Baroness Cox statement to Copts at demonstartion 15th Jan 2011.
I am here today to show my concern and solidarity with you, my dear Egyptian friends: my sympathy for you in your suffering and my concern that you are given the justice you deserve.
Here today, we remember how the year 2010 began with tragedy for your people.
Early in the morning of January 7th 2010, Coptic Christians around the world were in church, enjoying a celebration of a Christmas Eve mass, according to the Eastern Orthodox calendar. Children were doubtless eagerly awaiting the tender lamb dishes and chocolate treats as part of the traditional Christmas feasts awaiting them; and adults were rejoicing in the ancient liturgy celebrating the birth of Christ.
But in Naga Hammadi, celebration suddenly turned to shock, grief and horror, when six worshippers and a policeman were brutally murdered while leaving church, in a drive-by shooting by three Islamic gunmen who sprayed bullets into the crowd. Images of dead bodies, panic, terror, chaos, screaming mothers were flashed around the world, transforming the peace and joy of the Coptic Christmas celebrations into living nightmares.
Further tragedy hit when, the day after the attack, thousands of Copts gathered at the mortuary to collect the bodies and to protest against the lack of protection for their community. There, six more Copts were killed in a clash with security forces.
Now, a new horror has greeted this New Year of 2011 when 25 people were killed and more than 70 others were injured in an attack, during a new year's service at the two Saints Coptic Church in Alexandria. About 1,000 worshippers were attending the New Year’s mass. As the service drew to a close after midnight, a bomb went off in the street outside.
And these horrors are but the latest in a series of attacks on your community over the years: more than 400 Copts have been murdered.
Especially worrying is the failure of the government to ensure justice for your people. Perpetrators of violence have not been brought to account.
And your people have also been subjected to other forms of suffering and discrimination – in employment, in obtaining permission to build new churches; in all that goes with dhimmi status.
We are here to say that ‘Enough has long ago been enough’. We are here to stand in sympathy and in support for your people as you seek justice and the protection of the law to which you are entitled as citizens of the great nation of Egypt, with a government which prides itself on being a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The British government, together with European partners has raised with the Egyptian government concerns about discrimination on the grounds of religion. For example, at the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review of Egypt in June 2010, the Government called on the Egyptian government to eliminate all legal provisions and policies which discriminate against religious minorities.
But the violence, discrimination and injustice have continued.
It is my deep hope and fervent prayer that we will not need to stand here again next year in protest against further injustice suffered by your people or in sorrow caused by further horrendous violence.
Today, we honour those who stand strong in faith despite persecution; we shed our tears for those who mourn and who suffer from injury; and we pray that your people, who have lived in Egypt for so many centuries, will be able to live in the peace, freedom and justice which should be your birthright in your historic land.
May God hear our prayers