UN says shocked over Cairo deaths

Dec 30, 2005 (GENEVA) — UNHCR expressed deep shock and sadness Friday over a violent confrontation in Cairo between Egyptian police and Sudanese protesters that left several people dead and injured.

“There is no justification for such violence and loss of life, High Commissioner António Guterres said. This is a terrible tragedy and our condolences go to all the families of those who died and to the injured.”

Egyptian riot police on Friday stormed a protest camp in Cairo set up by thousands of Sudanese refugees, sparking clashes that left 23 Sudanese dead, officials and witnesses said.

Up to 2,500 Sudanese had been demonstrating in Cairo’s Mostafa Mahmoud Park since September 29, primarily to protest living conditions and to demand that they be resettled to third countries.

Throughout this period, UNHCR maintained a constant dialogue and several mediation efforts, always emphasising that such situations needed to be resolved peacefully.

Witnesses said police beat the refugees with truncheons and used water cannon to drive them from the squalid camp in a small park in a affluent part of the Egyptian capital.

Pools of blood were visible on the pavement as men in the camp fought back with sticks and hurled bottles at the police, witnesses said.

Hundreds of Sudanese picked up by the police were being held in two camps run by the security forces, who were checking their identities, representatives from among the protesters said.

(ST)