Qatar ‘strongly denounces’ force against peaceful sit-ins

A woman trying to stop a military bulldozer from going forward at a protest camp near Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo yesterday.AFP/CairoQatar strongly condemned a bloody crackdown in Cairo yesterday by security forces against supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi. “Qatar strongly denounces the means by which peaceful protesters in Rabaa al-Adawiya camp and Al-Nahda square have been dealt with and which led to the killing of several unarmed innocent people among them,” a foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement published on the official Qatar News Agency (QNA). It urged the Egyptian authorities to end the use of force and “preserve the lives of protesters” and the “peaceful nature” of the protests. Qatar warned against “tearing apart the ranks of the brotherly Egyptian people as it is difficult to account for the results of these clashes and their future outcomes”. It called for “dialogue between all parties to achieve political and social plurality, in which no party could be excluded. “The calls for dialogue could have been fruitful had they been followed by positive signs to prove their seriousness such as the release of political detainees and ending the crackdown.” The UN, the US, Britain, France, Iran and Turkey also strongly denounced the use of force by the military-backed interim government to clear the pro-Mursi protest camps in Cairo. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who had urged both sides to exercise restraint, expressed regret that “Egyptian authorities chose instead to use force to respond to the ongoing demonstrations”, according to a statement issued by his spokesman. US Secretary of State John Kerry, whose government had offered qualified backing to the interim government, called the bloodshed “deplorable” and urged the Egyptian military to allow elections. Earlier, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the US “strongly condemns” the violence against protesters and urges the military to show restraint. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was deeply concerned at the escalating violence and unrest. “I condemn the use of force in clearing protests and call on the security forces to act with restraint,” Hague said. Turkey urged the international community to act immediately over what it said was an “unacceptable” response to the protests. “The international community, particularly the UN Security Council and Arab League, must act immediately to stop this massacre,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. Iran termed the crackdown a “massacre”. The Palestinian Hamas group, which rules Gaza, also strongly denounced the crackdown. “Hamas condemns the terrible massacre in Nahda square and at Rabaa al-Adawiyya, and we call for an end to the bloodshed and to excesses against peaceful demonstrators,” its spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.