CAIRO: The Bedouins in Sinai plan to arrange a conference on Monday to demand justice from authorities for the victims of recent violent clashes between tribes and security forces near the Egypt-Israeli border.
According to sources in the area, heads of the tribes met Friday to decide on the representatives who will attend on behalf of the five main Bedouin tribes in North Sinai.
The venue for the conference is being kept under wraps for security reasons, as the tribes are reticent to announce it after a previous conference was scuppered before it took place.
According to Sinai-based journalist and activist Mostafa Singer, local officials have been initiating contact with the tribes to calm things down but the Bedouin response has been one of mistrust as the prevalent feeling was that the officials were merely paying lip service as opposed to making concrete offers.
The Bedouin are demanding full justice for their clansmen who were killed, and the mood today is if the authorities don’t give it to us we will take it with our own hands, he said.
A policeman was shot as a checkpoint in Sinai Thursday in the latest act of violence between Bedouins and security forces which was sparked by the death of a Bedouin on Monday.
Sinai’s Bedouins were angered by the death of a member of the Tarabeen tribe on Monday after he turned to drive away from a police checkpoint. His companion in the vehicle is currently being held in Al-Arish hospital as he receives treatment.
The shootings Monday triggered a mass wave of violent protest by Bedouins all along the border, as they burnt tires and discharged gunshots. Twelve people were injured in the immediate fallout, including four policemen.
In two separate incidents, one near Rafah and another further south, angry Bedouins briefly kidnapped 25 and then 51 policemen in checkpoints along 15 km of the border before releasing them, the latest batch being released at dawn on Wednesday.
It was after the release of the kidnapped policemen along the 36 km line of the Egypt-Israel border that police shot and killed three of the protesting Bedouins, two of them from the Tarabeen tribe.
It also emerged that during the clashes between Bedouins and security forces on Tuesday when police stations were briefly taken by the Bedouins that a number of guns and ammunition were seized by the protestors.
According to AFP, Bedouins seized 72 rifles and 20,000 bullets from a police station in Wadi Al-Azareq as well as night time goggles and walkie-talkies. An official told AFP that the search was continuing for the missing equipment.
It was at this police station that three Bedouins from Sinai were killed Tuesday night as clashes continued for a second day between police and locals along the Egyptian-Israeli border before further police reinforcements restored some semblance of calm on Wednesday. Thirty policemen were also wounded in the clashes.
