HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH DEMANDS U.N. INQUIRY INTO EGYPT KILLINGS.

Human Rights Watch have a report accusing Egyptian security forces of intentionally killed at least 817 protesters during last August's Rabaa massacre, in a premeditated attack equal to or worse than China's Tiananmen Square killings in 1989 calling for U.N inquiry.

In a 188-page report based on a year-long investigation, the New York-based group urged the United Nations to look into six incidents involving killings by security forces of supporters of elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, who was overthrown by the army on July 3, 2013, following several days of protests.

Hundreds of supporters of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood have been killed and thousands arrested since he was ousted, with the largest number of deaths taking place during the storming of two protest camps by security forces on August 14, 2013.

The report said 817 protesters were killed during the clearing of the Brotherhood sit-in at Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya and compared it to the 1989 massacre of protesters around China's Tiananmen Square.

"In Rabaa Square, Egyptian security forces carried out one of the world's largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history," HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth said in a statement marking the release of the report.

"This wasn’t merely a case of excessive force or poor training. It was a violent crackdown planned at the highest levels of the Egyptian government. Many of the same officials are still in power in Egypt, and have a lot to answer for."

The report documents scores of incidents where unarmed protesters were killed, often by snipers shooting from nearby buildings or, according to multiple witnesses, from helicopters flying overhead.

In similar testimony, Hussein Abdel Aal, a 61-year-old former oil worker, said his son Ramzy was shot dead by a sniper despite standing well back from the edge of the camp. "We were far from the frontline but my son got a bullet in his forehead, and it went out the back of his skull," said Abdel Aal, who was standing next to him. "He was shot by a sniper standing on top of the General Traffic Authority building – and he did not have any kind of weapons. From the stick to the gun, he had nothing."

Government officials say only 627 died at Rabaa, but HRW researchers counted at least 817, and suspect the real figure may actually top 1,000. Both figures exceed what HRW says are credible upper estimates of those who died at China's Tiananmen Square massacre.

The Interior Ministry said 62 security officers died in violence across Egypt on Aug. 14. About 275 police have been killed in attacks over the past year, it said.

HRW acknowledged that protesters threw rocks and petrol bombs at security forces, while a few opened fire, but said this failed to justify the level of force deployed by the state.

"Given the widespread and systematic nature of these killings, and the evidence suggesting that they were part of a policy to use lethal force against largely unarmed protesters on political grounds, these killings most likely amount to crimes against humanity," the report said. (hrw.org/node/127942)

It urged governments to suspend military aid to Cairo until it takes steps to end serious rights violations, potentially turning up the pressure on Western allies who have voiced concern about Sisi's democratic credentials but continue to provide military and other support to Cairo.

Attempting to enter Egypt on Sunday to present the findings of the report, HRW's executive director, Ken Roth, and Middle East lead, Sarah Leah Whitson, were stopped and deported. The report's primary researcher, Omar Shakir, has since left the country, fearing arrest.