Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05CAIRO1978
2005-03-14 14:46:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Cairo
Cable title:  

INTERNAL SECURITY IN SINAI--AN UPDATE

Tags:  PTER PINS PGOV PHUM ASEC KCRM EG 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 001978 

SIPDIS

DUBAI FOR CG
NSC STAFF FOR POUNDS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/14/2015
TAGS: PTER PINS PGOV PHUM ASEC KCRM EG
SUBJECT: INTERNAL SECURITY IN SINAI--AN UPDATE

REF: A. CAIRO 707 (NOTAL)

B. 04 CAIRO 9275 (NOTAL)

C. 04 CAIRO 8590 (NOTAL)

D. 04 CAIRO 7851 (NOTAL)

Classified by DCM Gordon Gray for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

-------
Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 001978

SIPDIS

DUBAI FOR CG
NSC STAFF FOR POUNDS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/14/2015
TAGS: PTER PINS PGOV PHUM ASEC KCRM EG
SUBJECT: INTERNAL SECURITY IN SINAI--AN UPDATE

REF: A. CAIRO 707 (NOTAL)

B. 04 CAIRO 9275 (NOTAL)

C. 04 CAIRO 8590 (NOTAL)

D. 04 CAIRO 7851 (NOTAL)

Classified by DCM Gordon Gray for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) The effects of the October 7, 2004 terror bombings
continue to ripple through the Sinai Peninsula, even as
tourism rebounds. In January the security services and
tribal leaders formally agreed to work together against
criminal activities by tribesmen. In early February, a
combined force of security personnel and irregular Bedouin
militia/guides cornered and killed three suspects linked to
the bombing near the town of Ras Sidr. These killings appear
to have accounted for fugitive suspects that the GOE publicly
identified in October 2004 as responsible for the terror
attacks, but the issue of mass detentions of others connected
to the investigation continues to raise questions. At the
same time, local citizens and human rights groups have kept
up their criticism of the GOE's alleged mass detentions of
terror suspects, including through vocal and disruptive
protests in the northern Sinai capital of Al-Arish. Although
charges of human rights abuses, as reported in a February
report by Human Rights Watch, do nothing to boost the GOE's
human rights credentials, the apparent development of closer
security cooperation between the GOE and the Sinai Bedouin
tribes may have significant security-related benefits in the
future. End summary.

--------------
New Security Pact Between Bedouins and GOE...
--------------


2. (SBU) In January, Sinai Bedouin tribal elders negotiated
and signed a "Pledge Document" which committed the Bedouin
leadership to report to the authorities any criminal
activities by tribal members. Previously, the Bedouin dealt
internally with law-breaking, a process that was
unsatisfactory to the GOE. Some Bedouin have voiced
discomfort with the new agreement, arguing that it undoes a
centuries-old system of tribal justice and threatens to spark

additional conflict. In addition, the GOE has sought to play
a larger role in the selection of tribal leaders, replacing
the traditional tribal consensus system with a process that
"recommends" GOE approved leaders.

--------------
and the Security Forces Kill Three Suspects
--------------


3. (SBU) Local press and wire services indicate that
security forces, assisted by armed Bedouin guides, in early
February killed three terror bombing suspects (Hammad Gaman
Gomah Tarabeen, Mohammad Abdel Rahman Badawi, and an
unidentified third man) in gun battles near Ras Sidr on
Sinai's western coast, after the trio's suspicious activity
attracted the attention of a camel herder who notified
police. One policeman died and several were wounded in the
fight with the suspects. A February 5 account asserted that
600 security personnel continued to pursue an additional
three suspects, and that 100 armed Bedouin were assisting
police. Another wire service report on February 6 said that
Sheikh Attiyah al-Kibriti led the Bedouin forces working with
the GOE. (Note: In late October 2004, just weeks after the
terror bombings, the Interior Ministry (ref D) identified the
suspects in the bombings as nine Sinai residents, including
two men who had died in the Taba blast, five who were
arrested in October, and two who were still at large. Since
the press reports in early February about the killing of the
additional three suspects, the GOE has made no public
announcements about the status of the investigation. End
note.)

