U.S. Copts Association

By Nader Shukry, Watani News

Last Wednesday a 50-member special committee formed by Minya governor Ahmed Diaa Eddin left Minya, some 250km south of Cairo, and headed 30km south to the fourth century desert monastery of Abu-Fana. The alleged task of the committee, which was accompanied by security forces in more than 15 trucks, was to draw the borders of the monastery grounds in order to determine the path of a protecting fencing wall. For Abu-Fana inmates and Mallawi bishopric-to which the monastery is affiliated-that task was in itself preposterous since it implied that the monastery grounds were not well defined. But it was a fact that the monastery was in possession of the ownership documents of all its grounds and has been regularly paying the annual land tax incurred.

The attack
The move by Minya governor came in the aftermath of the barbaric attack waged against the monastery by the tribal desert dwellers in the area—commonly denoted as ‘Arabs’—on 31 May. Four monks were injured and three others were abducted and brutally tortured then cast by the sideway in critical conditions, while one layman who was visiting the monastery at the time was also abducted and nothing is to date known of his fate. The monastery, its farmlands, and production utilities were torched and ruined. The monks had in the recent years managed to cultivate crops and farm an expanse of desert land in the vicinity of the monastery, conducting thus a small, successful agri-business the revenue of which was used for the upkeep and provisions required by the monastery and monks.
Instead of defending the monastery and defenceless monks, the police and Minya officials insisted on ignoring the horrendous crimes, and declared that the attack was a mere dispute over land between the monastery and the Arabs. It was decided that a wall should be built around the monastery grounds for protection—a demand that Anba Dimitrious, archbishop of Mallawi and head of the monastery, had long been unsuccessfully requesting, especially in light of the repeated attacks by the Arabs. But Minya governor deliberately ignored the ownership documents of the monastery and insisted that the borders of the monastery grounds should be determined through an official committee, and that a security squad would directly demolish the cultivated land which is allegedly under dispute. The committee and security forces headed to the monastery last Wednesday.

Assignment changed
At Abu-Fana, the climate was tense. All Mallawi clerics had converged on the monastery and were holding a sit-in to protest what they saw as gross injustice against the monastery. The monks vowed that they would never give up the farmland they had worked so hard to reclaim from what was originally no more than arid sand dunes. They conducted their own sit-in on the road leading to the monastery, placing themselves as human shields in the path of any truck or demolition squad that might head to the farmlands.
When the committee arrived, the monks discovered that its assignment had been changed; instead of determining the monastery borders as was originally announced by Minya governor, the task was now to draw the borders of the archaeological precinct in the monastery area, by order of the Culture Minister. Those in charge of the monastery received the committee in the monastery guest room, and offered its members tea and refreshments as they began their work.

Unresolved
The 50-member committee included representatives from the authorities of antiquities, State property, land survey, and agriculture, as well as the head of Mallawi town council. Father Kyrillos Ava-Fana told Watani that once the committee arrived at the monastery and began debating the border issue, it was obvious there was a problem. The maps, and the perspectives, of the different authorities were inconsistent. According to the antiquities authority maps, the borders of the archaeological precinct around the monastery would be expanded, meaning that some 70 feddans today owned by the Arabs would be included within the monastery borders. This would effectively create a real dispute over land between the monastery and the Arabs, Fr Kyrillos and Fr Mina said. The land survey authority maps, on the other hand, were in accordance with the monastery borders as proved by the ownership documents in its possession.
The difference between the committee members was not resolved, and the committee adjourned its meeting and left.
The monks made an official report at the police station of the event.
And the Abu-Fana crisis remains unresolved. Without a fencing wall the monastery remains vulnerable to attack. The culprits who committed the horrendous crimes against the monks and the monastery have not been brought to justice. And officials insist it was no crime, but a dispute over land.