Sunday, October 16, 2011

Australia's Copts want Egpytian envoys expelled

The leader of Australia's 70,000 Coptic Christians has urged Australia to expel the Egyptian ambassador over Sunday's massacre in Cairo, saying the ambassador sought to silence Copts in this country, reports the Age.

Bishop Anba Suriel also called for the expulsion of the consuls-general in Melbourne and Sydney.

It follows the deaths of at least two dozen Copts when the military and police fired on a demonstration of Christians angry at unchecked attacks on churches and, according to witnesses, ran over some with army vehicles.

Bishop Suriel said the officials in Australia had never expressed any support or sympathy in the face of worsening attacks on Copts since the overthrow of the Mubarak government in January.

Bishop Suriel told a press conference in Melbourne that the ambassador, Omar Metwally Mohamed, had told him not to raise the plight of the Copts and that problems would be solved.

''He was not happy that I went on Insight on SBS and made strong comments. They want us to keep everything quiet. But Egypt has failed dismally to protect Christians - we keep getting the same rhetoric, but not solutions, and we are fed up,'' Bishop Suriel said.

''We are crying out to the world to look at the plight of the Copts and do something.''

An AFP report in The West Australian said that Egypt's military rulers have ordered a probe into clashes that killed 25 people, as the cabinet held crisis talks amid fears of wider sectarian unrest and Washington urged restraint.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) "tasked the government with quickly forming a fact finding committee to determine what happened," in a statement read on state television.

It called for "all measures against all those proven to have been involved, either directly or by incitement."