May  06 Newsletter

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Shameless, Toothless, Obfuscation
Saba Demian

On the 8th of May during a session of the British House of Lords, Baroness Cox asked Lord Triesman, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, whether the British Government intended to make representations to Egypt regarding the recent attacks on Coptic Christians.  The debate that ensued cannot be described more aptly than by these three words ‘shameless, toothless, obfuscation.’ The Peers displayed little but mediocre concern and watered-down answers when pressed on the plight of Egypt’s Copts.  It is difficult to believe that the Lords are not aware of both the grievous situation of the Copts in Egypt and the superficial solutions which the Egyptian government is undertaking to alleviate their problems.

In this debate the Lords were reaching out their hands patting themselves on the back for the abortive efforts they have performed, and further, extending their hands across the Mediterranean Sea to pat the back of President Mubarak and his government for positive ‘telling’ actions to solve this egregious problem. Their comments were shameless.

A statement/question was put by a noble lady, questioning why the highly trained police force does not emerge on the scene until the damage is done. This, surely, is knowledge which most assuredly is telling of the British governments’ obfuscation.  They know what is happening. Despite the meeting of a British Diplomat with Egyptian authorities on April 22 urging investigation of the massacre in Alexandria, the British government has been conspicuous in its inaction.

Lord Triesman responded to Baroness Cox’s criticism of Britain’s inaction by saying that there was evidence that the Egyptian government was making “a big effort” to bring the perpetrators to justice.  “For my part, I do not accept that it is wholly convincing that the most recent attacks were the acts of ‘one psychologically deranged individual,’” he continued.  He made no attempt to criticize the Egyptian state on the governments’ behalf, aside from implicating that he personally did not believe their account of the violence.

            If this is the extent of the efforts the Copts can look forward to from the West to ease their burden, then God help them. When asked by the British ambassador whether the Copts wished the protection of her Majesty’s government in the late nineteenth century, the Patriarch of the See of Alexandria his responded by asking his Excellency “and who is protecting her Majesty’s government?”