Saudi crackdown on Shiites has echoes in Bahrain

WikiLeaks: Saudi crackdown on Shiites has echoes in Bahrain
By Daniel Lippman | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — This year’s harsh crackdown on Shiite Muslims in Bahrain follows the playbook that Sunni Muslim-ruled Saudi Arabia used against Shiites in its own Eastern Province as recently as two years ago, secret State Department cables show.

Some of the officials named in the cables as responsible for the 2009 Eastern Province crackdown now are advising Bahrain’s leaders.

Among the topics the cables discuss are the arbitrary arrests of Shiite clerics and residents, the closing of Shiite mosques and the blocking of Shiites from an important religious site in the Muslim holy city of Medina.

The cables provide rare documentation of what human rights officials have long thought is a persistent campaign waged against Shiites in Saudi Arabia by their own government. Saudi Arabia strictly controls access by foreign journalists, and, the cables note, Saudi officials often take steps to discourage coverage of incidents by local news organizations.

The cables, most of them sent from the U.S. consulate in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, express concern that the Saudi actions are likely to fuel a sense of disaffection among Shiites, especially young people, and may make them feel less Saudi, a development that experts warn could fuel sympathy for Shiite-ruled Iran.

“Discriminatory measures such as the mosque closings . . . continue to be the modus operandi of elements of the (Saudi Arabian government) in their interactions with the Shia minority sect,” said one cable, dated Aug. 15, 2009.

Another cable, sent Sept. 16, 2009, said that “contacts” in the region were concerned that “the discrimination . . . is alienating the Shia community, particularly the youth, and is compromising their sense of Saudi ‘national identity.’ ”

The Saudi Embassy in Washington declined to comment. U.S. officials don’t respond to requests for comment about WikiLeaks cables.

In annual human rights reports, the State Department has expressed concern about anti-Shiite actions in Saudi Arabia but it’s unclear whether U.S. officials protest the actions in their private meetings with Saudi officials. ….more