Last November’s Mohamed Mahmoud protests against the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) saw a thick fog of tear gas blanket Tahrir Square and beyond. With protesters and medical personnel reporting severe health reactions following their exposure to the fog, many questioned how the epileptic fits and convulsions could possibly have been caused by anything other than lethal types of gas.

Reportedly, tear gas was the cause of three deaths that week, suffocating many and raising questions regarding possibly illegal codes of conduct against civilians. But as of press time, there was no concrete evidence that lethal gases has been used.

CS NEVER GETS OLD
The only gas that has been conclusively identified by human rights organizations in the week-long protests is CS tear gas, typically used by police forces to disperse crowds. If used in recommended concentrations, it can cause “temporary eye, nose, skin and throat irritation, which can lead to tearing, dizziness, disorientation and coughing. If used in concentrated doses like it was in the protests, it may cause corneal burns, ulcers, severe coughing and vomiting,” says Ahmed Naguib, a neurosurgeon who followed the events.

“CS gas can cause bronchial spasms in the lungs, blocking the air from entering the lungs, which causes fainting and convulsions due to the prevention of oxygen reaching the brain. This led to several deaths by the time the victims had reached the hospital,” says Naguib, adding that if a person is removed from a gas-filled environment without eye burns or respiratory arrest, they will make a complete recovery without any long-term effects.

CS gas, although legal for domestic police use, is prohibited worldwide during war under the terms of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Only Egypt, Angola, Syria, Somalia and North Korea have not signed the treaty, and are therefore freed from any restrictions on CS gas for military use.

To round up point one, CS can’t be used in war, but it can be used by governments to control social unrest in their countries.

ARE LETHAL CHEMICALS FLOATING FREELY?
Although the Ministry of Health put the official death toll of 35 and estimated 1,250 injured during the November riots, medical sources at the scene reported the death toll reached up to 38. They, along with protesters and activists, are adamant that CS was not the only gas they were bombarded with.

“There was an invisible gas that was felt and smelled around Mohamed Mahmoud Street and Falaki Street,” asserts Mohamed Soliman, an activist who was on the scene for six consecutive days. “No canisters fell to the ground; instead a canister with a red light was shot in the air, which then disappeared without leaving a trace. But the effect was really strong on the eyes. This kind of gas attacked only the eyes and blurred your vision, leaving you disoriented. It was a violent surprise.

“I would say I was in contact with an average of 20 to 30 tear gas canisters a day, eight of them close contact. I didn’t wear a mask, I didn’t think it made a difference because a lot of the protesters who were affected and suffocated had masks on,” he continues. “The attacks were constant every day. However, the number of attacks was much higher at night. Every time we would start gaining a few meters, a wave of five to six canisters was shot at us. The immediate response was to run in the opposite direction and panic. But this was only for the first two days. In the following days, protesters got smart in dealing with the canisters. No running or panicking until the canisters fell to the ground to be able to check the direction of the smoke in respect to the wind direction, then you figure out your exit route. One night, eight consecutive canisters were picked up by a single guy and thrown back at the police.”

Activist Amr Bassiouny was also in contact with the gas for four nights of the Mohamed Mahmoud clashes. At first he used his scarf the same way he did during the January 25 Revolution to avoid inhaling the gas, but he bought a mask on his second day to be on the safe side.

“There was much more of a scare when it came to tear gas this time. Fewer people were putting themselves in the middle of it, and people would run a lot more often when it was thrown at us,” says Bassiouny. “The gas was always heavy and lingered in the air several blocks away from where it was being [released]. People would start putting their masks on much further away, and there were definitely more people affected immediately with blindness, fainting and extreme coughing. It stung and had horrible after-effects on the nervous system.”

Left with heavy fatigue for a week after being in contact with the gas, Bassiouny found it hard to get out of bed and felt spaced out, unfocused, shaky and slightly feverish. “Some of the gas was the usual gas they use against protesters, but other gases used were 20 times more powerful,” he asserts. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t interested in collecting the cans to find out what type of gas it was as much as I was interested in getting away from them.”

Soliman’s reaction to the gas was a little different. “My chest wasn’t feeling too good after the week in Tahrir. I usually smoke Marlboro Reds, however I wasn’t able to smoke my usual brand of cigarettes and had to switch to a lighter brand.” He also had fits of coughing, and for two consecutive weeks, could smell gas everywhere he went.
To round up point two, the tear gas used against protesters caused extreme effects unseen before by people on the ground, causing them to believe that CS gas was not the only one used.

I SMELL GAS
Alleged use of any gases other than CS remains unconfirmed. But that didn’t stop rumors of CN, CR, white phosphorus and nerve gas from making the rounds among protesters on the ground at the time.

CN gas was the precursor to CS but is reportedly no longer used. CR gas, known to be six times more powerful than CS, is banned in the US because of its alleged carcinogenic effects.

Minister of Health Amr Helmy denied the use of carcinogenic gases against protesters in a November 23 press conference. SCAF also promptly issued a communiqué on its Facebook page denying that it had used different gases against protesters.

