Sheik Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Qassimi sat in his wine-colored Range Rover and watched as the first rays of dawn appeared over the Sharqiyin Mountains to the east.

When he judged the light right he muttered "khalas"-or "finished"-and nodded to a bearded bodyguard in a flowing white robe. The man stepped behind a line of camels, each mounted by a small boy. He raised his Soviet-made Kalashnikov assault rifle and fired a single shot into the pinkening sky.

Suddenly, excited cries mixed with the resounding thwack of riders' canes hitting camel rumps and the dull thud of camel feet pounding the ...

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