Kosheh massacre

Twenty-one Coptic Christians were the victims of a massacre in el-Kosheh village in Upper Egypt, located 450 kilometres south of Cairo, on Sunday, 2 January 2000 (Sunday, 24 Koiak 1716/Sunday, 7 Tobi 1716). The Coptic Christians killed in this incident were considered martyrs of the Coptic Orthodox Church by Pope Shenouda III.

Kosheh is located on the east bank of the Nile in Sohag governorate, a few miles east of Balyana. The population of Kosheh is about 35,000 and 70% of the village are Christian Copts. Kosheh is the trading center for a number of villages in the area. There is little farmland in Kosheh; it serves rather as the shopping nexus for the rural areas around it. Most of the shopkeepers are Copts, while most of the farmers in the surrounding villages are Muslims from Arab tribes.

Tensions between Christians and Muslims had started a few years earlier, in August 1998, in what is known as the First Kosheh Massacre. In this incident, two Copts were murdered by Muslims. The Muslims in turn were allegedly seeking revenge for the “poisoning” of a brother who had actually died of natural causes. In response, the Egyptian police responded by rounding up about 1,200 Christians for investigation into the murder. When Metropolitan Wissa of el-Balyana (Abydos), whose diocese includes el-Kosheh, criticised the arrests, he was himself arrested with two of his priests, and was charged with inciting strife and damaging national unity between Christians and Muslims.

In October 1998, an article by Christina Lamb in London’s Daily Telegraph reported that some of the arrested Copts had undergone mock crucifixions and that Metropolitan Wissa faced possible execution. The Egyptian government was outraged at the negative publicity, and arrested the head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), whom it accused of having given the story to the Daily Telegraph. The head of the EOHR and Metropolitan Wissa were eventually released. Although the government promised to punish any police who had acted improperly, some of the police officers involved in the human rights violations against the Copts in el-Kosheh were in fact promoted. Thus, the First Kosheh Massacre turned into an international incident. As a result, Coptic groups in the West began to push for the US Congress to include Egypt among nations that discriminate against Christians.