Some Egyptian Bedouins are helping the security forces for a straightforward reason: terrorists put people out of work. Last October 7th's Sinai Hilton bombing crashed the local tourist economy ending lucrative jobs for many of local Bedouin tribesmen.
Shaken from their traditional seclusion by last year's Egyptian beach resort car bombings, Bedouins in Sinai are leading the hunt for militants wanted in the attacks, guiding police through mountains and deserts to find the suspected culprits.
Two of the suspects were shot dead Saturday in a valley near Ras Sudr, about 90 miles southeast of Cairo, following a five-day police manhunt led by Bedouins. The search began after a gun battle killed another wanted militant Tuesday.
Bedouin tribesman, descendants of Gulf Arabs who crossed into Sinai centuries ago, have suffered greatly after the Oct. 7 attacks on the Taba Hilton Hotel and beach camps in nearby Ras Shitan that killed 34 people.
Police rounded up thousands of people including many Bedouins for questioning after the attacks, while the tourism industry, which many of Sinai's Arab nomads rely on for income, has since taken a battering.
Sheik Attiyah al-Kebriti, a local Bedouin leader in his 50s, led an estimated force of 500 men to guide security forces on the trail of the militants through rugged mountain terrain.
"Bedouins were responsible for following the trail and the government was overseeing the whole operation," al-Kebriti said. "The suspects appeared in the wrong terrain."
My experience in Egypt was that the Bedouin people are treated with extreme disdain by their countrymen from the more urban Nile region. The cooperation of the Sinai Bedu with the "mainland" security forces marks a significant change in that area's culture. This might also signal the beginning of a new blood feud between the Sinai Bedu and the Palestinians.
Patrick_Lasswell
Portland, OR
January 2003
FEB 07, 2005 01:51 PM