Year: 2007

An alliance of 13 Sinai Bedouin tribes issued a statement denouncing police brutality, and threatening to stage a new protest at the borders with Palestine on 1 July if their demands are not met.

Here’s an English translation of their statement:

“We the sons of the Sinai tribes do not accept appease against our patriotism from anyone, no matter how high his position is. We are Egyptian patriots, and the Military Intelligence records prove that. However, unfortunately, we have to say with bitterness that we are treated by the security services in an inhuman way.
This includes random arrests, as there are thousands of detainees from Sinai’s sons, without trial, leaving behind families with no breadwinners. There are also fugitives sentenced in absentia on fabricated charges.
We the sons of Sinai are humiliated inside police stations, on borders crossings and checkpoints of which Sinai is full.
We are not demanding the impossible. Our demands are legitimate, as those of any other Egyptian citizen’s, including:
1- Releasing the detainees found innocent by the court
2- Revoking the sentences given by military and civilian courts in absentia on fabricated charges
3-Halting the random shootings by the security services
4- Eliminating the tyranny and control of the security services
5- Re-scheduling the northern Sinai citizens’ debts owed to the Development Bank
6- Prosecuting the (police) officers who committed crimes, in front of a fair court
7- Halting the (police) violations against the privacy of our homes and the taking of innocent women, sheiks and children as hostages
8-Discussing the issue of the land of the camp in Rafah city
9-Providing job opportunities to the sons of the tribes
If our demands are not met, we will be forced to renew our open-ended sit-in on 1 July 2007.