Follow Up : Hala'ib Again And Again

"I know some readers have got sick from that topic but honestly the debate about Hala'ib's Egyptianhood is not that bad on the contrary I was motivated to search and read more and more because I do believe the case is in our side and Hala'ib is part of Egypt , I had to publish this now because I could not tolerate the claims of some lately in my blog that Egypt's so called occupation to Hala'ib is just like Israel's occupation to the occupied territories ; a disgusting sick claim that makes you wonder about the real motives of some"

When I was little girl , I was once told  by someone whom used to work in the national security that the Hala'ib case is in our side if we want to go to the IJC , we can go but there was no need to do so because we are all Arabs  and the relations between Egypt and Sudan were more stronger than that, that was before Mubarak's assassination attempt of course.

I am discussing the matter this time again with new historical legal details.  The Sudanese team says that the Baja and Basheriya tribes are originally Sudanese tribes and that's why it is Sudanese and also the maps internationally recognize the area as Sudanese "actually as disputed area"; well the tribes origins I am afraid are not enough to say that the territories are following to other countries as we already have tribes in Sinai that got branches in Gaza yet that did not say that Arish is not ours and also we got tribes in the West that got branches and origins in Libya yet this does not say that Sallum is not ours. These tribes in the end consider themselves as nomads , they are Egyptians as much as they are Sudanese. Egypt has long history of sovereignty on this area , a stable and long sovereignty .

Going back to history if we are speaking about maps then , at the Middle ages you find Egypt had ruled the city of Aydhab at latitude 22 and 20 kilometers from Hala'ib since the Fatimids. Reading more about the history of Aydhab , I became more familiar with the importance of this area of Egypt.

Now I got scans from my great grandfather geography book , it had been printed in year 1902 for Tewfikeih training college, as you can see it was printed in England and written by a British professor whose name was H.W Mardon.

As you can see our borders end at latitude 22 at Hala'ib which goes to our agreement with UK and the Othman Empire. It even recognized Wadi Khalfa as an Egyptian territory.

This was an official geography book from year 1902. In 1904 the minister of interior in Egypt delegated the governor of Khartoum to administrate Hala'ib due to the fact it is closer to Hala'ib and to facilitate the movement of officials , we are speaking about 1904 for God sake.  Internationally this delegation order is not recognized because it is considered as a local internal one , Egypt and Sudan were one country officially then. Strangely we got a British map for Egypt and Sudan in 1910 said otherwise from 1910. Since 1914 the printed maps in Sudan began to neglect borders and presented as administrative boundaries , of course that move was sponsored by the British.

In 1915 the first mining contracts in the area were granted by the Egyptian state not by the Khartoum governor. After the 1919 revolution and our independence in 1922 the talk started about the future of Sudan ,the Wafd government insisted on Sudan but of course Saad Pasha cabinet had to resign after the assassination of Sir Lee Stack , the governor general of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Saad Pasha resigned after refusing to withdraw the Egyptian army from Sudan and to pay a compensation to the British government. According to some sources starting from year 1922 UK started to play the maps game . In 1928 the British foreign affairs ministry  commissioned officially Rand McNalley to draw administrative boundaries in the Hala'ib section. UK did not waste its time to make us enemies in the country portraying Mohamed Ali family as devils who fought the Mahdi revolution.

In 1952 we found a book called "Sudan Question' by famous Sudanese journalist Mekki Abbas which discussed the dispute of the Anglo-Egyptian condominium including a map that identities Hala'ib as an Egyptian territory. Why would a journalist and man like Abbas include Hala'ib as an Egypt territory if it were not so !!?? Abbas was not a friend to the regime in Cairo as it opposed his appointment as regional director of UNESCO in Cairo when he joined the UN later for your information.

In 1954 the Egyptian state founded a mining company in Hala'ib called Elba company tribute to Elba mount and according to my knowledge more than 82 companies made agreements through all those years with the Egyptian state regarding mining and excavation rights in the area. Later in the 1950s the Sudanese government then went to the security council in what I consider a political move from the West in the end in order to teach Nasser a lesson after the Suez Canal.

We are not afraid to go to the IJC yet unlike some minority of Sudanese we do not want it to reach to that level because we and the Sudanese were one once , we consider them our people , our natural extension in the South whom we should not have left in 1954. We are ready to go to the IJC but unfortunately I can't trust this current regime now as it is excelled in losing our rights.  It is easy to make us the villains as we are now in the ugly Egyptian era yet this will not force on giving up our rights and our land or our rights.

I still believe the Sudanese regime is diverting the Sudanese public again from all the deadly challenges it is facing , a nation on the verge of dissolution , whether the east or south or west and unfortunately we are too weak to stop all these conspiracies that will affect our national security if we put all the history of Egypt and Sudan aside.

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