Abu Fana in focus

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, speaking to Reem Leila, calls for a culture of human rights to address what others see as sectarian tremors spreading across Egypt A meeting chaired by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, head of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), discussed last week the final report of a fact-finding commission sent mid-June to Minya governorate to investigate an incident that took place at the historic Abu Fana Monastery located in Mallawi. On 31 May, a dispute erupted between Coptic monks and Bedouin Arab tribesmen, apparently over land surrounding the monastery, and quickly turned into street battles that left one Muslim dead and three Copts injured and led to the kidnapping of three Coptic monks. Local Muslims claimed that an expansion project at Abu Fana was being done on property not owned by the monastery. The... [read full story]