Sinai Bedouins want the government to acknowledge their efforts, Amirah Ibrahim reports As tourists started trickling back to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula resorts following the revolution, Bedouin tribes continued demanding that the authorities value their contribution to protecting the peninsula during the unrest. On Friday, hundreds of Bedouin workers continued a sit-in that started days earlier at the MFO headquarters in north and south Sinai. More than 800 workers staged a sit-in at MFO camps -- 500 in Al-Gura and 300 in Sharm El-Sheikh. The workers demanded better working conditions, an increase in salaries and securing their homes against vandals. The MFO is an independent international force formed by Egypt and Israel following the 1979 peace accord to monitor the borders between the two countries. It consists of troops from the US, France, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand and Uruguay. The Bedouins demanded a 100 per cent increase in salary but the companies which hired them offered only a 10 per cent hike. "The workers' salary ranges from LE400 to LE1,000 monthly while some civil employees are paid between LE12,000 and LE15,000. This is unfair," one worker complained. The MFO suspended its mission in the Sinai Peninsula after negotiations proved unsuccessful between the workers and the firms. The government has tried to meet the demands of the Bedouins. Still, a meeting of Bedouins was held publicly last week to demand the release of all Bedouin detainees over the past years. Dozens of tribesmen organised a number of sit-ins in major cities and towns, particularly in North Sinai where hundreds of Bedouins have been imprisoned for years without trial following bomb attacks in Dahab and Sharm El-Sheikh resorts in 2004. A recent leak of documents by State Security Intelligence (SSI) revealed a possible link of the bombing to Gamal Mubarak, son of the former president. One document revealed that the security department planned the attacks, which killed 88 people, including tourists. The recent state security document stoked the flames among Bedouins who gathered on Monday to demand a new investigation into the attacks and demanded an immediate release of all Bedouin detainees. Dozens of angry Bedouins, including women and children, blocked the main road to Sheikh Zowayed with stones and rocks and set tires on fire, demanding the release of their relatives who are jailed in Upper Egypt prisons in Qena and Al-Wadi Al-Gadid governorates. Thousands of protesters gathered in the city of Arish demanding the dissolution of the SSI and the release of political prisoners. The demonstrators marched towards the governorate building in Arish, in North Sinai. Some protesters carried photographs of political prisoners while others chanted, "Bring down the state security forces". The protesters also demanded that documents in SSI buildings be protected after reports that papers incriminating security officers and political figures were being destroyed in other parts of the country. On Tuesday, tribal sheikhs and families of detainees met with the governor's national security assistant Sherif Ismail who promised that the detainees would be released within 10 days. "All the cases will be reviewed thoroughly with the aim of releasing immediately those who have been imprisoned without evidence," Ismail said. The Higher Council of the Armed Forces which has had relative success with the Bedouins, responded by releasing dozens of Bedouin detainees, bringing the total to 136. On Tuesday, hundreds of Bedouins of the Al-Tarabeen tribe attacked a cement factory in central Sinai owned by prominent businessman Hassan Rateb, considered the biggest investor in North Sinai. "Rateb took our lands by force and built the factory on them without giving the Bedouins their dues," Moussa Al-Dalh, a young Al-Tarabeen tribal sheikh, said. Bedouins kidnapped the manager of the factory, Wahid Imam, for a few hours before releasing him, stealing his car and mobile phones. "Rateb built three factories to produce cement and sold them to two French companies. He refused to negotiate over the original rights of the Bedouins because he had close contacts with the ousted regime," Al-Dalh added. The unrest in Sinai forced the government to send an archaeological mission to transport artefacts from the Qantara East storage facility in Sinai to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo to protect Egypt's antiquities. "The transported collection includes artefacts that belong to the planned Port Said, Sharm El-Sheikh and Taba museums as well as Sinai artefacts that were retrieved from Israel following the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty," said Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, head of antiquities of Alexandria and Lower Egypt. "The objects filled 30 trucks and arrived safely at the Egyptian museum with the protection of police and army forces," he added. Two weeks ago the Qantara East storehouse was looted of 550 pieces. Two days following the theft, the Ministry of Antiquities retrieved 292 items.
