sticks
Breathlessly they charged
Gunfire was heard
There was thick smoke
There was beating
There were screams
There was cry for help!
But none came!
*********
All the same
Curses instead
And beatings and kicks
In vain they fought back
With bar hands and bricks
But they were no match
To well armed and well fed
Egyptian rite police
200 Sudanese and so fell dead
Hardly anyone unhurt fled
Trains full of bleeding bodies
And trucks of human flesh
Drove off before the sun rise
Into trackless wilderness
With the dead,
The wounded
Humans with broken skull and ribs
To be sorted where no human eye can peek
Leaving behind pavements and streets
Full of blood
And tears
And broken dreams
And hopes…
They escaped Ghost Houses
Only for an end in inferno’s jaws
**********
Let us remember those
Who met their fate,
That cold December morn
The dead, the broken ribs and skull
The echo of their cries for help
Where only curses came
What they endured
And those who did the cruel acts
* Dr John Akec is a political analyst based in London . He is also the editor of a blog where he posts articles and comments about the Sudan. He can be reached at [email protected]. To view past articles by the author please click the following link to author’s personal blog: http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/