Clashes between Copts and security forces in Giza last Wednesday left one young man dead and some 100 Copts injured.
The clashes began when the Giza security forces attempted to disperse a Coptic crowd that had been gathered for two days at the grounds of St Mary and St Michael’s church, which is still under construction, in the underprivileged neighbourhood of Talbiya in Giza. The construction engineer of the local government had reported a few days earlier that the church building violated the approved drawings, upon which the security forces required the site closed. When the Copts resisted, the security forces confiscated the construction equipment they were using and asked them to leave the site, which the Copts refused to do and proceeded to build manually.
In the meantime, the Church attempted to resolve the problem with the local district authorities and Giza governor Sayed Abdel-Aziz. The governor agreed to change the original approval to accommodate the recent changes which the congregation considered necessary, and promised to do that shortly. It looked like the problem was on its way to a happy ending.
At dawn on Wednesday, the Copts at the church grounds were taken by surprise to find the security forces firing tear bombs in an attempt to disperse them. They ran into the nearby side streets and alleyways, but the forces chased them farther away. The Coptic crowd decided to head to the Giza governorate to protest what they saw as an unjustified attack against them. At the governorate premises the demonstration turned violent; the Copts and the security forces hurled stones and rocks at one another and the security men shot at the Copts with rubber bullets then with live ammunition. The 19-year-old Makarius Gad was shot; he was quickly taken to Umm al-Nisriyeen hospital where his friends were told that a live bullet had landed in his lung, killing him instantly.
Scores were injured and moved to hospital. Some 50 Copts who had minor injuries left the hospital in the evening. According to Father Mina Zarif of Mar-Mina church in Umraniya, Giza, some other 100 injured remained in Umm al-Misriyeen and al-Haram hospitals in Giza and at Qasr al-Aini’s in Cairo.
The demonstrators moved to the local government office in Giza, hurling stones at the building and at parked vehicles. They finally gathered in the small street in front of Mar-Mina’s church in Umraniya while a Muslim crowd was gathering at the back street behind Mar-Mina’s. Even though they chanted antagonistic slogans, no clashes took place. Another crowd gathered in the church at Talbiya but were persuaded by the priests, the local politicians and the security men to hold their peace.
Some 200 demonstrators were reported missing; their families believe they were caught and are in detention. A security source told Watani the detainees would be questioned by the prosecution on Thursday.
As evening set in, the situation had been brought under control. Some news sites circulated news that security sources explained the unusually harsh response they used against the Coptic demonstrators by claiming the Copts had hurled Molotov bottles at the Giza governorate headquarters, a claim which eye-witnesses categorically deny.