Following the harsh verdict against the Copts of Sharbat, which stands to neither law nor justice, Watani contacted Anba Pachomeus, Archbishop of Beheira within the area of which
Following the harsh verdict against the Copts of Sharbat, which stands to neither law nor justice, Watani contacted Anba Pachomeus, Archbishop of Beheira within the area of which al-Nahda lies, for his comment. Anba Pachomeus said it is in everybody’s interest to sustain the peaceful coexistence between the village Muslims and Copts. Wrongdoers should be taken to task, he said, but that should be done in accordance with and respect of the law.
Anba Pachomeus sent a memorandum to Speaker of the People’s Assembly (PA) Saad al-Katatni asking for measures to be taken to achieve justice for the Copts.
The memorandum drew attention to the attack against the Copts of Sharbat, which lies in the Beheira parish, as well as to other attacks in Beheira against church-owned buildings and encroachment by Muslim locals upon Church-owned lands in several Beheira villages. Anba Pachomeus demanded justice and security for the Copts and their Church; and confirmation that Egyptian Copts, their homes and property, as well as the Church and its property and endowments, would all be offered protection on grounds of citizenship rights.
The Alexandria Coptic Orthodox Melli (Community) Council issued a declaration in which it condemned in strong words the ‘conciliation session’. “This self-appointed court of justice,” the declaration said, “issued resolutions among which the second sentenced the Coptic families to leave the village, while the fifth pledged investigations to find out who ‘the culprit and the victim’ were. How could the ‘venerable court’ issue a sentence against the Coptic families even as it admitted it knew not who the culprit was?” The declaration demanded a halt to all ‘conciliation sessions’ conducted outside the law, and that justice should be implemented and the rule of law should reign supreme.
Fact-finding
Coptic youth movements organised a march in Downtown Cairo last weekend to protest the injustice against the Copts and the insistence of officials to sideline the law.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) last week released its fact finding report on the Sharbat incident, condemning in the strongest terms the failure of the police and the army to protect the Copts. The EIPR expressed its total rejection of the continuing practice of forcing the victims of sectarian attacks to accept the results of unlawful reconciliation, which forced them to surrender their rights and accept abuse. In the Sharbat case, the report said, the Copts had to leave their homes and businesses because they were deprived of the police protection they were entitled to as Egyptian citizens.
The EIPR thus called for the need for an urgent and independent judicial and parliamentary investigation into all the crimes committed, and stressed on the importance of punishing the perpetrators. This investigation should extend to include police and military forces that were present at the crime scene and did not provide any protection to the victims.
“Shame on the executive and legislative figures involved for affording a legal cover-up for such criminal offenses in an alleged reconciliation that ends up with penalising the victims and letting the offenders run free,” Ishaq Ibrahim of the EIPR noted.
In the People’s Assembly
PA Speaker Katatni did not respond to Anba Pachomeus’s memo and, in response to a demand by MP Emad Gad to discuss the Sharbat Copts problem, refused to place the problem on the PA agenda.
Consequently, several liberal and Coptic MPs, as well as a number of activists, made a move to place the problem before Mohamed Abdel-Alim, deputy to the Speaker of the PA. In a hearing held last Sunday, MPs Dr Ihab Ramzy, Marian Malak, Mustafa al-Naggar, George Nagy, Suzy Adly and Hanna Greiss, discussed the matter with MP Abdel-Alim. Later in the day, a delegation of Coptic activists from the Maspero Youth Union, the Free Copts, and the Coptic Union; as well as Sheikh Sherif Hawari also met MP Abdel-Alim on that head. The MPs and the Coptic activists insisted the law had been sidelined and the Sharbat Copts had been subject to harsh injustice, and demanded a lawful resolution of the crisis. Sheikh Hawari defended the banishment of the Coptic families by saying that it was only done for their own safety, especially that it has transpired that the shots fired during the violence had been fired by a Bedouin Muslim, and that the victim was in poor health—the shot had wounded him too close to the liver. If the victim does not mend, Sheikh Hawari said, violence was sure to erupt again, and the Copts were sure to be again attacked in vengeance. No protection can be offered to them, Sheikh Hawari said.
Referred to the human rights commission
It was then decided that the entire matter would be turned over to the PA’s human rights committee for assessment and decision and that all sale of Coptic property should be halted. The activists demanded an end to the traditional ‘conciliation sessions’ and that the law should be applied in the event of any sectarian problem, but no MP was able to answer them to that.
It was decided that a delegation formed of members of the committee and Coptic activists would visit Sharbat on Thursday to negotiate the return of the displaced Coptic families. Details of the visit can be found on www.wataninet.com Wataninet also posts interviews with Abu-Soliman and Hassan Farag.
“We, as representatives of the people,” Waguih Daoud, Beheira MP noted, “swore to respect the Constitution and the law. And our duty is to implement the supremacy of the law.”
WATANI International
17 February 2012