Livia Klingl is a foreign affairs expert at Austrian daily “Kurier.” She returned from Cairo last night, where she was one of dozens of journalists that have been harassed and attacked in the past two days. Klingl spoke with the International Press Institute (IPI) on Friday 4 February and gave this first hand account of the situation in Cairo.

„Until Wednesday noon [last week] it was very easy to work if you’re used to teargas and battles between police and others. The average Egyptians were all very nice, helpful, polite and then on this day, the atmosphere in Tahrir Square and around it was like a big party. People in the square gave me water for free, cakes… Those who could easily identify me as Westerner asked, “Why do you support corruption, just for your safety. Why don’t you care about our safety? You helped in Albania, Georgia, Ukraine, why don’t you help us? We know this is about Israel. If this was a democracy Israel would be safe for sure.”

I think it’s very important to mention this.

On Wednesday noon, you could see in peoples’ faces a change of atmosphere. I accidentally passed the Mustafa Mahmoud square, there were between five and ten thousand people and it took me some minutes to understand they were pro-Mubarak.  This place is about ten kilometers from Tahrir Square. Then they started moving the direction of the anti-Mubrark people, and at noon I was at one of the entrances to Tahrir and an unpleasant situation began. There were two barricades, about eight meters from each other, with claqueur on each side, people, leaders, who were paid to shout slogans. Verbal fights began between the pro- and anti-Mubarak people, and you could feel something was happening that would end in a nasty way. I went back to my hotel.

On Thursday after the big battle, shortly before the curfew I was near my hotel in a supermarket and I could see in the faces of the people that they don’t like me anymore. It was not friendly any more. Saying I was from Austria had been a door opener and this stopped. On Thursday, I went with my very good taxi driver to the 6th October bridge across the Nile, and from there you can see down to the national museum and Tahrir Square, and I told him to stop the car in the middle because I could feel that we would need to flee maybe later on.

We went on foot nearer to where you can see what is going on. I was almost beaten; men started shouting, “Where are you from?” I said in Arabic “Austria” and they screamed “Get out of my country, get out of my country.” I started running, they pushed me. They asked for my passport, and I asked, “Who are you, are you the police?” They took my passport, and I was running after them.  Then they brought me to the army in a big group.

The soldiers there were not interested in my passport at all, the soldier tried to calm the situation. This crowd was unhappy to have lost what they were hunting for. Two from the crowd apologized, and they were told to bring me back to the bridge to the driver. But in the moment I was alone with my taxi driver, the same thing happened again, with more angry men approaching me. We ran to the car and left the place. It was the first time that the taxi driver locked my door, because you could see the people in the cars next to me didn’t love me. I left on a flight yesterday [on schedule].

At airport met two Finnish colleagues, one with a black eye, one with a bloody knee – they had experienced what was possibly an ordinary robbery in Giza. A man with a machete took their mobile, and then when they were running they fell down, which is how they got hurt. It was a journalist and his photographer.

You could really feel on Thursday at noon the atmosphere changing toward you as a Westerner.  The anti-Mubarak people are civil society, open-minded. Their theory is that if this becomes a democracy, the country would be stable, tourism would return and the poor would have a better life.  I tell you, you have not seen poverty – I was in some quarters…incredible poverty.  Those who are pro-Mubarak, including the police, secret service, the poor people living from day to day – and one must say half the population is under 25 yrs old and has never experienced anything other than “Papa Mubarak” -some tourist guides, for example, were very angry. They say there are no tourists, and who is to blame? The people in Tahrir Square.”