Egyptians blame army and state security for Coptic, Muslim deaths

Mar 10, 2011, 11:17 GMT

Cairo - A number of Egyptians on Thursday pointed the finger at the country's own forces for the death of 13 people during conflicts between Muslims and Coptic Christians in Cairo this week.

Samy Roushdy, a Coptic resident who was at the protest, told the German Press Agency dpa that the army is to blame.

'I just came back from the funeral of a man I saw shot dead by the army,' he said.

Roushdy said an army general attended the funeral and apologized for the violence, vowing investigations were underway.

But, according to Roushdy, Coptic Christians yelled and protested against the general's presence at the funeral, forcing him to leave the funeral shortly after arriving.

'I don't understand why the army would come in and fire like this. We could see them firing at us,' said Roushdy.

According to the website of the newspaper al-Masry al-Youm, 27- year-old Samaan Nazmy, a garbage man, was shot in the heart and killed on the way back from work earlier this week.

'He was definitely shot with government-issued bullets,' according to his brother, who left in distress before giving his name, the newspaper reported.

The violence, which left some 140 injured, erupted on Tuesday evening after more than 1,000 Christians gathered in the slum neighbourhood of Manshiyet Nasr to protest against the burning of a church south of Cairo.

Homes and factories were torched in the unrest and the Egyptian military fired shots in a bid to control the riots.

An anonymous military expert and former soldier said the chaos may have been carried out by thugs with stolen weapons.

'The army would never open fire on people like this. If these people have bullets that were actually from government issued weapons then they must have been stolen,' according to the source quoted in al-Masry al-Youm.

However, others blame thugs from within Egypt's controversial State Security services for the unrest.

During Wednesday evening's popular evening programme on the satellite channel Dream2, a caller said that the way in which the church was burnt could only have been carried out by an organized body from within the State Security services.

The allegations come after widespread reports suggested that, during the anti-government protests that led to the ouster of president Hosny Mubarak, a number of security officers torched police stations and stole weapons in a bid to create chaos and strike fear among people calling for reform.

While these reports could not be independently verified, the country's attorney general charged 15 people on Wednesday with illegal possession of weapons and destruction of private and public property.

Pope Shenouda, the patriarch of the Coptic Christian church, has requested an investigation into the events, Matta Sawiris, a member of the council of Coptic Orthodox Churches, told dpa.

The cabinet drafted on Wednesday a law criminalizing thuggery and intimidation of civilians. It includes a provision allowing the death penalty if such crimes result in deaths.

Religious tensions occasionally lead to violence in Egypt, where Christians comprise 10 to 15 per cent of the population.

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