Egypt's Bedouin protest mistreatment

Thousands of Bedouins burned tires and blocked roads Friday across the Sinai peninsula, protesting mistreatment by Egypt's government, said security and tribal officials.

Some 5,000 Bedouins gathered in the village of el-Massoura near the Israeli border demanding basic services and the release of the members of their community detained in security sweeps following terrorist attacks against tourism sites over the last few years.

"They keep stalling in releasing our sons," tribal leader Sheik Moussa el-Delh told The Associated Press by phone. "We lack basic services, we don't even have running water, we are not asking for too much, we just want to be treated like humans."

A security official in Cairo said protests were taking place across the Sinai and that police were under strict orders not to intervene. Local authorities will negotiate with the Bedouin, said the official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The impoverished Bedouin of northern Sinai have received little benefit from a tourist boom in the south and instead make their living smuggling goods and people across the Israeli border and growing cannabis in isolated desert valleys.

In July, clashes with security officials left one protester dead in el-Massoura.

Bedouins with militant connections were blamed for attacks on tourist sites starting in October 2004 that killed 125 people, mostly foreigners. In ensuing sweeps, thousands were jailed.

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Associated Press writer Omar Sinan contributed to this report from Cairo.