Egypt needs to tackle Sinai tensions: Report

Cairo, Feb 1: Egypt will not end militancy in its Sinai peninsula, where bombs have killed more than 100 people since 2004, until it tackles political and socio-economic grievances there, a report said.

The International Crisis Group said that Egypt's response to bomb attacks that targeted Red Sea tourist resorts had focused almost exclusively on security, rather than on trying to resolve simmering tensions among the Sinai population.

''The emergence of a terrorist movement where none previously existed is symptomatic of major tensions and conflicts in Sinai and of its problematic relationship to the Egyptian nation-state,'' Hugh Roberts, the think tank's North Africa Director, said in the report .

''These factors must be addressed effectively if the terrorist movement is to be definitively eliminated,'' he added.

Egypt has blamed the Sinai attacks, the last of which took place in April 2006, on a local Islamist group called al-Tawhid wal Jihad (One God and Jihad), and says the group is made up of Sinai bedouin with militant views.

Human rights groups say Egypt detained up to 2,500 people for questioning after the bombings, and that many were subjected to torture. Egypt denies this.

Courts ultimately sentenced three men to death for organising the attacks, and a handful of others have been convicted of involvement and jailed.

Foreign intelligence organisations had speculated that al Qaeda had a role in the bombings but neither the Egyptian authorities nor any authenticated al Qaeda document has established the Sinai group has any foreign links.

The Crisis Group said Egypt had engaged in a ''deeply discriminatory development strategy'' in Sinai, exacerbating discontent among the local bedouin and Palestinian populations.

It said the government had disfavoured locals in both jobs and housing, and had rapidly developed tourist infrastructure in south Sinai even as north Sinai -- home to most of the Sinai population -- remained one of the country's poorest areas.

''The government has not sought to integrate Sinai's population into the nation through a far-sighted programme responding to their needs,'' the report said.

''Instead, it has promoted settlement of Nile Valley migrants, whom it has systematically favoured, while it has done little or nothing to encourage participation of Sinai residents in national political life,'' it added.

The report said Egypt could change negative attitudes toward the state with a new development plan that addresses grievances and acknowledges ''Sinai's distinct cultural and linguistic traditions'' as part of Egypt's national heritage.

It said the Sinai population should also be integrated into national political life, but said that would be dependent on political reforms that ''are not present on the horizon''.

Reuters