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Al Tar - a fatal question of honour

It was a news of horror. 22 members of a family were killed. Killed in a bloody vendetta. The incident took place in one of the main streets in Upper Egypt. Members of another hostile family layed in ambush, stopped the two vehicles of the frist family by fire from a machine gun. Then the gunmen shot the 22 people to death with automatic guns. Some of the victims could be identified only by their finger prints. And straightaway everybody is talking about the dangerous Upper Egypt. Also Egyptian newspapers.

All this happened on 10th of August 2002 near the small village Beit Allam in the governorate Sohag some 210 kilometres north of Luxor. An incident that gets people's blood up on the West Bank of Luxor. "This is a violation of all rules. This has nothing to do with retaliatory strike. This is cold blooded murder, this is pure crime," Ali, manager of the restaurant "Africa" in El Bairat El Gezira, gets worked up. "We know the vendetta. But that is pure terrorism," Ahmed, a lawyer from the village of El Gezira, adds also upset. Both like all the people on the West Bank are afraid. Afraid about the negative headlines in newspapers all over the world. They are afraid about the image of the West Bank as a save area. And they are afraid that now tourist cancel their holidays. Because media will tell a story of the vendetta as a common thing in Upper Egypt, a story of families of gunmen, of farmers they shoot unrestrained their neighbours. Stories without background and details. Stories they tell from a threat that is not there. But killling makes the headlines.

In trouble: Members of some generations of the El Hanashat clan.
(Photos: Al Ahram Weekly)

The story. It smells a little bit as a part of a movie covering the Italian Mafia. There is the small village called Beit Allam. Most of the inhabitants are members of only two families, two clans. One is called El Hanashat the other one Abdel Halim. Both clans lived together not always in harmony but they accepted each other. Marriages between the families were not unusual. But in 1990 the tragedy took its course.

In the beginning there were words, a row between children of both families. The row became a fight. And at the end two members of the El Hanashat family died by the hand of Abdel Halim-men. A death that never was forgotten. The question of honour came up.

It needed twelve years but then die vendetta started. Helmi Ahmed and Mahmoud el Samman, both members of the El Hanashat clan, killed Hamam Abdel Halim from the hostile family. The two murderers are since April in jail. But this seemed not to be enough for the family of Abdel Halim. Even in the meantime everything seemed to be arranged peaceful.

There were a lot of meetings between members of the families, police and members of the governorate administration. On 6th of May 2002 both families signed something like a peace treaty. "What happened that happenend and it is forgotten." But it was only a vain peace.

Step by step around twelve members of the Abdel Halim clan moved to other small villages. Probably they collected there guns and other weapons they bought on the black market. And they hatched the diabollicy plan. A plan that could be a part of a script for every movie concerning the Mafia. A plan that at least claimed 22 lives.

On this fatal morning of 10th of August the members of the El Hanashat family were riding in a microbus and a taxi to the provincial capital, Sohag, to attend Ahmed and El Samman's court hearing. They were unarmed - because there was the peace treaty they believed in. But suddenly the passengers found the street blocked by gunmen. The assassin stopped the small convoi with machine-gun fire. The murderers were waiting for the cars of the El Hanashat clan hidden in a cornfield.

Before the killers shot the passengers of the two vehicles to death, they sent the taxi driver away, because he was a member of another clan, not involved in the vendetta the daily "Egyptian Gazette" reported. Then they caused a bloodbath also killing a twelve year old boy. Only three members of the El Hanashat family survived the inferno seriously injured.

Many years ago. A man is training shooting with an old pistol. Photo from a family album

After the massacre the murderers fled the bloody scene of crime into the nearby hills and cornfields. In the meantime four members of the Abdel Halim family and terrorist suspect were arrested, two of the firearms used in the killing were recovered by the police, "Al Ahram weekly" reported. But there is no sign of an end of the maybe endless vendetta. "We will never forget our feud no matter how many years go by. We've waiting twelve years before (to take revenge for the blood flood of our children in 1990), and we will do the same now. No matter what sacrifice it takes, we are determined to kill as many of them (the Abdel Halims) as were murdered by them. Even they have an army of men, we will still finish them off," one leading member of the El Hanashat was quoted by "Al Ahram weekly". And Zeid Abu Henish, one of the leaders of the family, was quoted by the newspaper: "Al Tar wala Al'Aar!" (Vendetta is better than disgrace). And he added: "This is an act of betrayal and cowardliness. It crossed the norms of feuding. They breached our agreement and broke the oath."

Beit Allam, a village is living in a state of anxiety. The children of the two clans will grow up under the pressure to become one time victims or murderers seeking revenge. First consequence of the feud: 13 women of the Abdel Halim clan married to men of the El Hanshat family were casted out of their children and husbands, were sent back to their families and will be divorced. Everything is pointing towards a conflict, a never ending war of two clans.

"Al Tar", the vendetta, in Upper Egypt this has a long tradition. "But there are strict rules. One is the unwritten norm 'an eye for an eye'. In this case the norm was undoubtelly crossed. It was a real massacre," Ali, boss of the "Africa" restaurant, said. The conflicts start mostly because of quarelling about land or money. But then it grows up to a question of honour and pride. The beginning of an endless spiral of death. And the police can't do nothing about it.

This collection of pistols looks like in a museum. The photo was done around ten years ago

Since the murder in April in Beit Allam 25 people were seriously injured by shooting. The police confiscated about 40 weapons, mostly automatic guns. They were illegal owned by farmers. But at the end this was without result. The supply of weapons is waiting on the black market. The business takes place in the desert or in secret caves of the mountains only the people of the villages know. They hide their guns often underneath in cornfields till they use them for fatal shots.

But what Ali and his collegues on the West Bank of Luxor are afraid of? "The result are a lot of bad stories about us from the West Bank. An because the media are only talking about the West Bank in general it gives the people in other countries the impression, that we all, also we in our villages, are bloodthursty bandits, in the villages are a lot of weapons. So maybe tourists decide not to visit us," he said.

However, the vendetta takes place sometimes on the West Bank of Luxor? "This happened many years ago. But we found an agreement, that quarelling will be settled by arbitration of the leaders of

the families and a troobleshooter," Ali explains a more life-saving way when families take the law in their own hands. The last-named feuds of families happened in 1977 and 1991. Three people lost their lifes. But since this time there is peace. If there a vendetta takes place outsiders are in danger? Ali: "Absolutely not! The vendetta is a very, very private matter. No members of other families they try to help as troobleshooters and of course no foreigners or tourists will be ever involved in a case like this. There is the strict rule not to involve a third party or person in the feud. Also this is a question of honour!"

On the West Bank of Luxor the tourism, the influence through visitors from other parts of the world, of different cultures ended in a changing of old fashioned rules. But in the small secludes and poor villages the traditional rules are valid. "Even young and educated people follow this rules when they come back to their villages," the newspaper "Al Akhbar" lamented. Beit Allam - since the 10th of August this name is standing for the contradictory situation, the splitting of the society in Upper Egypt. On one hand there are the more developed villages like on the West Bank of Luxor. Here the rules changed with more income and contact with tourists. On the other hand there are the poor villages far from the way where the anachronistic rules become more stronger the worse the economic situation is. A social situation that needs maybe some generations and an upgrowing economy to solve it. (Text and Fotos Wolfgang Sliwka)

The long wooden sticks, the so called "nabboot", are the traditional weapons in Upper Egypt

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