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| Africa: North |
| The Bedouin connection |
| 2005-07-31 |
| When suicide bombers killed 88 people in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on July 23, many assumed it was the work of al-Qaeda. That connection is not being ruled out, but Egyptian officials are also focusing their investigation on Bedouins who may have had a very local motive: payback. The theory, says Egyptian political analyst Amr el Choubaki, is that the bombers may have been lashing out at the government for its aggressive pursuit of suspects in the October 2004 terrorist attacks that killed 34 in Taba and another Sinai resort. Egyptian officials blamed the 2004 attacks on a gang of local Bedouin led by a Palestinian extremist. Bedouins were enraged when security forces rounded up some 3,000 locals and allegedly tortured some of them in the hunt for the Taba terrorists. Though el Choubaki thinks the Sharm el-Sheikh attacks were probably orchestrated by a group related to al-Qaeda, he says, "It may be that some Bedouin participated as revenge" for their treatment after Taba. Last week, President Hosni Mubarak floated plans for tougher counterterrorism measures. Announcing his candidacy for a fifth term, Mubarak proposed replacing Egypt's draconian emergency laws, which have been criticized for encouraging human-rights abuses, with measures more streamlined to fight terrorism. Activists worry that the move could thwart political change. "I don't think Mubarak has any intention to reform," says Hisham Kassem, chief of the independent newspaper Al Masry Al Youm. "He just needed something to embellish his presidential campaign." It will take more than words to prevent another atrocity. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |