CAIRO: More Bedouin detainees are to be released, the interior ministry was reported saying by state-run media on Saturday. It is part of the government's efforts to reduce years of tension between the Bedouin population and the government in the Sinai Peninsula. Since Interior Minister Habib el-Adly met with local tribal leaders in July to look for ways of calming the area, sources have reported that around 200 Bedouin have been released from police custody. Ashraf Ayoub of the Popular Committee for North Sinai, told Bikya Masr that the move to free Bedouin detainees is a “step in the right direction,” but added that more dialogue is needed to end the ongoing tensions that continue to put Bedouin in precarious positions. “We have seen the government appears ready to open a real discussion about our needs and desires, but until we see greater action on the ground, the freeing of detainees is not enough,” he said. The Bedouin in Sinai complain that the government in Cairo neglects their needs and continues to push them into difficult living conditions that have led to an increase in smuggling and other activities the Egyptian government says is criminal. In June, tribesmen angry at heavy-handed security tactics set tires on fire near a pipeline supplying natural gas to Syria and Jordan. The state responded with a change in tactics, including the release of some detained Bedouin. Despite the moves, unrest continues. Armed and masked Bedouin tribesmen hijacked a bus in late July from an industrial area in central Sinai. The latest decision to free detainees coincided with Eid al-Fitr, which ends the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and “in the framework of the efforts being made to free all Bedouin detainees,” the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) said. Some 400 Bedouin remain behind bars, many of whom have been detained under Egypt's controversial emergency law, which allows the government to arrest and hold people indefinitely without charge. The most public round up occurred after a string of Sinai bombings from 2004-2006 in resort areas along the Red Sea. The government accused Bedouin of being instrumental in the attacks that left scores dead, but Bedouin sources have said the crackdown was “too much” and left much of the population on edge. “What has happened is that the government has arrested almost every single young man in the past five years without charge and the government has tried to hold hostage our women to get confessions. It is not right,” added Ayoub. BM
