[Onthebarricades] EGYPT: Bedouin uprising over land grab, house smashing near border - protesters injured

[Andy]

http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/31/1992367.htm?section=justin

Bedouin clash with Egyptian police
Posted Tue Jul 31, 2007 7:00am AEST 

Thousands of Egyptian riot police have clashed with Bedouin protesting against the Government near the border with the Gaza Strip, and witnesses say several civilians were shot and wounded.

Witnesses and security officials say 16 civilians were injured in the clashes that lasted about three hours. Some of them were shot and others suffered teargas inhalation.

"I saw a wounded man bleeding from his stomach and arm. I do not know if he will live," said Mosaad Abou Fajer, a Bedouin political activist.

Security officials said the demonstrators, also numbering several thousand, destroyed a traffic checkpoint, threw stones and opened fire at the police. Witnesses said calm returned to the area after dark.

The demonstrators were demanding title to the farmland they work, permits to build houses, pardons for sentences imposed by military courts, the early release of imprisoned Bedouin and a waiver of debts to the state-owned agricultural bank.

The Bedouin set fire to tyres, disrupting traffic through the village of Maasoura between the north Sinai towns of Rafah and El Arish, witnesses and security sources said.

Riot police deployed armoured cars, fired teargas canisters and opened fire in the air in an attempt to disperse the protesters.

The Bedouin of north Sinai have become increasingly assertive about their grievances against the government in Cairo and have staged several large protests this year, mainly to demand the release of detainees.

The police detained thousands of Bedouin after a series of bombings at tourist resorts in Sinai between 2004 and 2006.

Mr Fajer said the authorities had set free only about 60 detainees in response to the latest protests.

- Reuters

http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast&item=070731174748.3jknz69h.php

31/07/2007 17:47 CAIRO, July 31 (AFP) 

Bedouin youth dies of wounds from clashes with Egypt police 
A Bedouin teenager died on Tuesday of bullet wounds after clashes the night before between demonstrators and Egyptian police near the border with Gaza, his family and associates said.

More than 5,000 angry Bedouins later held a protest against the killing, blocking off the main Rafah-El Arish road and burning tyre in Massura, an official with the security services told AFP.

Auda Mohammed Arafat, 15, died in El-Arish hospital from wounds after Egyptian police violently dispersed a demonstration Monday by 2,000 Bedouins protesting over fears their houses near the border will be destroyed and calling for the release of their imprisoned brethren.

"He was hit by bullets in the chest and stomach as well as by buckshot in the hands and feet," his father Mohammed Arafat told AFP.

"I consider my son a martyr so I refuse to receive condolences," he added, saying that he has asked the state prosecutor to investigate the security forces involved.

About 15 civilians and 20 policemen were wounded in the clashes in northeast Egypt that also resulted in a police traffic post being burnt.

The Bedouins, many carrying guns and firing in the air, were demonstrating in the Massura area, blocking the main road between Rafah and nearby El-Arish before being surrounded by security forces.

The protests erupted on July 22 in the same area over Bedouin fears the government would implement a decision to clear all buildings within 150 metres (yards) of the border with the Gaza Strip to foil smuggling.

While the regional governor later denied any demolitions would take place, fear of losing their homes and property has prompted the Bedouins to call for registered ownership and licensing of their land.

Currently most Bedouin land is held through informal contracts making it easy for the government to repossess plots.

The protesters were also calling for the immediate release of hundreds of Bedouins being held without charge in a campaign of arrests since a series of terrorist attacks in the Sinai between 2004 to 2006.

The entire border area has been a powderkeg in recent months with impoverished local Bedouins angry at the numerous security sweeps targeting their smuggling activities.

In April, clashes between police and Bedouins led to dozens trying to escape into Israel to avoid the crackdowns and widespread imprisonment.



©2007 AFP
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/888207.html

      Dozens hurt as Bedouin clash with Egyptian police over evacuation 
     
      By The Associated Press 
     
      Dozens of demonstrators were wounded Monday when Bedouin clashed with Egyptian police in the Sinai Peninsula to protest a government order to demolish their houses along the Gaza Strip's porous border.

      Egyptian media have been reporting a government plan to evict the Bedouins from a 150 meter strip of land along the border to prevent traffickers from digging tunnels used to smuggle weapons and people into Gaza.

      About 3000 protesters shouted anti-government slogans and demanded that authorities rescind the order. "We will not leave our land, we will make it our graves," the Bedouins chanted.


     
     
           Advertisement 
           
      Security officials said at least one police officer was wounded when protesters lobbed rocks at a police force trying to disperse them in downtown Rafah, the main town on the border.

      Police initially said it fired tear gas and used water cannons to evict demonstrators from the streets.

      A reporter at the scene then saw police firing live ammunition in the air and rubber bullets at the protesters.

      Dozens of demonstrators, possibly as many as 50, were wounded, the reporter said.

      The protest came a day after a U.S. delegation toured the area to probe reports of weapons smuggling.

      Aboul Hassan el-Sinawi, a Bedouin from the Al-Rumelat tribe in Rafah, said he was protesting because local government officials ordered him and his family to abandon their house, which he said lies some two kilometers from the border.

      "This is ridiculous, how can a two-kilometer long tunnel be built in the desert," el-Sinawi said.

      Protesters said authorities warned those who refused eviction that their homes would be demolished. They said the government is offering financial compensation for their houses, but not for trees and farmlands.

      Egypt is under pressure from the United States and Israel to stop the flow of weapons into Gaza ever since Hamas seized control of the tiny coastal territory in June.

