Anwar: Putrajaya’s silence on Egypt massacre ‘shameful’

PETALING JAYA, July 29 — Putrajaya’s failure to condemn the recent massacre of pro-Mursi protesters in Egypt is “shameful” and “totally inconsistent” with its stand on democratic reforms in Malaysia, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today.

UK newspaper The Guardian reported yesterday that at least 65 supporters of overthrown Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi were shot dead last Saturday by police officers and armed men in civilian garb.

“Malaysia’s initial failure to condemn the military coup of a legitimately elected government was bad enough,” Anwar (picture) told reporters at PKR’s headquarters here.

“Now, this lack of concern over the slaughter of innocent lives raises serious questions as to why this government has been so reticent in the matter,” added the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) head.

The Guardian reported that pro-Mursi supporters have vowed to maintain their weeks-old sit-in protest in east Cairo despite the mass slaughter.

Gehad al-Haddad, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, was quoted as saying: “We’re defiant as ever. We will have protests overnight and there are ongoing funerals today.”

Mursi is reportedly being investigated for allegedly colluding with the Palestinian group Hamas during the 2011 revolution that toppled then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

United States Secretary of State John Kerry has reportedly expressed “deep concern about the bloodshed and violence”, but the superpower refuses to term the army’s removal of Mursi on July 3 as a coup.

Officials representing United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon were quoted by The Guardian as saying that Ban had called “on the interim authorities to assume full responsibility for the peaceful management of the demonstrations and ensure the protection of all Egyptians”.

The newspaper also reported European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton as saying that she “deeply deplores” the deaths, while a Human Rights Watch senior representative was quoted as saying that the Saturday killings connoted a “criminal disregard” for human life.