In rioting outside the state television building along the Nile in Cairo, protesters pelted the soldiers with rocks and bottles.
The clashes spread to nearby Tahrir Square and the area around it, drawing in thousands of people. They battled each other with rocks and firebombs, some tearing up pavement for ammunition and others collecting stones in boxes. At one point, a group of youths with at least one riot police officer among them dragged a protester by his legs for a long distance.
The Christian protesters said their demonstration began as a peaceful attempt to sit in at the television building. But then, they said they came under attack by thugs in plainclothes who rained stones down on them and fired pellets.
“The protest was peaceful. We wanted to hold a sit-in, as usual,” said Essam Khalili, a protester wearing a white shirt with a cross drawn on it. “Thugs attacked us and a military vehicle jumped over a sidewalk and ran over at least 10 people. I saw them.”
Wael Roufail, another protester, corroborated the account.
In the past weeks, riots have broken out at two churches in southern Egypt, prompted by Muslim crowds angry over church construction. One riot broke out near the city of Aswan, even after church officials agreed to a demand by local ultraconservative Muslims, called Salafis, that a cross and bells be removed from the building.
Television footage of the riots showed some Coptic protesters attacking a soldier, while a priest tried to protect him. One soldier collapsed in tears as ambulances rushed to the scene to take away the injured.
Christians blame Egypt’s ruling military council for being too lenient on those behind a spate of anti-Christian attacks since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak in February. Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority makes up about 10 percent of the country of more than 80 million people. As Egypt undergoes a chaotic transition and security vacuum in the wake of this year’s uprising, Christians are worried about the increasing show of force by the ultraconservative Islamists.
Sunday’s rally began in the Shubra district of northern Cairo, then headed to the state television building along the Nile where men in plainclothes attacked about a thousand Christian protesters as they chanted denunciations of Egypt’s military rulers.
“The people want to topple the field marshal,” the protesters yelled, referring to the head of the ruling military council, Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi. Some Muslim protesters later joined in the chant.
Egypt's government has appealed for calm. Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said he had contacted security and church authorities to contain the situation.
"The only beneficiary of these events and acts of violence are the enemies of the January revolution and the enemies of the Egyptian people, both Muslim and Christian," he said on his Facebook page.
Christians, who make up 10 percent of Egypt's roughly 80 million people, took to the streets after blaming Muslim radicals for partially demolishing a church in Aswan province last week.
They also demanded the sacking of the province's governor for failing to protect the building.
"MARCHING PEACEFULLY"
More than four vehicles were set ablaze and TV footage showed protesters breaking windows of parked cars and army personnel carriers driving full speed toward crowds of protesters.
Gun shots were heard and witnesses said crowds of protesters carried bodies as tear gas filled the air. It was unclear who was shooting.
"We were marching peacefully," Talaat Youssef, 23-year old Christian trader told Reuters at the scene.
"When we got to the state television building, the army started firing live ammunition," he said, adding army vehicles ran over protesters, killing five. His account could not be immediately confirmed.
"The army is supposed to be protecting us," Youssef said.
Thousands of Christians protested in Cairo and Alexandria Sunday over the attack, chanting against the ruling military council and its head, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.
After the clashes in front of the state television building, protests in provinces with large Christian populations were reported by local newspapers. Their accounts could not be verified independently.
The protesters want the government to fire the governor of Aswan Province, Mostafa al-Sayed, after the partial demolition of the church Friday. Egyptian media said Muslims were accused of attacking the church after talk spread in the town that the building did not have legal authorization.
In May, twelve people were killed in a sectarian clashes between Christians and Muslims after rumors that Christians were holding a woman who had converted to Islam.
The incident led the country's ruling military council to order the drafting of new laws to criminalize sectarian violence and ease restrictions on building churches.
Egyptian officials said they would investigate the causes of Sunday's violence, calling for calm.
"We need unity more than any other time before," Information Minister Osama Heikal told state television.
No comments:
Post a Comment