On Thursday 22 January, Copts living in the town of Qoussiya in Assiut, Upper Egypt, were traumatised by the sight of security forces from Assiut converging with bulldozers on a wall surrounding a piece of land owned by three Copts living in the nearby hamlet of Ezbet al-Osqof. When the Copts tried to protest the illegal assault, the police used tear bombs. Six Copts were injured and a number of cattle died. The police, furthermore, arrested nine Copts who had protested.
A villager who witnessed the scene said that about 6,000 Copts lived in Ezbet al-Osqof— about 50 per cent of the residents. In this case the trouble started when three Copts—Nadi Atallah Gallab, Hishmat Merzeq Gallab and Merzek Thabet Boutros, who had all been working in Kuwait —bought a piece of land 30 metres away from the Church. Three months ago they enclosed the land by building a wall so they could use it for breeding cattle. However, while workmen were erecting the wall a group of Muslims gathered and tried to destroy it. Police arrived and arrested the three owners of the land, forcing them before they could be released to write declarations pledging that they would not donate it or give it up to the church. The issue of the land was referred to the court to be examined in February.
Without a warrant
On that fateful Thursday, however, security and intelligence men crammed round the wall and destroyed it without, according to witnesses, producing any official decree or a previous notice from the court. When the Copts tried to object to this unauthorised onslaught, the police reacted with violence. Some cattle were suffocated by the smoke of the tear bombs and subsequently died. Among the six injured Copts was Mrs Sharbat Shuhdi Sedrak, who had recently undergone treatment for cancer. She unfortunately suffered a haemorrhage after being attacked by one of the police officers.
Ezzat Habib, a Qoussiya lawyer and human rights activist, said the security forces acted illegally and there was no reason for harassing innocent people, violating their land and killing their cattle. Habib pointed out that there was nothing wrong regarding the land documents and the land in question was licensed for building and surrounded by villas owned by the mayor of the village and a number of wealthy Muslims. Habib asserts that the executive authority has breached the court’s authority, which means that the security forces, fearing a court verdict in favour of the Coptic land owners, intentionally destroyed the wall before the scheduled court session which was to take place on 16 February.
Habib believes that what incited the doubts about security was the short distance between the land premises and the church, which gave rise to the idea that the Copts might one day think of giving it up to the church. The problem is that whenever a Copt thinks of building a new house or taking a piece of land near a church, they are blacklisted and thought of as plotters who are working towards building a new church.
Refusal by hospital
Habib criticised Qoussiya Central Hospital, which neither offered the injured any medical help nor furnished any medical reports of their injuries. Habib wonders why the security forces always target lands or buildings belonging to Copts and in the vicinity of a church? This, he said, was vivid and salient discrimination. Habib furthermore questioned the reasons behind the incriminating procedures taken so hastily by the security forces without waiting for the court’s ruling in February. And to make matters worse, the Copts who were merely defending their rights were the ones to be arrested and detained.
Father Ermiya Awad of the church of the Holy Virgin in Ezbet al-Osqof expressed his deep sorrow at what had happened. He said that the Copts bought the land and it was their bad luck that it was near the church. Fr Armeya said the church, which was built in 1902, is itself surrounded by a wall and has a courtyard area of half a feddan, which means that they are not in need of any extra land. He said he was surprised when the 16 trucks and armoured vehicles belonging to the security forces arrived and targeted only this specific piece of land, despite the fact that there were houses and villas that were built without authorisation on agricultural land owned by Muslims.
Fr Pimen, deputy to the Bishop of Qoussiya, expressed his distress and disappointment at the despotic security procedures in targeting Copts and their belongings, adding that although the prosecutor had ordered the release of the nine arrested, they remained detained in Qoussiya police station for another three days. They now face charges of resisting authorities and inducing sedition.