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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 January 2000 Issue No. 465 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 January 2000 Issue No. 465
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Root solutions this time around?
By Nadia Abou El-Magd
"There will never be a cover-up for a wrongdoer, and those who violate legality or undermine national unity will be punished severely," President Hosni Mubarak said on Monday. The remark was made at a meeting with Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, Interior Minister Habib El-Adli, Justice Minister Farouk Seif El-Nasr and Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif, to review the situation in the southern, strife-torn village of Al-Kosheh.
President Mubarak emphasised the importance of "the transparency and impartiality of the investigation" into the incidents of violence, which claimed the lives of at least 23 people. Mubarak also said that "this nation does not, and will not, know this type of tension or fanaticism". These were Mubarak's first comments on the sectarian violence that erupted in Al-Kosheh between Muslims and Christians on New Year's eve.
After the meeting, Seif El-Nasr said that prosecutors would complete the investigation and announce the results within a week.
On Sunday, Ebeid affirmed that the government deals with all citizens on a footing of equality, regardless of their religious affiliation, and will not allow any violation of legality. Ebeid's remarks were made at a three-hour meeting -- his first such meeting -- with the editors-in-chief of national and opposition newspapers. The prime minister told them that he is presiding over a supreme committee that has been commissioned to investigate the Al-Kosheh incidents, "which began as an individual quarrel but turned into a political fight". During the meeting, Ebeid said that he does not want to blow the incidents out of proportion, emphasising that "there is no discrimination between priests and sheikhs".
Last week, Ebeid reviewed reports by the interior, justice, information and foreign ministers, as well as the Shura Council, People's Assembly and the Sohag governor, about the clashes that took place in Al-Kosheh -- 450km south of Cairo.
President Mubarak during a briefing by the prime minister, the ministers of justice, interior and information on Monday. Also attending was Chief of Staff Zakaria Azmi
The reports indicated that life is back to normal, but underlined the extensive security precautions. An informed security source told Al-Ahram Weekly that the authorities had deployed a security force of more than 6,000 men in Al-Kosheh and neighbouring villages. However, according to the same source, this force has now been reduced to around 1,000.
The clashes turned bloody two days after a 31 December quarrel between a Muslim customer and a Christian merchant. The death toll rose to 23 -- of whom at least 20 are Copts -- after two charred corpses were found in the fields on Sunday. More than 40 persons, both Copts and Muslims, were injured.
The Centre for Human Rights Legal Aid issued a report last week accusing the government of failure to prevent the Muslim-Christian hostilities.
In the report, entitled Al-Kosheh: Blight of a Nation, the police was blamed for the escalation of violence and the high death toll. "The interior minister must explain to the public why such a large quantity of weapons were in the hands of the citizens of Al-Kosheh," the report said. They also questioned why "police stationed at the entrance of Al-Kosheh did not prevent the attacks against Copts".
According to one of the reports submitted last week to the prime minister, "the neutral security presence achieved decisive and swift success in maintaining security and stability and containing the situation".
Interior Minister El-Adli said after meeting with President Mubarak that the Al-Kosheh incidents are not just sectarian clashes. "The rights of citizens are the same and we will not allow attempts to provoke strife. We will confront such attempts severely and we won't be provoked."
El-Adli blamed the violence on unidentified "agents provocateurs".
The municipal council of Sohag has agreed to re-name Al-Kosheh -- which according to some scholars means "enmity" in classical Arabic -- to Al-Salam (peace). In what could be interpreted as an implicit government acknowledgment that Al-Kosheh's problems cannot be solved by security measures alone and in an attempt to prevent the recurrence of such sectarian incidents, the government has ordered the village to be re-constructed. The government is also compensating those whose shops and houses were damaged. More than 50 shops, houses and warehouses were believed to have been robbed or damaged in the riots. Due to its limited agricultural acreage, Al-Kosheh serves as a trade centre for neighbouring villages. However, it remains impoverished like the majority of villages in Upper Egypt.
Ebeid announced that there are security, social, economic and political studies by experts, who are meeting on a daily basis to study and analyse what happened in Al-Kosheh, "in order to come up with a programme that would address the roots, as well as local and external causes of what happened there". They are supposed to submit a final report within a month to the National Security Committee of the People's Assembly.
