CAIRO: The hoarse cry came from a man dashing across Cairo's Abdel Moneim Reyad Square on Sunday night. “The military has thugs! The military has thugs!” He paused long enough to reiterate the statement to two women moving in the opposite direction – “The military has thugs!” – before continuing toward nearby Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt's January 25 Revolution. Behind him, a group of military police became clearly visible as they rounded a corner. Among the uniforms were people in plainclothes carrying large sticks and clubs. The clubs started to swing, and those still in the square ran for cover. It was around 8pm. The clashes began hours earlier. “This feels like the 28th of January,” someone said, referencing one of the most violent days of the uprising that toppled Egypt's former regime earlier this year. The cat-and-mouse game between military police and demonstrators continued into the night as wild rumors spread. Near the Egyptian Museum, a group of four young people glanced between their cell phones and the scene around them. They were likely giving Twitter updates on both the situation and their safety. Twitter is a primary means for activists to keep tabs on each other during demonstrations in Egypt. Earlier in the evening, the area by the Ramsis Hilton where the military police entered Abdel Moneim Reyad Square was occupied by demonstrators. This was where they carried the wounded from Maspiro, the nearby site of ongoing clashes between Coptic Christian demonstrators, military police and unknown plainclothes persons. The clashes left at least 26 dead, according to the most recent figures from the Ministry of Health. Some activists put the number much higher. Clashes began when unknown persons attacked a Coptic Christian demonstration. When the military police intervened, it was not to protect the demonstrators, according to eyewitnesses. Christian demonstrators seeking refuge by the Hilton from the violence and tear gas told Youm7, “The army is killing Christians.” As the situation around the Hilton intensified, young men directed traffic away from the area. An armed personnel carrier and other vehicles burned, sending a dense black smoke into the air above the Nile. A fire truck arrived, presumably to put out the fires. It was greeted with stones and rocks, but eventually allowed to pass. Outside the Hilton, the cries of the injured permeated the sporadic chants of, “The people want the fall of the musheer,” Egypt's military ruler, and “Where are our rights?” One man's screams faded into dull moans as he was placed on the ground after being carried from Maspiro on a blanket. A group of young men kept the crowd back to give the injured man air, only allowing a photographer near him, so she could document “what the army did to the Christians.” A sudden stir in the crowd announced the arrival of Bothaina Kamel, the only woman to announce her candidacy for the Egyptian presidency so far. Wearing a bright orange reflective vest, Bothaina moved quickly through the crowd toward the Nile, the latest location of clashes between military police and demonstrators. Many Muslims quickly joined their Christian brothers after clashes began. A Coptic man named Nabil told Youm7 that Muslims had saved his life twice that night. Outside the Hilton, one Copt held a string of Muslim prayer beads along with his cross. “Both Muslim and Christian are here,” said another. “Heard a Muslim guy urging other protesters, ‘let's head to the front, I'm not gonna let the Christians take a bullet alone,'” tweeted activist Mosa'ab Elshamy. Such poignant moments are reminiscent of the early days of the Egyptian revolution, when Coptic Christians joined hands to protect their Muslim countrymen as they prayed in the streets. Many Christians were angry, saying they felt they were being targeted. Coptic Christians comprise around 10 percent of Egypt's population, and often say they are not treated equally to the Muslim majority. “Christians will live in Egypt forever,” said one Coptic man, angrily blaming the extremist Islamic Salafi trend for being behind attacks against Christians. “They will not make us leave.” While one man asked repeatedly, “Where is the United Nations?,” another insisted, “We are not asking for international protection.” A number of activists reported a very different show of solidarity: “I cannot believe it the battle is over and the people who were hitting us from the other side have joined us,” tweeted Lilian Wagdy, an activist on the ground. A few hours later, popular ‘tweep' Mahmoud Salem, known on Twitter as ‘Sandmonkey,' relayed a similar situation. He reported clashes between groups of Egyptians, all in plainclothes, with one side chanting, “The people and the army are one hand” and the other side “Muslims and Christians are one hand.” Then, he tweeted, “In a very weird moment, both sides started chanting ‘one hand,' stopped fighting, joined each other into one big marsh.” At some point, the rumors started to fly, by word of mouth, on Twitter, and in the media. Among the quickest to spread were claims that U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton had announced that the U.S. would send troops to Egypt to protect Christian churches. While the United States and the U.S. Embassy in Cairo emphatically denied the rumor, it still made the front page of some Egyptian newspapers on Monday morning. Another rumor that has proven impossible to confirm claimed someone – either thugs or military personnel – threw dead bodies into the Nile. Youm7 has been unable to locate an eyewitness to this incident. “I say again, I saw three military police throw dead bodies in the Nile, and another body was under their feet,” wrote Mohamed Elmoshir on Twitter. Some rumors were true: shortly before midnight, Youm7 witnessed a military soldier shoot live ammunition in Tahrir Square, and videos of military vehicles driving at reckless speeds through crowds of demonstrators quickly appeared on YouTube. As Monday dawned, Egyptians were angry, scared, saddened, and, perhaps most of all, worried. What would happen next? What did clashes between the army and the people mean for the transitional period? Blame for last night's events has been placed on everyone from the demonstrators to Salafis to elements of Egypt's formerly ruling regime to the military to the ubiquitous “foreign hand.” One image, provided to the AUC Caravan, perhaps best illustrates the divisions and solidarity on both sides of the battle. In it, a uniformed military soldier carries an injured boy down a debris-strewn street. Another boy and a man in civilian clothes follow the soldier. In the background, military soldiers and civilians stand, motionless.
