Human Rights Watch
December 2, 2011
"(Cairo) - Dozens of eye injuries from rubber bullets have marked the crackdown on protesters in Tahrir Square. “Eye-hunters,” Egyptians are calling the armed police who aim at head-level.
Besides the physical damage, there’s a sinister symbolism about it. Egypt’s military rulers have been on a persistent campaign of trying to blind the public through clampdowns on the media.
The toll on reporters during the Tahrir unrest has been notable. The Committee to Protect Journalists, the New York-based press freedom advocate, reported that 17 journalists were beaten or wounded by rubber bullets between November 19 and 21, the first three days of the latest Tahrir demonstrations.
In Cairo, Ahmed Abdel Fattah, who makes videos for the website of Al Masry Al Youm, an independent newspaper, was hit in the right eye by a rubber bullet, possibly disastrous given his line of work.
“I saw the officer who shot me,” Abdel Fattah said. “He was aiming right for me. I think it was because I was carrying my camera.” Five Masry Al Youm journalists have been injured in and around Tahrir. Abdel Fattah faces repair surgery on his eye....."
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