| Page 4 of 4 < |
Flight From Darfur Ends Violently in Egypt
Hagga Abbas Haroun's daughter, Samar, shown with a family friend, survived the fire from Egyptian border guards that killed her mother.
(Photos By Nora Younis For The Washington Post)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
A 9-year-old girl from Darfur was shot in the back, Egyptian officials and refugees said. A man was shot in the stomach, according to the official accounts and to the refugees and their attorneys. One woman was wounded but survived.
Haroun lay on the ground. A bullet had pierced her skull behind one ear. Her blood splattered Samar. Another bullet drilled into the Arabic-English dictionary.
A military autopsy confirmed what Haroun's friends and husband already knew: She was seven months pregnant. Her unborn child died with her.
In a statement, Egypt's Foreign Ministry upheld its policy of lethal force against the Darfur refugees. "If those crossing refuse to heed the order of authorities to stop, then authorities are forced to deal with them in such a manner to ensure respect for the law."
Late last month, the young Egyptian commander at the Rafah crossing, Col. Amr Mamdouh, gave a different account of the shooting. Haroun and her family had been running for the border, he told The Washington Post and other news agencies. Egyptian border guards shouted "three or four times" to stop, he said. "But they refused. So in this case we had to fire shots, warning shots, in the air."
"In the dark we cannot see the women from the men. And all of them are black," Mamdouh said, shrugging.
Back in Cairo, Haroun's friends mourned her death. For survivors of war and genocide, "it should have gotten better. We should have moved from worse to better," said one friend, Resala Yehia.
"It never got better," Yehia said. "It's just moving to another death."
