EGYPT: Cry grows for civilian rule.
International criticism of Egypt’s military rulers mounted Wednesday as police clashed for a fifth day with protesters demanding that the generals relinquish power immediately. A rights group raised the death toll for the wave of violence to at least 38.
The United Nations condemned authorities for what it deemed an excessive use of force. Germany, one of Egypt’s top trading partners, called for a quick transfer of power to a civilian government.
The standoff in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and in other major cities such as Alexandria and Assiut has deepened the country’s economic and security crisis less than a week before the first parliamentary elections since the ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi tried to defuse tensions with a vow Tuesday to move up presidential elections to next June, but he did not set a date for handing authority to a civilian government.
The government offered more concessions Wednesday, ordering the release of 312 protesters and instructing civilian prosecutors to take over a probe the military began into the deaths of 27 people, mostly Christians, in a protest Oct. 9.
BAHRAIN: Government assailed for use of force.
Bah rain used “excessive force” as it halted protests led by the Shiite Muslim majority in February and March, a state-appointed investigation said Wednesday.
“There were instances where government forces were ordered to restrain forcefully the crowd or to remove the crowd, and in these situations excessive force was used,” the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry said in a report published on its website. “Five persons died as a result of torture.”
Bahrain’s Sunni Muslim king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, set up the commission to look into allegations of human-rights abuses after his government crushed protests in March, leaving 35 people dead. Hamad said a team will study the report and that officials will be held accountable for their actions.
SYRIA: Security raids kill 6.
Syrian security carried out raids in rebellious areas in the center and the south of the country Wednesday, and at least six people died, raising the death toll in the past two days to 34, activists said, as the U.S. and Turkey took unusual steps to protect their citizens.
The U.S. Embassy in Damascus urged its citizens in Syria to depart “immediately,” and Turkey’s foreign ministry urged Turkish pilgrims to opt for flights to return home from Saudi Arabia to avoid traveling through Syria.
LIBYA: Alleged massacre site viewed.
A leading international prosecutor viewed human bones and charred clothing at the alleged site of a massacre that survivors say was committed by Moammar Gadhafi loyalists as Libya’s capital fell to advancing rebels. Luis Moreno-Ocam po, prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, made the visit to the gruesome site to determine whether to have the Netherlands-based court investigate it as part of its broader inquiry into alleged crimes committed by Gadhafi’s regime during the war.
Denver Post wire services
