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Coptic Orthodox Christians in Al-Kosheh, Egypt, celebrated Christmas in a nearly empty church on January 6. The main church building in this southern village with a Christian majority, 250 miles south of Cairo, was draped in black. Villagers were grieving the loss of 20 Christians and one Muslim who all died in a shootout on Sunday, January 2. The shootout began with a conflict between a Christian trader and his Muslim customer. Friends of both individuals joined in along religious lines. Fighting and looting began, but nobody had been killed before Sunday.

Eyewitnesses say the police intervened on Friday and stopped the fighting. The skirmishes broke out again on Saturday and again police stopped the fighting.

Christians went to the village church on Sunday for a funeral. False rumors spread that the person was killed by a Muslim. When church bells rang at 10:30 a.m., shooting from surrounding rooftops erupted from both Muslims and Christians. One Christian went into the church tower and began shooting.

Father Gabriel of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Al-Kosheh says the barrage of gunfire lasted three hours. In the end, 20 Christians, including children, women, and teenagers, were dead. One person later died in a hospital.

Pope Shenouda, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, sent Bishop Marcos and Bishop Serabamun from Cairo to Al-Kosheh to investigate the matter only hours after the attack. They presented a report to Pope Shenouda, Usama el-Baz (President Hosni Mubarak's adviser for Political Affairs), and General Salah Salama, the head of Egypt's Central Security Agency.

Based on his investigation, Bishop Marcos blames the incident on the poisoned atmosphere between Muslims and Christians in Al-Kosheh. "How else can one explain that the fight between a Christian and a Muslim results in such an outburst of communal violence?" he says.

After the massacre, Egyptian authorities reported that "peace has been restored." Several villagers visited each other during the Christian and Muslim feast days, but feelings of distrust, anger, and hate persist.

Both local Muslims and Christians say the two groups lived peacefully in this predominantly Christian village before August 1998, when two Christians were killed in a fight during a gambling brawl. Days after the deaths, Christians accused a Muslim family of the killings.

But local police believed the killer was a Christian, and authorities feared that accusations against a Muslim could spark conflict. Hundreds of Christians were arrested in massive and often brutal interrogations in an effort to find the murderers.

Christians responded by spreading their torture allegations in the West. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) and others supported their claims of maltreatment, although some villagers' exaggerated stories tarnished their credibility.

The EOHR, Bishop Wissa, and others believed that the police were not appropriately reprimanded. This has led some Christians to fear for their safety in Al-Kosheh.

Pope Shenouda's secretary, Bishop Yo'annis, said in November 1998 that some of the international reporting about Al-Kosheh exaggerated the situation and contributed to sectarian tensions in Egypt.

Egyptian government officials accused Coptic Orthodox Bishop Wissa of sending negative reports to foreign journalists and human-rights campaigners. Muslims in Al-Kosheh felt they were targeted for attack by these foreign media reports.

But the arrogance of local Christians may have added to sectarian tensions. A Protestant pastor from the area said he felt Christians in Al-Kosheh had become proud of attracting so much international attention to their case.

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February 7 2000, Vol. 44, No. 2