Global IssuesEGYPT: Cornered Bedouin Play the Border Card
Since June, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula has witnessed an unusual flurry of local crises. The peninsula shares a border with both the Gaza Strip and Israel, and is inhabited mostly by the Bedouin tribe.
The Bedouin are an indigenous people living in the Sinai, Saharan and Arab deserts. Their numbers in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, are estimated at some 380,000, divided into about 26 different tribes.
'Sinai is by nature a sensitive region because of its proximity to occupied Palestine next door,' Amr Hashem Rabie, analyst at the semi-official Al- Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies told IPS. 'What's more, there's a longstanding crisis of trust between the local tribes and police.'
Late last month, 'limited clashes' were reported between Bedouin and security forces following attempts by the state to expel Bedouin from land in Central Sinai.
Only a week earlier, seven Bedouin were sentenced to a total of 35 years in prison for attacking police officers in May and 'disrupting the flow of trade between Egypt and Israel,' according to reports in the state press.
Bedouin leaders deny the charges. 'They are fabricated and politically motivated,' Moussa al-Delha, spokesman for the tribes of Central Sinai, was quoted as saying.
Immediately following the court ruling, the Egypt-Israel Al-Auja commercial crossing was fired upon by unknown assailants, temporarily halting border traffic. Shortly afterwards, police armoured vehicles surrounded several towns associated with the Tarabeen tribe and enforced a curfew in the area.
It wasn't the first time this year for the peninsula to be shaken by armed disturbances.
In June, police launched a campaign in Central Sinai aimed at capturing wanted Bedouin tribesmen. Security forces deployed armoured vehicles from which they were said to have fired haphazardly on Bedouin homes in the region of Wadi Aamer.
Tribesmen retaliated in July by firing on a convoy of Gaza-bound trucks and attempting to blow up a vital gas pipeline not far from the border.
Traditionally strained at best, the government's relationship with the tribes of Sinai has deteriorated markedly over the last six years. In 2004, a triple bomb attack in the resort town of Taba -- which killed 34 people -- was followed by the mass detention of local tribesmen.
In 2005, bomb attacks killed 88 in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el- Sheikh; and in 2006, dozens were killed in a spate of bombings in the tourist village Dahab. Again, the attacks were followed by the mass arrest of local residents, despite the absence of any evidence of Bedouin involvement in the crimes.
According to Khalil Gabr, coordinator of the Popular Committee for Citizens' Rights for Central and North Sinai, the current unrest can be traced back to the heavy-handed police response in the wake of the attacks.
'Everything that's happening in Sinai now is related to the mass arrests that followed the bombings,' Gabr told IPS. 'Ever since then, police have been treating the Bedouin population with contempt and violence.
'The state,' he added, 'is entirely responsible for the current state of chaos in the peninsula.'
Tribal leaders have repeatedly demanded a halt to police violations against local residents, and the release of Bedouin prisoners detained without charge since the spate of bombings. Of the latter, there are still some 4,000 languishing in police custody, according to Bedouin spokesmen.
Bedouin activists also demand the economic development of the peninsula, which has been historically neglected by the central government, as well as more employment opportunities for the local population.
Following the attempted sabotage of the gas pipeline -- through which Egyptian natural gas flows to buyers in Israel -- the Interior Ministry vowed to release an unspecified number of Bedouin detainees. In early September, ruling party officials met with tribal leaders to hear Bedouin grievances and hammer out a temporary truce.
'But the truce lasted only two weeks due to provocations by the police,' said Gabr. 'Although many in Cairo recognise our claims as legitimate, the police in Sinai are insistent on subjugating the Bedouin by force -- a state of affairs that can only lead to more tension.'
'Nevertheless, as it currently stands, the police have completely withdrawn from Central Sinai,' added Gabr.
Gabr believes that clear and present 'threats to Egypt's strategic interests', such as commercial crossings and gas pipelines, ultimately prompted the government to offer the Bedouin concessions, including the subsequent release of more than 100 detained tribesmen.
'The Bedouin have learned to exploit the government's vulnerabilities,' said Rabie. 'For example, they'll stage protests on the border with Israel, block the commercial road to Al-Auja, or threaten the gas lines as a means of pressuring the government to address their grievances.'
'What's more, Bedouin traditionally don't take kindly to being given orders,' he added. 'And police methods in Sinai tend to be violent and cruel.'
Under the terms of the 1979 Camp David peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, the former is prohibited from deploying significant numbers of police or soldiers on its north-western frontier. Cairo is also keen to avoid any diplomatic or political escalations on its fraught border with Israel.
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service