Det kom til alvorlig uro i Kairo ikveld, da koptere ville protestere fredelig mot at to kirker i Aswan har fått problemer. Plutselig dukket bøller i sivil opp og begynte å kaste sten og angripe med kjepper.

Militære rykket inn og kjørte rett inn i menneskemengden med panservogner, slik at flere skal ha blitt drept. Dette provoserte kopterne.

Dermed oppsto en uoversiktlig og rotete situasjon, der ingen egentlig sto for ro og orden.

Mønsteret er velkjent fra tidligere. Men med 19 drepte og 150 sårede var dette en svært alvorlig hendelse.

Noe av problemet for utenverdenen er rapporteringen. Dina Zayed and Patrick Werr fra Reuters gir et rotete bilde. Det er ikke mulig å forstå hva som skjedde, for Reuters vil ikke nevne at det var en tredje gruppe til stede – muslimer som gikk til angrep. I stedet gir de inntrykk av at det var kopterne som angrep politiet.

Tittelen sier det meste: Nineteen killed as Egypt Christians, police clash

Nineteen people were killed in Cairo Sunday when Christians, some carrying crosses and pictures of Jesus, clashed with military police, medical and security sources said, in the latest sectarian flare-up in a country in political turmoil.
Christians protesting against an attack on a church threw rocks and petrol bombs and set cars on fire, as thick smoke wafted through the streets in some of the most violent scenes since an uprising ousted ex-President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Hundreds from both sides fought with sticks on a Cairo bridge. Protests later spread to the central Tahrir Square, the focal point of the February uprising. Witnesses said the army had moved into the area.

State television and sources said 150 people were injured, without saying how many of them were protesters. It had previously said three of those killed were soldiers.

Dette er svært tendensiøs rapportering.

Plutselig dukker en tredje part opp, såvidt, uten nærmere angivelse: Hundreds from both sides fought with sticks on a Cairo bridge.

Kontrasten til APs dekning er slående. Her er det ikke vanskelig å forstå hva som skjedde. Storyen er konsistent og meningsfull: de kristne ble angrepet av bøller, og det er ukjent hvem de var. Hæren angriper kopterne, men ikke bøllene, det står det ingenting om.

The protest 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 the military rulers.
“The people want to topple the field marshall,” the protesters yelled, referring to the head of the ruling military council, Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi. Some Muslim protesters later joined in the same chant.

Armed with sticks, the Muslim assailants chased the Christian protesters from the TV building, banging metal street signs to scare them off. It was not immediately clear who the attackers were.

Gunshots rang out at the scene, where lines of riot police with shields tried to hold back hundreds of Christian protesters chanting “This is our country.”
Security forces eventually fired tear gas to disperse the protesters. The clashes then moved to nearby Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising against Mubarak. The army closed off streets around the area.

– Dette er vårt land, er ropet til kopterne. I det ligger det en desperasjon. De føler grunnen svikte under føttene. Både ved at salafister og andre angriper dem, og ved at myndighetspersoner enten spiller på uviljen mot kristne, eller at myndighetene snur ryggen til og ikke beskytter dem.

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.
“I saw the vehicle running over the protesters. Then they opened fired at us,” he said.
Khalili said protesters set fire to army vehicles when they saw them hitting the protesters.
Television footage of the riots showed some of the 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.

Riots over church attack in Egypt kill 19
By MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press