By Mary Abdelmassih
Confrontations between Christian protesters and Egyptian security forces broke out on November 24, 2010 during work on an extension to the church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael in the poor Talbiya neighborhood of Omraniya in the Giza governorate. Security forces tried to stop the construction and used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition against protesters. They have tried to keep their use of firearms against unarmed protesters a secret, but this has proved futile as reports from hospitals about the victims brought in, as well as video footage and eyewitness accounts of the incident have revealed details of the operation.
Coptic Christians around the world are shocked and outraged by the security forces' attack that resulted in the deaths of three Coptic young men and a four-year-old child suffocated by tear gas used inside the building. Human rights groups inside and outside Egypt have condemned the use of excessive force and live ammunition against Coptic protesters.
Civil rights groups are concerned that the state has now escalated its treatment of the Christian minority from simple discrimination to outright terror. The use of live ammunition is completely disproportionate to the purpose, justified or not, of dispersing unarmed protesters who are simply fighting for their constitutional right to a place of worship. A prominent lawyer says he knows of no precedent of security forces firing live ammunition at unarmed protesters.
The official casualty figures from the incident are two dead, 67 injured and 170 Copts arrested. However, the Coptic Youth Front has stated that over 300 people were injured and more than 1,000 detained, including women. According to the statement, many of the injured refrained from seeking treatment for their injuries in hospitals for fear of being arrested.
International Coptic jurist Dr. Awad Chafik said the number of detainees is huge, but because Coptic families are hiding in fear of further arrests, it is difficult to get the correct figures. Human rights activist Wagih Yacoub, is outraged by the treatment of the injured. "They were handcuffed to their hospital beds and then sent to camps where they were detained," he said.
For more than a decade, the Copts have been trying to get permission to build the church in Talbiya. Unlike Muslim citizens who only need a municipal permit to build mosques, Christians must seek presidential permission to build a church.
Due to long processing times, obtaining permission to build a church is almost impossible in practice. Therefore, the governor of Giza had proposed to the Copts to build a diaconal center and then use it as a church to pray in. The Copts began construction four months before the incident, and only the roof remained to be finished. No one had objected to the construction.
The situation changed completely when the Copts started to build a dome on the building, believing that it was in accordance with what they had agreed with the governor.
Source: AINA
