CAIRO: Continued discriminatory policies against the population of Egypt s Sinai risk giving rise to further terrorist activity in the peninsula, warned a report published recently.
In a 37-page report entitled Egypt s Sinai Question , the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) looked at the socio-economic roots of the deadly terrorist attacks that have rocked the peninsula since 2004.
The emergence of a terrorist movement where none previously existed is symptomatic of major tensions and conflicts in Sinai and of its problematic relationship to the Egyptian nation-state, ICG said. These factors must be addressed effectively, if the terrorist movement is to be definitively eliminated, said Hugh Roberts, ICG s North Africa director.
After a seven-year lull, terrorist attacks returned to Egypt in 2004, when three bombs exploded in and around the Red Sea resort of Taba, killing at least 34 people.
Around 70 were killed in July 2005 when multiple blasts struck the popular resort of Sharm El-Sheikh and 19 other people died in April 2006 when bombers hit the town of Dahab.
The bombings, as well as two smaller attacks targeting the Sinai-based Multinational Force and Observers, were claimed by Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), a group claiming links to the Al-Qaeda network.
All direct participants in the bombings were killed either in the attacks or in the subsequent violent security sweep conducted by the Egyptian authorities, leaving many questions unanswered on the perpetrators background.
The ICG report argued that such questions tended to obscure the reasons for the rise of a new breed of terrorists in the peninsula.
The think-tank said Egypt has ignored the identities of Sinai s Bedouins and minorities of Palestinian extraction, who do not identify with the Pharaonic heritage.
The government has done little or nothing to encourage participation of Sinai residents in national political life and systematically favored the development of other regions, it argued.
ICG said the government should commit itself to a new economic and social development strategy aimed clearly at benefiting the population as a whole without discrimination.
The Sinai was occupied by Israeli troops in the 1967 Middle East war and was only returned to Egyptian rule in phases under the two countries 1979 peace treaty, culminating in the handover of the resort of Taba in 1988.
