Coptic Martyrs Blood Still Crying Out For Justice Nine Years Later (3)
In the past two articles, I tried to explain to our readers what happened in
"El-Kosheh", in 1998, when two copts were murdered, and how the Egyptian law
enforcement authorities completely mishandled the matter, causing new, and
very intense tensions between Copts and Muslims.
like a time bomb waiting to explode. The Christians, who are simple and kind
people, found themselves confronted with the sad reality that there is no
law or justice in the Land. Copts finally realized that they are living in
their homeland, which was not really their real home; they felt that they
can neither trust their own law enforcement system and courts, nor their
government.
Meanwhile, the government began to look at them and the Copts in general, as
enemies of the State, since they exposed the reality and their torture to
the outside world.
The law enforcement authorities along with the Egyptian government handled
the situation without a clear, precise plan to resolve it definitively, as
is customary in the third millennium. Instead they went about it
haphazardly.
Father Gabriel Abdel Messiah, priest of the Angel Michael's Church of
"El-Kosheh" commented: "the relationship between some Copts and some Muslims
become so strained, and sensitive due to the police's mishandling of the
problem. I noticed a lot of feelings of disappointment among Copts, and an
increase in litigation, which I was not custom to. On various occasion I
interfered personally, together with some Muslim elders and other priests,
in order to resolve certain problems occurring between both parties".
On Wednesday, December 29th, 1999, as told by Mr. Micheal Bissada (lawyer),
a Muslim man called "Faiz Awaad Hassanen" who earned his living as a street
vendor of fruits and vegetable, approached a textile store owned by a Copt
called "Rashed Fahmy Mansur". Faiz asked the store owner if he could buy
fabrics for himself and his family, and settle the account through monthly
payments, but the store owner refused to sell his merchandise under those
conditions.
They both had an argument which ended by Faiz saying "Ok, stranger". The
store owner took this statement as a threat, and replied "you cannot do
anything". The word 'stranger' is usually used by Muslims in Egypt when
addressing Copts, meaning foreigner. So the customer left the store without
buying, but left a threat to the owner.
Two days later, on Friday December 31st, 1999, around 4:00PM, the former
customer along with his two brothers "Fawzi" and "Abdel Nasser" entered the
textile store, assaulted the owner and his son "Aymen", then destroyed his
store.
People gathered at the scene, some of them tried to calm the store owner,
who was adamant to report the attack to the local police, which was only 500
meters (300 yards) away.
As they approached the police station, the police officer was standing
outside, trying to figure out what was happening; the three attackers
followed, promising them another visit.
As Mr. Rashed was reporting the facts to chief "Kalid AbdelHamid", the
officer "Ahmed AbdRaboh", informed his superior what he witnessed, how the
attackers tried to assault the store owner and his son, once more near the
police station, and how he has set them apart.
A few important things have to be emphasized here:
- The Police station was 500 meters away from the store.
- The attackers followed the owner to the station and tried to assault him
once more in front of the policeman.
- The police did not make any arrests.
There was one important fact that no one had paid any attention to at the
time, but which was mentioned in one of the Egyptian newspapers called "Al
Ahaly". In its issue dated January 12th, 2000, it was reported that about
150 non-residents had arrived to "El-Kosheh" with machine guns and other war
weaponry, started several fires, destroyed homes and stores owned by Copts.
The strange thing about it was that the 150 people went about achieving
their goal, prior to any police showing up at the scene, and disappeared
without leaving a trace.
Only one thing became clear that someone was spreading false rumors in the
surrounding towns, that Copts attacked Muslims during prayers inside an
"El-Kosheh" Mosque.
An eyewitness testimony, reported by "Al Ahaly" newspaper, said that some
police officers destroyed various Muslims' stalls for no reason, while
various armed non-residents blocked the five gates to the town, in order to
obstruct or delay the arrival of reinforcement police forces.
Witnesses also reported that certain groups attacked and killed police
officers, other groups stopped any vehicles from entering or leaving the
town, while others attacked the Copts and their property. In addition to
those, another group attacked the five Churches in town.
The "Al Gamhoria" newspaper reported in its issue published on January 5th,
2000, that one of the local political leaders informed them that he
witnessed war weaponry, guns and machine guns fired in the skies over "El-
Kosheh", and that police agents could not enter the town for three days.
The events described above occurred in a street called "Port Said" where
Copts and Muslims gathered after the attack on the textile store.
The Chief of Police arrived to the scene, and gathered information from the
assaulted Copts. The Copts complained to him about the incident and pleaded
for his intervention, but he refused any police action at the time.
Meanwhile, during this conversation, the people heard guns being fired and
three Copts were injured.
Once again Egyptian law enforcement neglected to enforce the law, but
overall to protect the citizens. The only statement heard from those
officers was: "we saw everything, you may go home now". No arrests were
made.
The Copts could not comprehend the way the police officers and the local
government were acting.
A few years before, Coptic business owners had requested the removal of
illegal barns placed next to their stores by non authorized businesses. In
spite of a court ruling for the removal of those barns, the Governor of
"Sohag" stopped the court order, to accommodate a recommendation of a member
of parliament.
On their way home, the Copts destroyed some of those illegal barns.
.
The rest of the first day to be continued...
http://voiceofthecopts.org/en/articles/coptic_martyrs_blood_still_crying_out
_for_justice_nine.html
http://voiceofthecopts.org/en/articles/coptic_martyrs_blood_still_crying_out
_for_justice_nine_2.html
Voice of the Copts
Dott. Arch.Ashraf Ramelah,
Associate AIA
President
www.lavocedeicopti.org
www.voiceofthecopts.org