Yesterday, 9 October, marked the passage of one year since the attack by the military and security forces against peaceful Coptic demonstrators in Maspero, Cairo. The demonstration, which ended in the tragic loss of life of 27 Copts who were shot or crushed under military vehicles, had been organised to protest against the injustice inflicted on the Copts in the Aswan village of Merinab, and the burning of their church
Yesterday, 9 October, marked the passage of one year since the attack by the military and security forces against peaceful Coptic demonstrators in Maspero, Cairo. The demonstration, which ended in the tragic loss of life of 27 Copts who were shot or crushed under military vehicles, had been organised to protest against the injustice inflicted on the Copts in the Aswan village of Merinab, and the burning of their church.
One year on, the Merinab church has been rebuilt by the Aswan governorate, but as a simple building that carries no Christian denotation: no cross, no spire, no dome. No culprit has been brought to justice.
The Maspero Youth Union (MYU), a movement of Coptic youth who named their movement after the Maspero incident and who call for a secular State where all Egyptians—Copts included—enjoy full citizenship rights, held a commemorative march yesterday in honour of the date.
The march followed the same route of the original march of last year: it began in the North Cairo district of Shubra and headed to Maspero on the Nile bank. To funereal music which included Coptic melodies that went back to ancient Egypt, a procession of young women in ancient Egyptian dress, carrying photos of those who lost their lives in Maspero last year, marched in front. Next came a model fashioned after a pharaonic sun boat in which were placed photos of the martyrs, with candles and flowers around. Then followed some 25,000 Copts and Muslims; activists and mainstream; who had come to march to honour the memory of the event and the martyrs.
Once in Maspero, several speeches were made by activists, all calling for a trial of the culprits. The public held the military officials then in power, Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, his Chief of Staff Samy Anan, and the chief of the military police Major General Hamdy Badeen responsible for the massacre of the Copts.
Watani International
10 October 2012
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