Egyptians with U.S. - made tear gas (Courtesy of Global Information Network)

 

Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network

 Nov. 22 (GIN) – Egyptian riot police fired tear gas canisters bearing the label “Made in U.S.A” at a massive crowd of civilians who re-took Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo to demand justice and an end to new military rule.

 Tuesday, the fourth day of protests saw fierce street battles as thousands of Egyptians defied swinging batons, live ammunition and a potent tear gas that according to the canister label was produced by Combined System International of Jamestown, Pennsylvania. CSI also supplied Israeli and Tunisian armies with “riot powder”, according to reports.

 “This gas burns the face. It feels like there is poison in your mouth, and it affects your nervous system,” said high school teacher Shadi Mohammed. “They’ve been firing it since 2 p.m. … about 24 hours nonstop. We go forward, then retreat. We don’t know what they want…. I got hit in the head with a rock and took three stitches. I’m still here, and I will stay here until we reach some kind of solution.”

 The United States gives Egypt $1.3 billion a year in military aid, supposedly to strengthen and modernize the Egyptian army. But a new report by rights watchdog Amnesty International suggests that since the defeat of President Hosni Mubarak, the new military rulers are repressing the population to a higher degree than in Mubarak’s time.

 ”What many Egyptians have been seeing over these past 10 months has been that the revolution has been abused and stolen and deformed, and that the military council in Egypt has really not lived up to any of its promises in this transitional period, from human rights abuses to just their complete grip on power,” said Sharif Abdel Kouddous, an Egyptian correspondent reporting from Cairo for the news show Democracy Now.

 The new uprising began Nov. 18, originally called for by Islamist groups but attended by tens of thousands of men, women and children from across the political spectrum.

More than 33 people have died in the violence according to reports from Cairo’s main morgue and more than 1,500 wounded. A proposed referendum on the immediate transfer of power appears to be a non-starter for the protestors.