Efforts to lessen tensions in Sinai could be derailed by the sentencing of seven Bedouins to life imprisonment, reports Amirah Ibrahim Sinai's Bedouins often complain they are neglected by the government and claim it is the tough living conditions they face have led some to resort to smuggling and other criminal activities. In a case that is likely to fuel long-running tensions in the Peninsula, a court has sentenced seven Bedouin men to 35 years in prison for attacking police officers and, said the judge, "disrupting the flow of trade between Egypt and Israel". The seven were found guilty of firing at police at a voting station in May, during the mid- term Shura Council elections, in an attempt to have the poll cancelled. Human rights groups say the vote was marred by abuses while the government claims it was fair. Bedouin leaders deny the charges. "They are fabricated and politically motivated," says Moussa El-Delhi, a spokesman for the Central Sinai Group. He points out that members from one tribe, the Tarabeen, who have long complained of mistreatment at the hands of security bodies, were the only ones to face trial. "The police discriminate between the Tarabeen and other tribes. It is this discrimination that partly explains their failure to contain the dispute." Following the court ruling the Ouga border crossing with Israel came under fire from unknown assailants. No casualties were reported, though the outlet was closed for two hours. Subsequently armed vehicles surrounded the Tarabeen villages of Om Shihan, Wadi Al-Amro, Om Qutf, Al-Juhamat and Al-Khwar and inhabitants were banned from moving from one village to another. Police detained thousands of Bedouins without charge after a series of bombings at tourist resorts in south Sinai between 2004 and 2006. Relations have been strained since, with sporadic clashes with security forces. In July Bedouin tribesmen attacked a convoy of seven trucks bound for Gaza following a shootout with the police when, Bedouin say, security forces opened random fire on a village. Later the same day Bedouins tried to blow up a natural gas pipeline six miles south of Arish in northern Sinai, close to the Gaza- Egypt border. The blast caused slight damage to the pipeline but not a leak. The Bedouins claim such acts are reprisals for a security policy that includes taking women and children hostage in an attempt to force their husbands and fathers to hand themselves in to the police. Analysts say the government has now changed tack, freeing some detained Bedouin and promising economic openings to leaders to secure their allegiance as they hunt tribesmen involved in smuggling and migrant- trafficking. Since July 210 Bedouins have been freed.
