CAIRO: Three days after clashes took place near a monastery in Minya, Governor Ahmed Diaa Eldin announced in a press conference the formation of a committee to resolve the issue.
The committee will be comprised of the disputing parties and all government bodies involved – including the antiquities council, the mayor and security officials.
The clashes that took place on Saturday resulted in the death of one Muslim and the injury of seven Coptic Christians, five of whom are monks.
However, Governor Diaa Eldin insists that the clashes were not sectarian, but were rather a dispute between neighbors.
However Priest Poula Hanna, the deputy of El Minya Patriarch, questioned the governor’s talk about a reconciliation committee. He said that this wasn’t the first attack and each time a committee is formed to resolve the issue.
“We think it’s over but the same scenario is repeated again, he said.
Hanna said the reason is simple: “The law isn’t enforced on those who attack the monastery.
There was a similar attack in 2006, Hanna continued, and a relocation session was held, in which “the Arabs who claim they have a right to the land signed a document giving the monastery ownership of the land and received LE 25,000 in return.
After that, he continued, the governor issued a permit to build the wall. The permit was revoked after the attack.
The clashes had erupted due to a wall being built around the monastery, which neighbors claimed would harm their crops.
A priest at the parish, Mussa Girgis also claimed that three of the five injured monks were kidnapped and tortured after the attack.
They were transferred to the Minya Hospital in Cairo where several of them underwent surgery.
“We decided to leave the hospital [in Minya] after the maltreatment and our impression that they are not serious about treating the injured to such an extent that we felt that we were the perpetrators, said Monk Kyrolls.
Marcel Hanna, the director of Minya Hospital, said that doctors in Cairo had to carry out two surgeries to fix the medical malpractices committed in Minya. She showed Daily News Egypt a bag of splinters that were allegedly removed from the foot of injured Monk Bakhoum in Cairo.
Copts had gathered around the hospital where the injured were originally taken to protest the incident and threw rocks at the windows, damaging property in the surrounding area.
Hundreds of Copts protested also in front of the Orthodox Parish in the nearby town of Mallawi and clashed with security forces there.
The governor said that he understands the reasons why Coptic youth demonstrated and expressed their anger following the assault on the monks and the monastery.
He also labeled the killing of the Muslim man and the abduction of the monks as criminal, punishable acts.
“We don’t object to reconciliation, Hanna said, “as long as it is not at the expense of enforcing the law and punishing the perpetrators.
