Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The recent rash of kidnappings is well timed to mortify the Egyptian government. The
country's economy is already in free fall, and beach tourism is a key source of foreign cur-
rency.Sothegovernmenthasworkedtosecurethereleaseofeachbatchofkidnappedtourists
as quickly as possible. But a strange thing has happened: some of those freed tourists have
described their captivity in surprisingly glowing terms.
“Allofthisisanunforgettablememory,”NormaSupe,a63-year-oldnursefromCalifornia
who was kidnapped in February, told the Associated Press. She called her captors kind and
polite. Supe was kidnapped with another member of her tour group, 66-year-old Patti Esper-
anza,onaroadnearSaintCatherine's,thesixth-centurymonasteryatthefootofMountSinai.
Their guide, Hisham Zaki, volunteered to go along as a translator. As Zaki later recalled,
Esperanza demanded that one of her kidnappers stop smoking: “I told her, 'Are you joking?
You are kidnapped!'” But the Bedouin kidnapper cooperated, throwing his cigarette out the
car window. At one point, Esperanza recounted, the kidnappers stopped to prepare coffee for
the women, but upon learning that Esperanza does not drink coffee, they made her tea.
When I had finished my own tea, Hashem agreed to take me to the area where Esperanza
andSupehadbeenheld.Wegotinhistruckanddroveforaboutanhourbeforeparkingalong
a stretch of sand at the base of the mountains. Once brush was gathered for a fire and water
wassettoboil,wesatdownontheground,andHashemintroducedmetoAttwa,whohesaid
had kidnapped the Californian women. (Attwa did not provide his last name, but a source
in the Egyptian security services confirmed his involvement.) Attwa lives in a shack nearby
and, like most Bedouin in the area, makes a meager living smuggling drugs. He has tried in
vain to find other work, he said, but is proud that he has so far managed to keep his children
out of the drug trade.
Attwa rolled a joint as he began telling me the story of the safari. In late January, he ex-
plained, he got word that one of his sons had been killed and two other sons jailed following
an altercation with the police. Ten days later, hoping to bargain for their release, Attwa and
a friend armed themselves and drove toward Saint Catherine's. Taking Supe and Esperanza
from a tour bus proved surprisingly easy, Attwa said. “I used their translator to make them
calm, so they wouldn't fear anything. I explained that I needed to deliver a message to the
government and this is the only way I would be heard.” He added that he'd packed bread,
cheese, and juice for his captives. What would he have done if they had become hysterical?
Attwa said he would have left them, but they didn't cry, so he brought them here.
Hashem told me that the Bedouin take only a few tourists at a time because caring for lar-
ger groups could quickly get expensive. “When [a Bedouin] kidnaps some people, he must
be responsible for their hospitality when he takes them around on the safari trip—their food,
drinks, toilets, and their sleep. If he treats them badly, he will be held accountable,” Hashem
said, referring to the tribal justice system.
