Coptic Christians gather for prayer in Kosheh

January 28, 2000
Web posted at: 10:34 p.m. EST (0334 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

KOSHEH, Egypt (CNN) -- While the official investigation continues into the deaths of 21 people here in early January, leaders of the Coptic Christian Church are blaming local police for the sectarian violence.

The bloodshed was the worst Muslim-Christian violence in decades in Egypt, where Muslims, mostly Sunni, make up 94 percent of the nation's 68 million people. Coptic Christians and others account for 6 percent.

A magazine published by the Coptic Church, whose religious roots in Egypt are older than Islam, said in a news release Friday that church leaders trust security officials in Cairo but not the police in Kosheh, a city about 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Cairo.

"The first duty of policemen is to prevent a crime before it occurs, but if they cannot, then at least they should contain it before it spreads," said the magazine whose chief editor is Pope Shenouda, spiritual leader of Egypt's Coptic Christians.

The Egyptian government has compensated the families of the 19 Christians and two Muslims killed in the clashes

Following a small dispute between a Christian cloth merchant and a Muslim customer, neighbors began to argue with neighbors, then fights broke out, followed by gunfire.

When the violence stopped, 19 Christians and two Muslims were dead. Thirty-three other people were wounded, and 81 houses or other properties were destroyed.

The government has provided compensation to families of the dead and injured. Officials have promised that the perpetrators will be severely punished.

"All of us want to solve the Kosheh dispute. But this problem cannot be solved through attempts to cover up and ... change victims into perpetrators," said the Coptic magazine.

"Real reconciliation, not cosmetic, only comes after justice is done," it said.

Cairo Bureau Chief Ben Wedeman and Reuters contributed to this report.

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