Demonstrators destroy Egypt's ruling party headquarters

Thousands of angry demonstrators destroyed the headquarters of Egypt’s ruling party in El Arish in the second day of protests over government neglect.

Dozens were injured when plainclothes police officers waded into the demonstrators with batons and tear gas and at least 40 people were arrested and two police officers injured, witnesses and officials said.

“The people are angry and frustrated because the government is not doing enough to deal with the internal problems of northern Sinai,” said community leader Haj Ahmed el-Sabayha.

The protests are the latest incident to rock the impoverished northern Sinai where Bedouins make their living smuggling weapons, drugs and people across the border to Israel and bomb attacks on tourists have resulted in heavy security crackdowns in recent years.

“The situation blew up because the problems have been mounting ever since the Taba bombing (in 2004), when the authorities arrested thousands of people from El Arish and there are no job opportunities,” said Hassan Abdullah, an activist with the left-wing Tagammu Party.

He added that fresh drinking water was only available twice a day and there were few government development projects because of the proximity to the sensitive border with Israel.

Demonstrators showed their frustration by pulling down murals of President Hosni Mubarak from the National Democratic Party’s building and setting furniture and documents on fire, said witnesses on the scene.

Police officials in Cairo confirmed that the NDP building was destroyed and furniture and other items set on fire.

The demonstrations erupted on Saturday night after a quarrel between Bedouins and a local shopkeeper turned into a gunfight wounding at least three people. Locals then gathered and demanded better government protection from the semi-nomadic Bedouins living in the surrounding desert.

When the demonstrations began again yesterday, however, it broadened to include residents’ long-standing complaints against the central government, including economic neglect – despite a tourism boom in the south of the peninsula – and the thousands of residents who are still in Cairo jails.

Egyptian authorities have blamed Bedouins for helping terrorists who have carried out a series of deadly attacks since October 2004 against the Sinai resort towns of Sharm el-Sheikh, Taba and Dahab that have killed 125 people.

In response to the attacks, officials have rounded up thousands of locals, a move that has intensified the Bedouins’ feelings of mistreatment.