-------------- --------------
Bedouin Women and Human Rights Watch Slam the GOE
-------------- --------------


4. (SBU) In a February 22 press conference in Cairo, Human
Rights Watch (HRW) unveiled its latest report on Egypt, "Mass
Arrests and Torture in Sinai." The report largely reiterated
the assertions of Egyptian human rights groups (reported ref
C) first made in November 2004. The major contribution of
the HRW report appears to be consolidating the multiple
strands of allegations into a coherent English-language
account of the detentions, supplemented by interviews with
approximately 20 recently released detainees and two alleged
victims of torture. The report's release generated modest
coverage by local opposition papers and the international
wire services, but it does not seem to have sparked any major
new interest in the detentions.


5. (SBU) Subsequent to the release of the report, female
relatives of men alleged to be detained by the GOE have
conducted protests in Al-Arish. In late February, scores of
angry women, clad in the enveloping black abayas favored by
Bedouin women, stormed into a local council meeting in
Al-Arish attended by North Sinai Governor Ahmad Abdel Hamid
to demand official action regarding their detained men-folk.
At the Governor's direction, the police did not break up the
demonstration. The women presented a list of 90 names of
detainees to the Governor, and he agreed to attend to the
issue. (Note: Ref A described a protest that ended in
teargas and arrests in Al-Arish in January. End note.) On
March 4, Al-Jazeera reported that the GOE had recently
released 11 detainees, in addition to 90 who were released in
January. Most recently, on March 11 after Friday prayers in
Al-Arish, according to wire service reports, 400 protestors,
including 200 women, clashed with police who arrested five
protestors. The latest protests including charges that the
police were using torture against detainees.

-------------- --------------
Comment: Redrawing the Internal Security Map in Sinai
-------------- --------------


6. (C) The total number of detainees linked to the
investigation remains uncertain due to the GOE's customary
lack of tranparency in such matters. Our best assessment is
that the total number detained is significantly less than the
several thousand claimed by HRW and others, but we also note
that past GOE practice in comparable security cases has been
to question and detain large numbers of people believed to
have any knowledge of particular security cases. The
persistence of the women in Al-Arish as they demand the
release of their relatives provides a useful indicator of the
scale of the detentions.


7. (C) The Bedouin have historically had an uneasy
relationship with whatever central government has held
sovereignty over the Sinai. Since the return of the
peninsula from Israel to the GOE in 1979, many Bedouin, as
well as independent analysts, have argued that GOE
development policies have disadvantaged the Bedouin
inhabitants by favoring Egyptian investors and immigrants
from "the Wadi," i.e., the Nile Valley. This situation led
to considerable resentment of Cairo by some Bedouin, and is
used by some analysts to explain Bedouin involvement in crime
(including smuggling of narcotics, stolen vehicles, weapons,
and people). In December, a senior police official in Sinai
investigating Bedouin involvement in a multiple homicide and
robbery commented to a visiting USG delegation that the only
good Bedouin was a dead Bedouin. This offhand remark did
not, of course, reflect official policy, but it does suggest
the depth of the tensions between the Sinai Bedouin and
Egyptian officialdom. Similarly, Bedouin in Sinai,
especially those residing in the trash-strewn shanty
settlements outside towns like Nuweiba and Dahab, where
economic life revolves around upscale tourist resorts, have
expressed their deep resentment of GOE development.


8. (C) As noted in ref B, the October 7 terror bombings in
Taba and Ras Shaitan seem to have energized the GOE to
re-examine the internal security situation in Sinai. The
wide-ranging detentions, as well as the security pact and the
tactical cooperation between tribal guides and the security
forces, are evidence of a new attention by the GOE to
ensuring the security of the peninsula. Whether or not these
tough measures succeed in the long run will be determined by
a host of related issues, including the degree to which the
GOE is able to share the benefits of the bonanza of tourism
development that continues to thrive in Sinai the Bedouin
population. End comment.


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