CAIRO: In a recent trip to Upper Egypt, General Secretary of the Policies Committee of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Gamal Mubarak promised displaced Nubians homes on the banks of Nasser Lake. The promise comes more than 40 years after they were forced to flee floods resulting from the construction of the High Dam in Aswan. Mubarak's spoke at a meeting in the Nubian village of Aniba, where he was accompanied by the Ministers of Housing, Agriculture and Irrigation and Water Resources, along with members of local Nubian councils. According to Housing Minister Ahmed El-Maghraby, 2,000 housing units with full utilities will be completed within 24 months and delivered to the displaced Nubians. In addition, the Minister of Agriculture pledged 10,000 acres of agricultural land on the banks of Lake Nasser. Modern irrigation facilities will also be set up for efficient use of water resources, a plan that was echoed by Water and Irrigation Minister Mohamed Nasr El-Deen Allam. The government will not organize reverse migration, said Mubarak, but whoever wants to go back should go back. During his eight-hour trip, Mubarak granted those displaced prior to 1964, and are currently residing in Aswan, legal ownership over the land they occupy without having to pay for it, despite an earlier decision by the governor of Aswan to charge them the value of the property at the year they were displaced. What Gamal Mubarak is referring to are the 5,223 families who did not receive compensation during the displacement process in the 1960s. However, the Nubians are calling for the rebuilding of all the villages that have sunk around the lake, said Abdel Meguid Fouad, a Nubian lawyer. Egypt is home to about 3 million Nubians. Around one million live in small villages in Aswan and Qena, while the rest have either migrated to the northern governorates, namely Cairo and Alexandria, or fled the country. Originally, there were 44 Nubian villages divided into 14 districts. However, when Lake Nasser was being created as part of the construction of High Dam, the Nubian villages surrounding the area were wiped out. To offer shelter for displaced Nubians, the government built news villages in scattered areas in the south, the most important of which is Nasr El-Nuba. After the water levels of Nasser Lake gradually stabilized, many have eyed the land along its banks which stretch 350 kilometers, reaching Egypt s border with Sudan. Part of the land was sold to investors, mostly residents of the northern governorates, which caused outrage among the Nubian community since they believe they have priority over ownership of this land. This is our natural right according to international human rights charters, which stipulate that if residents are forced to leave their homes as a result of a certain event, they have the right to return as soon as that obstacle no longer exists, said Abdel Fatah, a Nubian local. According to another Nubian, Manal El-Tibi, head of the Egyptian Organization for Housing Rights, the government provides families who have descended from the north, five acres of land, but grants investors thousands of acres, while the maximum it would grant a Nubian family is a one-acre piece. Some Nubians protested against the compensated land they were given by the government, which in most cases is barren, as opposed to the fertile land that was flooded by Lake Nasser. The current Nubian villages are over-crowded; we are in desperate need of new residential areas to provide homes for the growing population, said Abdullah Abdel Fatah, secretary general of Al-Tagammu Party in Aswan. Meanwhile, representatives from the Nubian community outlined their demands to the visiting officials. These included improving infrastructure and public services at impoverished areas, as well as gaining better political representation. They also asked for the reconstruction of the Nubian villages surrounding the lake; completing the road that links Aswan to Wadi Helfa; building a sugar factory in Wadi Al-Nakra; modernizing the irrigation station and developing the hospital of Nasr El-Nuba, which is the most densely populated area. Politically, the Nubians also demanded that their constituency be moved back under Nasr El-Nuba, and separated from Kom Ombo. Mubarak s trip was overshadowed by doubts over the real intentions behind his visit. Some pundits accused Mubarak of using the Nubian file as part of his presidential succession campaign. Members of the Youth Federation for Nuba are a case in point. In a launching statement by the Nubian Movement for Change, a group created to mark Mubarak's visit, members asked, Who is Gamal Mubarak so we would ask him to solve our problems? What happened to all the pleas we sent the President? Weren t they tossed in the bin? "Gamal Mubarak is in Nuba pretending to offer solutions to the Nubian crisis, the statement continued, "but we all know that his real motive is to please all parties to pave the way to the crime of succession. We declare, as the Youth Federation for Nuba, that we are against Mubarak the son in the same way we were against the incumbent Mubarak, and against his directions and ambitions, which will be a continuation of his father s. We tell him: 'You are not welcome.'
