Protesters had been camped out in front of Cabinet headquarters since November 24 to protest the re-appointment of Mubarak-era Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri to head a so-called ‘salvation government’ and prevent him from entering his office. There were conflicting reports as to what sparked the clashes that erupted on Friday, December 16. Some media reported that military forces had detained and allegedly tortured a protester before releasing him, and the crowd responded violently. Others claimed protesters incited the violence after soldiers would not return a football accidentally kicked over the Parliament fence.
Officials from the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) later announced that no orders had been given to forcibly disperse the Cabinet protests. Once clashes started, however, military personnel moved swiftly to crack down on protesters. Numerous video and still images showed protesters being dragged and beaten violently with sticks, and several journalists claimed their recording equipment was confiscated and destroyed.
Images of excessive force used on women in particular sparked international outrage. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a phone call with El-Ganzouri, expressed “deep US unease about the situation, particularly well-documented attacks on women participating in anti-military protests by security forces.”
During the clashes, which saw both sides using stones and Molotov cocktails, fire broke out in the nearby Institute d’Egypte, a research center set up by Napoleon Bonaparte during the French invasion in the late 18th century. Commonly known as the Egyptian Scientific Complex, the building housed an unmatched collection of works and manuscripts, most notably one of the original sets of the handwritten 24-volume Description de l’Egypte, which dates between 1809 and 1829.
“The burning of such a rich building means a large part of Egyptian history has ended,” the director of the institute, Mohammed Al-Sharbouni, sadly told state television a day after the complex was torched. Al-Sharbouni added that most of the works had been destroyed in the fire, the damage to the manuscripts compounded when firefighters flooded the building with water.
SCAF General Adel Emara in a press release blamed the fire on protesters, claiming that they blocked fire trucks from reaching the building, and adding that losing such a treasure is a catastrophe. Protesters refuted the claim, saying they attempted to rescue the manuscripts but were impeded by security forces. At a subsequent news conference the general announced that investigations are under way to find out who is behind the fire.
After the blaze, security forces built a cement wall on one of the streets close to the complex to protect themselves and stop protestors from crossing over.
As calm returned to Tahrir Square on December 20, some 10,000 women took to the streets in central Cairo to demand the military step down and express their anger over the abuse of female protesters by troops during the crackdown.
The SCAF subsequently released Statement 91 expressing regret at the unfortunate outcome of the clashes and paid its respects to families of the victims. It apologized specifically to the “women of Egypt,” and said “All legal measures have been taken to hold officials accountable for transgressions.”
— Rana Kamaly
