Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 19 August

The August 14 raids by Egyptian security forces in Cairo amounted to the worst mass killings in the country's modern history. The death toll during the dispersal of the Rab’a sit-in appears to be at least 377, significantly higher than the 288 announced by the Health Ministry.  The authorities failed to provide safe exit from the sit-in: "We've spoken to protester after protester who told us that they wanted to try and leave but were trapped because of gunfire coming from all directions." ~ Heba Morayef, Egypt director Video footage posted online shows a man being shot as he carries a blood-stained lifeless body. Egyptian security officials bear responsibility not only for what they did in breaking up the protests but for their failure to protect churches and Christian communities against predictable reprisal attacks. The shocking detention of David Miranda, partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald, a journalist at the Guardian, at London’s Heathrow airport on August 18, 2013, appears aimed at punishing or intimidating journalists. Greenwald and the Guardian reported that officials at Heathrow confiscated Miranda’s electronic equipment, including his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs, and games consoles. 
In Syria, Bashar al-Assad’s government is intentionally attacking medical facilities. One doctor told emergencies researcher Ole Solvang that "government forces attacked us all the time, with artillery, mortars, jets, and surface-to-surface missiles.” Syria is also blocking medical supplies from reaching hospitals, forcing doctors, in some cases, to operate without anesthetics. The Russian educated doctors Mr. Solvang spoke with could not understand why the Russian government continues to protect a regime that is committing such horrible violations.