Egyptians in France last Sunday held a rally in front of the Libyan Consulate in Paris to protest the recent killing of seven Copts in Benghazi, Libya, and the targeting of Christians in Libya by Islamist terrorist groups
. The rally was organised by the Franco-Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (OFEDH) jointly with Egyptian rights organisations and a number of Paris’s Egyptians.
Samir Farag, the spokesman of the OFEDH, said the rally urged European intervention to protect Copts in Libya, and demanded that Benghazi be internationally listed among the countries or cities that endorse terrorism. The rally also demanded that the families of the Coptic victims should be granted pensions since, in losing their sons, they had lost their breadwinners.
Jean Maher, OFEDH president explained that the vigil was a first step in an escalating campaign against Islamist Libyan terrorism that targeted Egyptians. He pointed out to the silence of the world community vis-à-vis the mounting tide of al-Qaeda inside Libya and the failure of the Libyan government to deter it.
During the vigil, a note of protest was presented to the Libyan Consul in Paris, regarding the killing of the seven Copts, Maher said. One of the survivors of the Benghazi massacre, Shenouda Saad, gave a word on how the situation in Libya changed after the downfall of president Muammar al-Qaddafi and how Benghazi became terrorist and outlaw land. Saad appealed to the Egyptian government to help Egyptians get out of Benghazi, especially Copts who are now under siege in their own homes for fear of the terrorist groups.
Photos of the Benghazi victims were pinned to the outer walls of the consulate and held high by the protestors amidst angry voices crying against the Libyan regime and the Muslim Brotherhood who ‘sowed terrorism in Libya’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTwXVFd16WI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U6NmX0PqJs
Watani International
11 March 2014