Egyptian police denies using bullets against Sudanese refugees

Jan 1, 2005 (CAIRO) — An Egyptian security source has denied the report in the Sawt al-Ummah newspaper that police forces had used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition during its attempts to end the gathering by a group of Sudanese objecting to the position of the UNHCR.

In a press statement to official news agency MENA, the source said that this denial is supported by witnesses and forensic reports and that the paper should not have resorted to accusations concerning facts that occurred in front of everyone.

The source said that those who resorted to the squatting and incitement and then gathering and rioting are only a small minority of most the Sudanese people, numbering about 6,000, who are under the care of the UNHCR in the country

The source said that Egypt and its Islamic and Christian charities still embraced and supported the thousands of southern Sudanese who left their country before peace was reached in Sudan.

He further said that a number of the squatters already had residences in several areas in the Cairo and Giza governorates and that it was not necessary, as the paper alleged, to construct camps and tents for them to end their sit-in and that most of those behind the incitement and rioting did not have legal residency papers or contact with the UNHCR.

(ST)