Press Release
For Immediate release
4th December 2010
The Egyptian police fire live ammunition on peaceful demonstration killing three so far.
On the 24th November 2010 in Al-Omraneya near Cairo where there is a high concentration of Christian population, for the last 10 years the Christian residents there have been trying to obtain a license to build a church but without success. To get around the obstacle of building a church, they obtained permission to build a four-storey building with the intention of using part of it to gather for prayers. The council’s Health and Safety department advised them to add to the original plan an escape stairwell, which they did.
The building was almost complete when an inspection by another department from the council found the new stairwell and domes added to the original plan which they said was in breach of the original license.
A meeting was conducted with the Governor who- in an act of deception- advised the Christians that he was happy with the current building and would approve it. It was the night of that same day in which the Christians found that the building was surrounded by thousands of policemen and saw demolition equipment on standby near the building. Seeing that months of their hard work was about to be demolished, they gathered inside the building to stop the demolition.
The Police fired at them tear gas, plastic bullets and live ammunition. So far the killed are three and the injured are 67 the number of arrested so far is 159.
The United Copts of Great Britain is dismayed at the extreme brutality against a peaceful demonstration asking to build a church in a district which has found extreme difficulty in obtaining a building permission.
United Copts GB condemns the Egyptian government in flaming sectarianism, and the radicalization of the mobs by the official state media over the past three decades and also condemns the bias in dealing with atrocities committed by Muslim fundamentalists against peaceful Christians over the past 3 decades and the un-necessary delay in producing a Unified Law for the Building of Places of Worship.
United Copts GB demands the immediate release of the arrsted Copt, a full inquiry into the firing of live ammunition on peaceful demonstrators and demand that the officer who gave the order to fire live ammunition to be tried in a court of law.
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UNITED COPTS GB
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