Bedouin tribes in North Sinai have denied all links to Al-Qaeda, reports Serene Assir Members of Bedouin tribes in North Sinai held a press conference in Al-Agra near Rafah this week, during which they denied any Al-Qaeda activity in the area and demanded that the government clarify whether or not it has accused them of having links to the terrorist organisation. "After the Sinai blasts, the Egyptian authorities repeatedly denied any Al-Qaeda presence in Sinai, or any Al-Qaeda linkage to those terrorist attacks," tribal spokesman Salah El-Bulk told Al-Ahram Weekly. "So how is it that after allegations that the government has accused the residents of Sinai of having links to Al-Qaeda have been published the government is silent?" After an article appeared on the Israeli website DebkaFile on 4 August, several other media outlets including the independent daily Al-Masri Al-Yom published allegations that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had accused seven Bedouin families of having financial links to Al-Qaeda. "Egyptian officials are now telling Israeli and US officials that to draw a barrier between Gaza and the Egyptian peninsula and choke off the flow of Al-Qaeda operatives into Gaza 7,500 special operations troops must be urgently sent out," the DebkaFile article read. Moussa El-Krayem, who also spoke at the Sinai press conference, said that although DebkaFile 's pro-Zionist affiliations were clear, the Bedouin were disturbed by the government's silence over the allegations. "If allegations of this nature are made, then any responsible body will immediately act on them. There are no terrorists here. We are normal people, who respect humanity," El-Krayem said. For their part, state authorities in Sinai say it would be unwise to attach too much importance to the allegations, and deny that any such accusations have been made. "A government cannot be expected to respond to each and every article that is published on the Internet," North Sinai Governor Ahmed Abdel-Hamid told the Weekly. "In any case, the allegations that Mubarak ever accused the Bedouin tribes of involvement with Al-Qaeda are false. There is no Al-Qaeda in Sinai. And if it was the Mossad that provided the ( DebkaFile ) website with that information, then it is up to the corresponding Egyptian authorities to deal with the Mossad -- not with the allegations in the article." Recent months have seen demands for the creation of different relations between the state and the residents of North Sinai, expressed by unrest among the Bedouin over the continued imprisonment without charge of what they say are approximately 2,500 people captured in the wake of the blasts targeting resorts in South Sinai that followed the attack on Taba in October 2004. The government says there are barely more than 100 detainees, and that it is in the process of freeing those still held. Yet, the timing of the unrest is such that, with Gaza under siege for over two months following the Israeli closure of the Rafah terminal, and with perceived uncertainty over the future of Egypt's position on Gaza, residents of North Sinai worry they may bear the brunt of policy changes. To date it remains unclear how or when the government plans to demolish homes within a 150 metre range of the Egypt-Gaza border and turn the area into a military zone. While the local authority has denied the plans, intelligence officials in Cairo speaking to the Weekly have indicated that the demolition will indeed take place. Such lack of clarity has spurred anger among residents of North Sinai. One attendee at the press conference accused organisers of being "blind to the fact that we will be turned into refugees, just like the Palestinians and the Iraqis." However, the organisers of the conference did not object outright to the demolition plans, "so long as they assist in the protection of Egypt's state security," said El-Bulk. "What we do demand, however, is greater clarity from the government, and for our right to shelter to be protected." Complicating the issue is the matter of ownership in North Sinai, one which directly reflects the unease created by the existence of two parallel systems in the area -- one central and state-oriented and another tribal that predates it. "The state refuses to give me documents proving my ownership of this land," said one resident of Al-Mehdiyye, near Rafah, speaking to the Weekly on condition of anonymity. "My family has owned the land for generations -- what the state's policy means is that the authorities can come in and claim my land at any point, leaving me with no legal rights to demand it back." However, participants at this week's press conference agreed that the answer to the question of what lies ahead for the population of North Sinai depends on developments in regional politics. "We hope our role will be to clarify to the state that there is a conspiracy to sow tension between the government and the people" through reports such as that on the Israeli website, El-Bulk said.
