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Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 March 2000 Issue No. 473 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 March 2000 Issue No. 473
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Kosheh indictment asserts 'secular' rioting
By Jailan HalawiProsecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed charged 135 suspects on Sunday with serious offences for their roles in incidents of sectarian violence in southern Egypt. Ninety-six were charged in connection with riots at the village of Al-Kosheh and 39 in connection with incidents in the neighbouring village of Dar Al-Salam. Twenty-four others were released.
In a statement, Abdel-Wahed said that a thorough police investigation came up with enough evidence for the accused to be charged with incitement to violence, murder, attempted murder, robbery, possession of unlicensed weapons and damage to private and public property.
The accused will stand trial before the criminal court in Assiut. The decision to try them in a criminal court was made because the incidents did not have a political dimension. Cases involving state security are usually referred to state security or military courts. No appeal can be made against the rulings of the latter.
Abdel-Wahed added that the violence that occurred from 31 December 1999 to 2 January 2000 between Muslims and Christians was not religiously motivated. His statement was the first government report on the riots in Al-Kosheh, 450 kilometres south of Cairo, that left 21 people dead, 20 of whom were Christians.
The disorder erupted when a Muslim buyer, Fayez Awad Hussein, was angered by being denied credit and allegedly felt insulted during a visit to the shop of Rashed Fahim Mansour, a Christian. Hussein later returned, demanding an apology which apparently was not forthcoming. Both men quarrelled and Hussein's two brothers came to the scene to help him and then began attacking Mansour's shop and other Christian-owned property. They also opened fire, wounding three Christian passers-by.
The unrest spread to the nearby villages of Dar Al-Salam and Awlad Toq and the wide-scale rioting that followed resulted in the death of 20 Copts and one Muslim as well as the looting and burning of at least 50 houses, shops and warehouses. Thirty-nine Copts and Muslims were injured. Hundreds of villagers were arrested.
Official statements denied that the riots were of a sectarian nature, affirming that the government deals with all citizens on a footing of equality, regardless of their religious affiliation.
Reacting to the unrest, President Hosni Mubarak urged the eradication of the factors causing tension in the village and vowed that the culprits would be brought to justice. "There will never be a cover-up for a wrong-doer and those who violate legality or undermine national unity will be punished severely," Mubarak said.
"The investigation did not show evidence of religious bigotry or a split in national unity," Abdel-Wahed stated. He added that "no clergymen, fanatics or persons of political affiliations" have been charged. The prosecutor's statement indicates that Father Gabriel Abdel-Messih, a Coptic priest alleged to have been involved in the riots, had been cleared.
The State Security Prosecutor's office had earlier accused Abdel-Messih of "criminal conspiracy to commit murder and destroy property, attempted murder and possession of firearms." The priest had denied these charges.
Abdel-Wahed remarked in his statement that "many Christians in Al-Kosheh and Dar Al-Salam took refuge with their Muslim neighbours, who took them in during the incidents." Egypt's worst Muslim-Christian clashes in more than two decades were caused by a small number of people, both Christian and Muslim, he said, and had been triggered by "a disagreement between a merchant and one of his customers over a piece of cloth that the latter had purchased."
"Most of the acts of killing and damage took place in a chaotic manner and Muslims were wounded by Muslims while Copts were injured by Copts," he added. He pointed out that the troubles in Dar Al-Salam were caused by "false rumours about what was happening in Al-Kosheh."
Witnesses and human rights groups claimed that the rumours suggested that Copts had poisoned the local water supply. A number of Copts work at the Al-Kosheh water plant.
This was not the first occasion that Al-Kosheh, with a population of 30,000 people -- three-quarters of whom are Coptic Christians -- made headlines and gained international attention. An investigation into the murder of two Copts in August 1998 received prominence because reports claimed that the investigation allegedly involved the physical abuse of several hundreds of the village's Copts. The government denied the reports and the police officers accused of the atrocities were transferred to other posts.
