Egypt's Copts direct their fury at the army

Stretched out over his friend's coffin, Tony's drawn out sobs flow into raging anger at the mere mention of Egypt's army, a day after clashes between Christians and security forces left 25 people dead.

Tony and hundreds of other Christians had gathered at the Coptic Hospital in central Cairo, which housed the bodies of most of the victims who died during Sunday's fighting.

Coptic demonstrators had taken to the streets to denounce a recent attack on a church in the southern city of Aswan, before the protest in Cairo's Maspero neighbourhood degenerated into violence.

Outside the hospital, protesters chant slogans against the military council which has been in power since president Hosni Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising in February.

"Down with the military! Down with the field marshal! The people want the execution of the field marshal", cries the crowd, referring to Hussein Tantawi who heads the ruling military council.

"SOS: Copts under attack from the army of Egypt," reads one banner.

Egypt's Copts, who make up around 10 percent of the 80-million population, have long complained of systematic discrimination in the mainly Muslim country, where Islamism has become increasingly visible.

At the hospital, friends and families of the victims insist the army is responsible for Sunday's deadly events.

One woman speaking on her mobile phone is in tears: she had just lost her fiance.

"He was crushed by an armoured personnel vehicle. It's the army that killed him," says her mother.

"The army said we were armed. It's completely wrong. Three groups attacked us in Maspero: police, army and hired thugs," another Copt, Abdullah Morgane, 32, tells AFP.

"It was all planned by the army and the police," he charges.

During the early stage of the clashes, state television had announced that three army soldiers had been "martyred" after they were shot by Coptic demonstrators.

"I saw the army vehicles drive into the demonstrators at full speed. I saw people being crushed. When some managed to escape, anti-riot police beat them up," says Samuel Suleiman, 28.

In the hospital's laundry room and among the washing machines, empty coffins lay on the floor covered in floral arrangements shaped into crosses, waiting for the bodies after their autopsies.

His eyes red, Tony flips between rage and sadness as he strokes a photo of his friend Mina Daniel who died on Sunday from gunshot wounds.

Tony tells how Mina was mistrustful of the military.

"When he used to hear people chant 'the army and the people are one,' he would tell me 'No, you'll see, the army is always on the side of the police.' And he was right," says Tony.

Ehab Ramzi, a Coptic lawyer, addresses the crowd at the hospital.

"The martyrs must go through an autopsy so we can determine that they were indeed killed and did not die of natural causes, but they have to be taken elsewhere because the hospital here is not equipped," he says.

When Ramzi suggests that the bodies be moved to the public forensics department nearby, there is immediate outcry.

"Never! If we go, it will be a massacre," says one of the protesters.

"Not only do they have a problem with us, but now they think we shot the army it will be a massacre," adds another.

Finally Ramzi tells AFP that the forensics team will come to the Coptic Hospital instead. Behind him as he speaks, more blocks of ice are brought in for the morgue.

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