Why the Bedouin of the Sinai peninsula are angry
Aug 5th 2010
SINAI is best known as a place where the ancient prophet Moses met God and modern tourists frolic in fancy resorts. But for Egypt, which fought three wars against Israel to assert ownership rights that go back to Pharaonic times, this prized province has lately proved bothersome.
The latest trouble has not reached the scale of 2004-06, when a series of al-Qaeda-style bombings struck beaches in southern Sinai, killing around 130 people. Still, recent incidents that range from anti-government protests by native Sinai Bedouin, to firefights with smugglers, to deadly police fire directed at refugees, to the launching of rockets from Sinai into neighbouring Israel and Jordan, suggest a sudden surge of problems.
On August 2nd at least five short-range rockets, almost certainly fired from nearby in the Sinai desert, smacked into the cluttered northern rim of the Gulf of Aqaba, where the twin Israeli and Jordanian ports of Eilat and Aqaba sit back-to-back (see map). Four exploded harmlessly, but one killed a driver outside a Jordanian hotel and wounded five others. It was the second such attack since April. Egypt’s security forces seem unable to block what are presumably jihadist infiltrators, lugging launchers with projectiles three metres long to within a few kilometres of Egypt’s border with Israel, which stretches around 250km (160 miles).
On July 24th and again on July 29th, Egyptian police did shoot dead unarmed African migrants attempting to cross that border. The victims were refugees, from Sudan and Eritrea, seeking work or political asylum in Israel. So far this year, Egypt’s shoot-to-kill policy has claimed at least 21 lives, up from 19 for all of 2009. Citing pressure from Israel to curb the migrants, and the danger of clashes with the well-armed smugglers that guide them, Egypt has shrugged off pressure from human-rights groups and from the UN to find more humane methods of stanching the traffic.
Both the rockets and the killings of refugees point up the broader problem of strained relations between Egypt’s central government and the Sinai Bedouin, whose numbers have soared owing to high fertility rates since the peninsula was returned to Egypt in 1982 after 15 years of Israeli occupation. Native tribes in the north of the peninsula complain they have been marginalised and left impoverished, while Egyptians from the Nile Valley have colonised choice lands on its southern coast for tourism. Smuggling, their ancient pastime, has lately become more lucrative, more necessary for survival and more dangerous. The Israeli blockade of Gaza has provided one big market, via tunnels. But people, drugs and weapons all pass across Sinai’s rugged mountainous terrain, aided by the Bedouins’ tracking skills and tight kinship bonds, as well as by the susceptibility of Egypt’s police to bribery.
The Egyptian government’s longstanding suspicion of the Bedouin took a sinister turn following the 2004-06 resort bombings. In the course of crushing a jihadist cell in Sinai that was alleged to have carried them out, as many as 3,000 other people were arrested, and many were held for long periods without charge under Egypt’s harsh emergency laws. The brutal policing campaign has left lingering bitterness, which erupted earlier this year in strikes, protest marches and scattered attacks on government facilities.
Belatedly, Egypt’s ministry of interior has sought to calm the unrest. After meetings with tribal leaders, it has freed several dozen Bedouin detainees. Other ministries have promised to bring more jobs and investment. Israel, for its part, is planning to build a fence along some of its border. Perhaps, some day, the Sinai will emerge from its years in the wilderness
Aug 5th 2010
SINAI is best known as a place where the ancient prophet Moses met God and modern tourists frolic in fancy resorts. But for Egypt, which fought three wars against Israel to assert ownership rights that go back to Pharaonic times, this prized province has lately proved bothersome.
The latest trouble has not reached the scale of 2004-06, when a series of al-Qaeda-style bombings struck beaches in southern Sinai, killing around 130 people. Still, recent incidents that range from anti-government protests by native Sinai Bedouin, to firefights with smugglers, to deadly police fire directed at refugees, to the launching of rockets from Sinai into neighbouring Israel and Jordan, suggest a sudden surge of problems.
On August 2nd at least five short-range rockets, almost certainly fired from nearby in the Sinai desert, smacked into the cluttered northern rim of the Gulf of Aqaba, where the twin Israeli and Jordanian ports of Eilat and Aqaba sit back-to-back (see map). Four exploded harmlessly, but one killed a driver outside a Jordanian hotel and wounded five others. It was the second such attack since April. Egypt’s security forces seem unable to block what are presumably jihadist infiltrators, lugging launchers with projectiles three metres long to within a few kilometres of Egypt’s border with Israel, which stretches around 250km (160 miles).
On July 24th and again on July 29th, Egyptian police did shoot dead unarmed African migrants attempting to cross that border. The victims were refugees, from Sudan and Eritrea, seeking work or political asylum in Israel. So far this year, Egypt’s shoot-to-kill policy has claimed at least 21 lives, up from 19 for all of 2009. Citing pressure from Israel to curb the migrants, and the danger of clashes with the well-armed smugglers that guide them, Egypt has shrugged off pressure from human-rights groups and from the UN to find more humane methods of stanching the traffic.
Both the rockets and the killings of refugees point up the broader problem of strained relations between Egypt’s central government and the Sinai Bedouin, whose numbers have soared owing to high fertility rates since the peninsula was returned to Egypt in 1982 after 15 years of Israeli occupation. Native tribes in the north of the peninsula complain they have been marginalised and left impoverished, while Egyptians from the Nile Valley have colonised choice lands on its southern coast for tourism. Smuggling, their ancient pastime, has lately become more lucrative, more necessary for survival and more dangerous. The Israeli blockade of Gaza has provided one big market, via tunnels. But people, drugs and weapons all pass across Sinai’s rugged mountainous terrain, aided by the Bedouins’ tracking skills and tight kinship bonds, as well as by the susceptibility of Egypt’s police to bribery.
The Egyptian government’s longstanding suspicion of the Bedouin took a sinister turn following the 2004-06 resort bombings. In the course of crushing a jihadist cell in Sinai that was alleged to have carried them out, as many as 3,000 other people were arrested, and many were held for long periods without charge under Egypt’s harsh emergency laws. The brutal policing campaign has left lingering bitterness, which erupted earlier this year in strikes, protest marches and scattered attacks on government facilities.
Belatedly, Egypt’s ministry of interior has sought to calm the unrest. After meetings with tribal leaders, it has freed several dozen Bedouin detainees. Other ministries have promised to bring more jobs and investment. Israel, for its part, is planning to build a fence along some of its border. Perhaps, some day, the Sinai will emerge from its years in the wilderness
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق