Yesterday, Sunday 9 October, a peaceful Christian demonstration against the burning of a church in Aswan was met with brutal force, leaving twenty dead and hundreds injured after the use of live ammunition and the same aggressive tactics used by the previous regime.
Over the past thirty years, more than four hundred innocent Christians have been killed in cold blood with repeated government failures to prosecute the perpetrators and apply the rule of law.
January 2011 started with the bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria, followed by the Egyptian revolution, and various other developments. There have been more attacks and increased violence against Christians and churches.
What is of immediate concern, locals say, is that while the situation has been unfolding, this evening state media broadcast unconfirmed allegations that Christian demonstrators killed soldiers. These allegations were apparently made without any investigation or recourse to witnesses or ballistic or forensic evidence.
It is thought that such claims are likely to justify more attacks on Christians.
The Egyptian government has an obligation to observe the various human rights treaties to which it is party.
It appears that neither the Egyptian Government nor the Military Council are protecting Christians in Egypt, and live coverage showed Army trucks driving over and killing peaceful protestors.
A coalition of three christian groups is asking the international community to call for an immediate investigation into the occurrences of 9 October 2011, to take tangible steps towards giving Christians equal human rights in religious freedom.
Helmy Guirguis, UK Copts Association
Ibrahim Habib, United Copts GB
Peter Bibawy, United Action For Egyptian Christians
In this video, the reporter says Copts started the violence, but locals say it was started by non-Copts joining in and starting trouble.
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