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| Africa: North |
| Sinai Bedouins Targeted in Egypt Attacks |
| 2004-10-13 |
| Salem Hameed has lived in his tin-and-wood hut at the foot of the red mountain range for most of his 42 years. Asked where he's from, his answer is not Egypt or Sinai or Taba, but al-Karadma -- the name of his clan. Many Bedouins on the Sinai Peninsula are shedding their historically nomadic ways, like Hameed, whose desert wandering always takes him back to his hut for the nearby water and electricity -- and now for his television set. They are now more likely to be running hotels, groceries or souvenir shops than herding goats. But their loyalty remains to tribe over country and, along with their intimate knowledge of the desert, that makes them natural suspects in drug-running, people-smuggling and weapons trafficking -- and now in three deadly car bombings targeting Israeli tourists. No formal arrests have been made in the attacks, which killed at least 34 people, including Egyptians, Israelis, two Italians and a Russian, as well as others whose nationalities have yet to be determined. They came at the end of a Jewish holiday, when thousands of Israelis were vacationing in the area. But investigators have said about 30 Bedouins were detained for questioning shortly after the attacks. One of them has acknowledged selling explosives that could have been used in the strikes, investigators told The Associated Press. Hameed, who works as a guard at a government-operated fuel station, said some Bedouins work in illicit trades, but that others work with the government, either as informers or in posts like his. Harming tourism in Sinai benefits none of them, he said. A Bedouin, he said, "can sell a cigarette of marijuana. This won't bother the government, it is to earn a living. But something that harmful, no. It has ruined many (Bedouins') homes." |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |