
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood senior Essam el-Erian (Photo: AP)
Egypt's April 6 Youth Movement on Sunday condemned leading Muslim Brotherhood figure Essam El-Erian for making statements in a televised interview the night before in which he defended the Egyptian army from charges of killing unarmed demonstrators during Egypt's recently-concluded transitional phase.
"Egypt's army never fired one bullet at another Egyptian," El-Erian claimed during a Saturday interview on political talk show 'Masr Al-Gedida' hosted by presenter Moataz El-Demerdash. El-Erian went on to blame a "third party" for protesters' deaths.
In a statement, April 6 rhetorically asked El-Erian, who is chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), if he "thinks we are blind."
"As neither you nor your group were present during the several clashes [between protesters and military personnel], then of course you didn't see them," the youth group stated. "But what about the video and pictures?"
Egypt's transitional period, presided over by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) following the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak early last year, saw a number of human rights violations by the Egyptian army, which had frequently resorted to the use of force to break up sit-ins and demonstrations.
On 15 December, for example, soldiers were captured on video violently dispersing a sit-in that had begun the month before at the Cabinet headquarters to protest military rule and the appointment of Kamal El-Ganzouri as interim prime minister. The so-called 'Cabinet clashes' left at least 19 dead and hundreds injured.
The SCAF, however, has consistently denied responsibility for the deaths.
And on 9 October, an army vehicle was caught on film running over protesters taking part in a Coptic demonstration against discrimination held in Cairo's Maspero district. Twenty-seven people were killed that day in what later came to be known as the "Maspero clashes."
The April 6 statement rebuked El-Erian: "What about our comrades who died in our arms and the blood that was mixed with the army's gunpowder? Was all of this photo-shopped?"
The movement went on to urge El-Erian not to "insult the blood of the martyrs" through the political compromises "that brought your party to power."
FJP candidate Mohamed Morsi won Egypt's presidency earlier this year; late last year, the party captured almost half of the seats in the (currently suspended) lower house of Egypt's parliament.
The statement concluded by warning El-Erian: "Don't provoke the revolutionaries. Full stop!"
El-Erian's statements were not the first to have recently garnered the ire of Egypt's revolutionary activists.
Last month, El-Erian accused the Arab left of implementing "foreign agendas" and receiving funding from the West – allegations that enraged many activists and political figures.
El-Erian subsequently issued another, semi-conciliatory statement, in which he described Egypt's leftists as "partners in building an independent democracy."
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