Saudi protests spread to different cities as some in Bahrain talk Reform
Saudi protests spread to different cities
13 March, 2012 – AL-Abhbar
Protests have spread to a number of cities in Saudi Arabia following the suppression of a demonstration held by female students at a university last Wednesday, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said on Tuesday.
The Cairo-based NGO released a statement saying the anger of students has spread and “gone beyond [the city of] Abha to larger parts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” where “several protests have taken place in the cities of Riyadh, al-Namas, Ar’ar, Qatif, and al-Rabeeah.”
Tensions have been high since security forces cracked down on a group of female students demanding reform at the King Khaled University last week.
Videos have emerged online of the protests, none of which can be independently verified .
Saudi authorities responded to the protests with violence, killing one female student and injuring 54 others.
“Subsequently, popular anger escalated over this action…and the protests movement spread at the university level in the Kingdom,” ANHRI’s statement read.
In Taibah University in the city of Medina, one student was expelled for publicly criticizing the deteriorating conditions on campus during an open meeting with the director.
“This emphasizes the cruelty of the majority of Saudi universities [towards their] students,” the statement said.
In the eastern province of Qatif, one civilian was killed and several injured after security forces clashed with protesters demanding political reform.
The Ministry of Interior released a statement in which it vowed to address “acts of terrorism” and described the protesters as “a deluded minority.”
ANHRI accused the Ministry of Interior of trying to portray the protests as sectarian as many of the kingdom’s Shias live in the oil-rich province.
“Only dialogue will work out with this social anger, not the repression and violence that characterize the attitude of the Saudi government with its citizens. The Saudi government has to learn the lesson that several Arab countries have taught to their rulers,” the ANHRI statement said.
“The demands of justice and dignity in Saudi Arabia have to be met with change in policies, basing them on the values of freedom and human rights.”
Public display of dissent is rare in Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom has clamped down on any signs of unrest, fearing the Arab revolutions sweeping the region might endanger its autocratic rulers.
Saudi forces entered Bahrain last March to crush a pro-democracy uprising there, but has itself largely avoided the Arab Spring, save for sporadic protests in Qatif.
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Saudi can’t send troops to Libya becusae they have to:1. Cross through Egypt to do it2. Doing #1, means going through IsraelThey have no navy capable of sending troops across the red sea so hence 1 and 2. Ok these are the practical reasons. Now for my theories:You see, I think the whole middle east was stirred up (starting with Tunisia) due to secret CIA plot at request of our government (both parties, not just an Obama thing). Why you ask? Well oil was about to skyrocket in price due to all the money printing ($1.2Trillion in 2009/2010 and $600B planned so far in 2011) we have been doing to buy our own debt and soak up toxic securities from the books of the banks so what better way to conceal the real reason for price increase than to create some turmoil over there. The sheeple are more likely to accept price increases due to instability rather than government printing money. Now, we need to be careful however as it could backfire some of the countries truly could turn into democracies with free press and then their people will get to learn how we’ve been SCREWING THEM OVER for the past 30 years. So it is not in our best interest to see democracy flourish there and that’s why you haven’t seen much in the way of our intervention not in Iran when they had an uprising last year, not in Egypt, not in Libya. As for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia .we get much more oil from them than Libya we need those two nations to be tranquil . No doubt the Saudi’s are doing our bidding.Why don’t we push harder for democracy in Iran and help the people ther? Well, if Iran becomes a peaceful democracy, then Saudi Arabia has no reason to fear Iran, which means they have no reason to allow us to keep our troops there and they have no reason to keep the price of oil cheap for us. You see, oil is bought and sold all over the world using the American dollar. Sadam Hussein once suggested that perhaps it should also be bought and sold using the Euro pooof we all know what happened to him. Iran a few years back made same suggestion hmmmm..kinda funny we been itching to pick a fight with them ever since. And you wonder why Europe hasn’t been so gung ho to help us in big ways in that region it’s becusae they benefit if the Euro is used as the currency for buying/selling oil in the world market.You see, we’re pretty much SCREWED if the day comes when oil can be bought/sold/traded in the world in a currency other than dollars. We get the Saudi;s to play along with only taking the dollar becusae they fear Iran and we tell them to do our bidding or we take our troops out well that little quid pro quo will come to an end if/when Iran becomes a peaceful democracy. You see, it is not in our interest for a peaceful middle east.
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