Magda Boutros, the criminal justice reform director for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), has been collecting evidence about the gases used. “What we know for sure is CS gas was used because we found the canisters. We don’t know for sure if any other gas was because some of the canisters we found had no writing or marks on them,” she says. “But according to the symptoms witnessed, our conclusion is that only CS gas was used, and maybe CN or CR gas. We don’t believe nerve gas was used or any chemical weapons because if they were, the death toll would have been much higher.”

To round up point three, there is no concrete evidence of the use of any other gas but CS.

MYSTERIOUS BURNS
Despite the statements from government officials and independent rights organizations, Dr. Ahmed Moataz, a surgeon and professor at Qasr Al-Aini Teaching Hospital University, has a more shocking theory — that white phosphorus (WP) munitions were used against the protesters. Working with a group of 100 Egyptian scientists in the fields of chemistry, pathology, physics and biology to investigate alleged illegal happenings against civilians, Moataz tries to support his claim with a gruesome video of burnt bodies inside the Zeinhom Morgue.

A combustible chemical, WP acts as a smoke-producing agent and can cause serious burns or death. WP smoke irritates the eyes, nose and respiratory system when used moderately and may cause serious burns when applied more aggressively. WP has reportedly been employed in Iraq, the Israel-Lebanon war, Gaza, Afghanistan and Yemen in the past 10 years.

Protocol III of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), also known as the Inhumane Weapons Convention, defines an incendiary weapon as “any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of flame, heat, or combination thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target.” This protocol prohibits, as does the Geneva Conventions, the use of incendiary weapons, including WP, against civilians or in civilian areas.

Egypt has signed the CCW.

“When WP detonates in air it doesn’t affect clothing, it goes straight to the muscle and bones,” the doctor explains. “[Within] 18 hours, bodies affected by WP are burnt and disfigured,” says Moataz, who claims to have seen such bodies in the Zeinhom Morgue, where officials were allegedly trying to cover them up. The video he provided showed one burned corpse with white markings, but it was impossible to tell how those burns were sustained.

“CR gas was used in the November protests, we ran tests and have samples of the canisters. But WP was the main killer of protesters,” continues Moataz, alleging that “1,004 were killed in Cairo, 210 in Ismailia and numerous others in Alexandria and Mansoura. WP can kill animals and plants, so imagine what it does to people. The US should know it’s illegal and unauthorized to send such gases to be used in this way.”

Boutros writes off Moataz’s claims, calling his high death toll highly doubtful, particularly in light of the fact that EIPR researchers were on the ground the whole time the events in Tahrir and Mohamed Mahmoud Street were unfolding.

“If 1,000 people had died, we would have seen them. I don’t think it’s realistic that 900 corpses were hidden away. I read his press release, but there’s no supporting evidence,” she says. “We were there. We saw people fainting, having convulsions as a result of the tear gas. We heard from field doctors and morgue officials that around three people died as a result of the tear gas exposure because it was fired excessively in narrow spaces.”

Heba Morayef, a researcher from Human Rights Watch (HRW) in the Middle East and North Africa division, also confirms that WP munitions were not used. She states that claims that nerve gas, chemical weapons and CR were used have not been corroborated.

To round up point four, the theory that WP was used against protesters is not supported by either the EIPR or HRW, even though some claim it was.

A QUESTION OF CONCENTRATION
The real issue, Morayef says, is not about the type of tear gas used but how it was used.

“We were documenting the overall excessive use of force against protesters and the way the security forces were using the tear gas,” she says. “The main reason we think there were so many injuries and even deaths as a result of tear gas was the indiscriminate use of the tear gas. It was used in excessive amounts in quite a confined space over seven days, which can cause a lot of serious respiratory problems.

“Because its was used in an unnecessary way in proportion to the actual crowd, they were using it almost punitively,” continues Morayef. “The reason I say unnecessary and indiscriminately is because they weren’t actually protecting the Ministry of Interior or any building for that matter. If that were the case, it would have been legal to use such high amounts. But when Tahrir Square is tear gassed on several occasions, that’s not a strategy, that’s targeted. It was no longer crowd control.”

From the HRW’s perspective, this was the main cause of the serious physical health reactions reported. About the substances being used, the HRW team did look into the different theories but could not confirm the rumors. “What’s clearly established is the use of CS gas [canisters], some of which were expired. Some of the canisters were a decade old,” Morayef says. “When I went to the morgue on November 21, there were three deaths as a result of the overuse of tear gas.”

EIPR has evidence that tear gas canisters were thrown in a bathroom with people trapped inside who were left to suffocate as police forces locked them in. “We also have evidence of tear gas being fired at people at very close range, causing serious burns. It was targeted at them, which is completely illegal. But the type of gas that was used was the normal CS gas,” says Boutros.

To round up point five, it was the punitive use of tear gas in confined spaces that caused the serious injuries and deaths of protesters.et