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Bedouins block Sinai highways to protest police bias Protesters call for release of two young men involved in Sharm El-Sheikh land dispute with businessman
Tens of Egyptian Bedouins in Sinai blocked two major international highways in the tourist-dependent peninsula overnight on Tuesday to protest police arrests of two young men. Earlier on Tuesday evening, police had arrested the young men who are involved in a dispute with a businessman over land in the Sharm El-Sheikh area in southern Sinai. Bedouins, who have complained for years of negligence by the central government in Cairo and police mistreatment, accused the authorities of unfairly taking the side of the businessman in the conflict. Protesters blocked both Sharm El-Sheikh – Dahab and Sharm El-Sheikh – Nueba international highways. Police have been negotiating an end to the crisis with representatives of the Bedouin protesters. In recent years, Sinai Bedouins have been using the tactic of blocking major tourist highways in the peninsula to attract government attention to issues of police brutality, unemployment and poverty.