      Two congressional delegations have inspected the border zone this month to probe reports about the tunnels along the 14-kilometer border.

      Egyptian authorities are considering a plan to demolish all homes next to the borders to prevent them from being used to hide tunnels.
     


http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38480

EGYPT: Fearing Border Protests, Cairo Meets Bedouin Demands
By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

CAIRO, Jul 10 (IPS) - Two months after the Bedouin, an indigenous people of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula began holding angry demonstrations against what they call a policy of official harassment by police, the authorities last week released dozens of tribesmen detained in mass arrests over the last three years.

But while tribal leaders welcomed the move, they still say Cairo must deliver on promises to alleviate the plight of the Sinai Bedouin, who have long complained of discrimination and economic marginalisation at the hands of the state. 

"The government has begun to implement the pledges it made to us earlier," Mohamed Abu Ras, chief spokesman for the Sinai Bedouin told IPS. "But if it doesn't continue to keep its promises, we will resume our protests and demonstrations." 

In the first week of July, the government made its first tangible concession by releasing 29 tribesmen. "The security directorate of Northern Sinai released 14 Bedouin prisoners yesterday, two days after releasing 15 others," independent daily al-Masri al-Youm reported Jul. 4. 

Since 2004, thousands of the Sinai Peninsula's tribal residents have been arrested by police without charge. In October of that year, a triple bomb attack in the Sinai resort town of Taba was followed by the mass detention of local tribesmen accused of complicity in the crime. Subsequent attacks on Sinai tourist destinations in 2005 and 2006 were also followed by the mass arrest of local Bedouin residents. 

The government continues to blame the attacks on a shadowy Islamist group Tawhid wa Jihad. Cairo also claims, with relatively little evidence, that the militant group has a number of adherents among the region's tribal inhabitants. 

In late April, local Bedouin registered their discontent with the status quo after police in Northern Sinai killed two tribesmen who allegedly tried to evade a police checkpoint. The next day, an estimated 2,000 Bedouin from across the peninsula converged on the Kerem Abu Salem border crossing -- precariously located between Egypt, Israel and the Gaza Strip -- to express their outrage. 

In this politically charged setting, protestors demanded a halt to police violations against local residents and the release of Bedouin prisoners who had been wrongfully detained. Demonstrators also demanded the economic development of the Sinai Peninsula and more employment opportunities for the local population. 

After four days of protests, a deal was struck Apr. 29 between tribal leaders and government representatives, with the latter pledging a measure of redress to longstanding Bedouin grievances. But aside from releasing two detained relatives of the slain men, the government largely failed to deliver on its promises. 

On Jun. 14, Bedouin leaders reconvened in the Northern Sinai city of Rafah, where they angrily reiterated their demands. They went on to issue an ultimatum, saying they would return to the sensitive border area if their conditions were not met by Jul. 1. 

Cairo, fearing a diplomatic incident at the high-profile border with the Gaza Strip and Israel, quickly signalled its readiness to make concessions. In the last days of June, a security delegation headed by the deputy interior minister was dispatched to negotiate with tribal leaders. 

Shortly afterwards, the government announced release of the 29 prisoners, most of whom had been detained without charge since 2004, promising additional releases in the short-term future. 

"We are actively studying the cases of the remaining detainees and we will be releasing between 100 and 200 in the coming weeks and months," North Sinai Governor Ahmed Abdel-Hamid was quoted as saying. 

Abdel-Hamid further promised that Cairo would focus its efforts on the economic development of the impoverished region. 

"The government is sparing no effort to hasten the development of Northern and Southern Sinai and the realisation of the demands of its inhabitants," the governor was quoted as saying in the Jul. 5 edition of government daily al-Gomhouriya. He also stated that Cairo had plans to establish investment companies mandated with developing land in Sinai for agricultural projects in hope of creating job opportunities for the area's tribal residents. 

In an indication of the issue's importance, even President Hosni Mubarak weighed in on the matter. In the state press, he reiterated his government's pledge to release remaining detainees "within days". 

Nevertheless, Hatem al-Buluk, a journalist and resident of Northern Sinai, disparaged Cairo's apparent magnanimity, which he views as a largely tactical response to the problem. 

"I'm not impressed -- the government only released a handful of men who didn't even face charges," he said, estimating the total number of Bedouin detainees still in prison at about 1,200. "They all should have been released a long time ago." 

Al-Buluk went on to attribute Cairo's change of heart chiefly to the new security dynamic in the Gaza Strip next door. 

"The government just wants to avoid a security headache at the border," he told IPS. "This has become all the more precarious since last month's takeover of the Gaza Strip by (Palestinian resistance faction) Hamas." 

But according to Abu Ras, Cairo's new approach to the issue has already led to improvements on the ground. 

"The situation in the Sinai has improved noticeably," he said, pointing out that a number of oppressive police checkpoints throughout Northern Sinai had been removed. "We are confident that the government will ultimately address our concerns." 

Nevertheless, he added: "But if the government fails to keep its promises, our young men are more than ready to return to the border, where they will continue to press for our demands." 

While Buluk agreed that the Bedouin's lot had been improved by the removal of checkpoints, he was less optimistic about the long-term outcome. 

"The situation will probably deteriorate again, because the principal actors -- namely, the interior ministry and the North Sinai Governorate -- are still in charge," he said. "And they are the main reasons for the problem." 

The Bedouin of the Sinai Peninsula are estimated at about 380,000, divided into some 26 different tribes. Although most Bedouin now live relatively sedentary lifestyles, they were known until recently for their nomadic way of living and relatively conservative traditions. (END/2007) 
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