In a press conference held in Cairo last Wednesday, the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) called for the formation of an independent judicial committee to investigate the attack against Coptic demonstrators in Maspero, Cairo, last month, which left 28 dead and more than 300 injured.
WATANI International
3 November 2011
In a press conference held in Cairo last Wednesday, the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) called for the formation of an independent judicial committee to investigate the attack against Coptic demonstrators in Maspero, Cairo, last month, which left 28 dead and more than 300 injured.
On Sunday 9 October, some 50,000 unarmed Coptic civilians—including women and children—participated in an officially licensed protest march that began in the Cairo district of Shubra and ended in Maspero. The protestors were demonstrating against the demolition and burning of a church in Merinab, Aswan, at the hands of extremist Muslims, and the official non-action and cover-up of the incident. Once at Maspero, the military police and security forces attacked the Copts with batons, tear gas, and gunfire; and military armoured trucks ran them over, crushing bodies and skulls in a brutal manner. The demonstrators retaliated by throwing stones and, in one case, turned against an armoured truck, pulled out the soldier who was driving it, and burned the vehicle. They beat up the soldier until an attendant Coptic priest saved him from their hands.
The military claimed that some other “third party” had attacked the Copts, turning what had started as a peaceful demonstration into a violent scene, and forcing the military police and security forces to act against the protestors.
Some 28 young men were arrested and prosecuted, charged with damaging military equipment. Since the charge is against the military, the detainees must be tried before a military court. The army has formed a fact finding commission to investigate the event in preparation for the trial. Rights activists, however, have been calling for an impartial investigation and a civil court trial for the suspects.
The NCHR said an impartial investigation into the Maspero incident would save the military the embarrassment of having to investigate a case in which the Armed Forces were implicated, since the victims’ families have accused the military of killing the Coptic demonstrators.
The NCHR also stressed on the importance of identifying the non-military individuals or party who attack the protestors, turning the peaceful demonstration into a scene of violence.
Mona Thulfaqqar, head of a NCHR fact finding committee that is independently investigating the Maspero incident, pointed out that the State’s perpetual reluctance since 1972 to implement resolutions and recommendations by various fact finding reports concerning sectarian violence has led to the recurrence of such violence. Ms Thulfaqqar was referring to the first parliamentary fact finding report, famously known as the Oteifi Report, which cited a collection of landmark decisions to abort sectarian violence, but none were implemented.
In the Maspero case, Ms Thulfaqqar said, the Health Ministry failed to provide accurate substantial information regarding the reasons behind the death of the Maspero victims. The ministry issued a non-detailed report stating the names of the victims which, even so, proved inaccurate. The ministry placed the number of deaths at 25, but the NCHR investigation proved there were 28 dead, among whom two died after the Health Ministry had issued its report. According to the NCHR fact finding committee report, 12 were crushed to death, seven died of bullet shots in the head and the chest, two died for different reasons, and the committee could not identify the reason behind the death of seven other victims.
NCHR member George Ishaq said that the fact finding committee formed by the Cabinet in the wake of the Maspero incident has so far declared no findings regarding the incident. He explained that the NCHR report would be a substantial document that would help investigations, given the accurate documents and facts that it includes. Mr Ishaq denounced the State’s laxity in dealing with the Maspero file which he described as ‘a national security issue’. He pointed to the serious role played by the State TV in instigating against Copts, and the disastrous consequences that could have ensued.
Fouad Abdel Moneim, professor of international law and member of the NCHR, said that the situation in Egypt must change, or else Egypt is in for a bleak future. He stressed that the killing of the demonstrators in Maspero is the outcome of a climate that fosters concealment, a flawed education system that breeds discrimination, and engrained values of discrimination and intolerance. He stressed that we are now before two choices, either to empower laws to confront sectarian violence in order to shield Egypt from slipping into the abyss, or leave matters to spiral into a crisis.
Rights activist and NCHR member Hafez Abu-Saeda demanded that the military leadership of the Maspero operation should be questioned, as well as those who crushed the demonstrators by the armoured vehicles. He said that the State should expose the identities of those ‘unknown’ parties “who always turn peaceful demonstrations into bloodbaths”. Saeda also called on the Military Council to announce the exact numbers of the military who lost their lives at Maspero—the military had expressly said it would not do so; that they never announce details on members of the military who lose their lives in operation.
The NCHR report strongly recommended the passage of a unified law for building places of worship, as well as the anti-discrimination law; prompt investigations in sectarian incidents; and investigation in the incitement caused by the State TV. The report referred to international treaties signed by Egypt, which condemn the violation of the right to live and the right to demonstrate.