- EGYPTFJP News
- August 18, 2014
- 4 minutes read
Amr Darrag: Rabaa Massacre Decision Al-Sisi Responsibility
Dr. Amr Darrag (leading member of both the Freedom and Justice Party and the Anti-Coup Pro-Legitimacy National Alliance and Minister of International Cooperation in President Mohamed Morsi’s government) made the following statement about the deliberate distortion of his comments on ‘Al-Jazeera Live Egypt’ satellite TV channel:
In my "Al-Jazeera Live Egypt" TV interview, on the first anniversary of the Rabaa and Nahda massacres, I believe my comments were absolutely clear. They were about all the circumstances that surrounded the dialogue (not negotiations – as explained in the interview) with European and American parties about their endeavors to create atmosphere for dialogue between the National Alliance and the coup regime, in order to take this homeland out of the crisis caused by the junta ousting the legitimate government and trampling democracy.
Among other statements, I mentioned that these parties told me General Al-Sisi was one of the moderate guys in the military council who does not want to break up the protest sit-ins by force, to which I expressed surprise – as explained in my Al-Jazeera interview. Of course, this ‘moderate’ suggestion proved evidently untrue after the massacre decision, which could not have been taken without the consent of coup leader Al-Sisi.
Regrettably, however, dubious pro-junta media edited my comments, coming up with titles like "Amr Darrag admits Al-Sisi supported a peaceful solution to break up Rabaa sit-in, but the Muslim Brotherhood refused", which is not what I said at all.
A full video recording clearly proves I said nothing like that. But certain media deliberately doctored the interview to report misleading misrepresentations of my comments. Needless to say, that is a gross professional error, committed only by the most heinous media outlets.
Usually, I do not like to engage in such arguments. In fact, I am also careful not to talk to the media unless necessary, to avoid such situations where supposed media professionals slip to such unprecedented lows. Nevertheless, I wanted to clarify the picture for those who have not watched the full interview and got their information only from media sources that had thus distorted my comments.
I invite those interested in this matter to see the full recording of the interview, in which I sought to document those important dialogues that involved me personally, so each of us can base his or her views on clear and accurate information. In fact, based on those dialogues, I can sum up by saying that in my view there clearly was premeditation in those horrid massacres, unprecedented in Egypt’s modern history.
I also call on all Egyptians to stop referring to prejudiced media sources for information, and try as much as possible to get information from original sources, which is made easy these days through the various social-networking media websites.
