An active member of the Sudanese Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cairo, Betty Asenzo Bernard, was killed when thousands of Egyptian police officers broke up a squatter camp near the Cairo offices of the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR on December 30, 2005.

Several members of the Adventist congregation are still missing after the event. Many families have been separated as police raided Sudanese homes and took people away for questioning.

Media reports indicate that more than 3,500 Sudanese migrants were protesting outside the U.N. refugee agency since September for better treatment of refugees and improved living conditions. The violence erupted when police attempted to forcibly remove the protesters with truncheons and by spraying a water cannon. Twenty-seven protesters were killed and 11 injured, although some unofficial reports put the figure closer to 216 dead. Some protesters were swiftly deported to Sudan because they had misplaced their identity papers.

The refugees had been sleeping outside for three months, in temperatures that have dipped below 10C, using plastic sheets, cardboard and blankets.

The 21-year north-south civil war in Sudan, which ended a year ago, displaced about 4million people, while the continuing conflict in the western Darfur region has also forced scores to flee.

The Egyptian government said it regretted the deaths at the camp but defended the way the police had ended a three-month sit-in by some 3,500 Sudanese, who were demanding resettlement in the West.

Pastor Kjell Aune, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Middle East, is currently in Cairo. Commenting on the events he said, "The Sudanese community in Cairo is grieving because of this deeply frustrating situation -- having lost family and close friends. The Sudanese need our prayers as they try to come to terms with an uncertain future."

Tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees fled to Egypt, following decades of civil war in Sudan. Nearly 80 people regularly attend the Sudanese Adventist Church that meets in Cairo.

The international group Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation into the deaths, which took place near the UNHCR Cairo offices. The United Nations had said the Sudanese were mostly economic migrants, not people in danger of persecution if they went back to Sudan.

"President Hosni Mubarak should urgently appoint an independent commission to investigate the use of force by police against Sudanese migrants," the U.S. based Human Right group HRW said.

"The high loss of life suggests the police acted with extreme brutality ... A police force acting responsibly would not have allowed such a tragedy to occur," said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division.

Eleven Egyptian groups blamed the Ministry of the Interior for the events and also called for an inquiry.

"It (the Ministry) knows no way to deal with people, whether citizens or refugees, other than by beating, crushing, extrajudicial killing, or transfer to illegal detention centres," they said in a joint statement.

The Foreign Ministry said it was saddened by the casualties and accused the head of UNHCR of rushing to judgment, after he said on Friday there was no justification for the loss of life.

"The regional UNHCR office has all the details which show that the Egyptian authorities dealt with the matter with wisdom and patience for more than three months," it said.

Presidential spokesman Soleiman Awad said Egypt had no choice but to intervene and said the UNHCR office had asked the Egyptian authorities three times to break up the sit-in.

Witnesses said police beat the refugees with truncheons and used water cannon to drive them from the camp. The Egyptian authorities said the Sudanese died in a stampede after protesters started throwing bottles and rocks at the police.

Human Rights Watch said that by international standards police must use non-violent means before resorting to force.

"The blood is still on the sidewalks, and already the government is blaming the Sudanese refugees and migrants," said Stork. "Given Egypt's terrible record of police brutality, an independent investigation is absolutely necessary to assess responsibility and punish those responsible," he added. [News Editor: Alex Elmadjian, Jonathan Wright, Samer el-Atrash and Christian B. Schaeffler for ANN/APD; with additional news items from Reuters]