Bedouin Herders Protest Over Rise of Fodder Price

Anti-riot police disperses protesters on the outskirts of Amman, yesterday. Riot police clashed with more than 200 Bedouin herders blocking the country's main highway with burning tyres in protest over price hikes for animal feed, said witnesses on the scene.

30 August 2007

Amman: More than 200 Bedouin herders blocked the road from Jordan's main port of Aqaba to the airport yesterday, burning tyres and hurling stones at police in protest over price hikes for fodder, said witnesses on the scene.

The livestock owners, who also damaged the car of government officials who tried to speak with them, were demonstrating against a Tuesday decision to more than double the price of a tonne of barley from 90 Jordanian dinars (about Dh450) to 256 dinars.

"We cannot live any more, we have become refugees in our own country," shouted a herder protesting near the barley silos in Juweideh, south of Amman. "The government always gives the refugee camps aid and nobody cares for us Bedouin."

When Amman governor Sa'ad Al Wadi Al Manaseer accompanied by Trade Ministry secretary general Muntaser Al Oqlah drove up to talk to the demonstrators, they were met with a hail of rocks and required police assistance to escape.

Similar protests broke out in the southern town of Ziziya and in the northern city of Mafraq, but in no cases were any clashes reported with police. The bulk of the livestock owners come from prominent tribal Bedouin families.