Saudi braces for protests amid sweeping Arab unrest
By Omar Hasan (AFP) – 1 hour ago
RIYADH — Oil kingpin Saudi Arabia braced Friday for protests calling for political and economic reforms a day after police shot and wounded three protesters in the eastern province.
Online activists using the Facebook and Twitter have called for a "Day of Rage" and a "Saudi March 11 revolution" demanding fully elected parliament and ruler in this Islamic conservative monarchy where the Shura (consultative) Council is fully appointed.
Security was strongly beefed up in the capital Riyadh in the early hours of Friday.
Dozens of police cars filled the strategic Olaya commercial centre in the Riyadh, which was hit by a blinding dust storm overnight, where the protesters are supposed to congregate.
Police patrols stood guard on the sides of the main roads of King Fahad and Olaya main street where security forces set up a checkpoint and were checking the identities of motorists.
The activists are also demanding an independent judiciary, the abolition of the secret service police, the release of all political prisoners and guarantees of freedom of expression, according to the activists website.
On the economic front, they are demanding a fixed minimum wage of 10,000 riyals ($2,667) and finding jobs for Saudis in a country where the unemployment rate is 10.5 percent and soars to around 30 percent in the 20-29 age group, according to official figures.
On his return from surgery in the United States last month, King Abdullah had decreed massive benefits to Saudis estimated at more than $30 billion, which included housing services and unemployment benefits.
The activists have urged Saudis to demonstrate in large numbers soon after the Muslim Friday prayers around 1000 GMT in most of Saudi cities including Riyadh, Jeddah in the west and Dammam in the oil-rich east.
The Gulf Civil Society Forum, a liberal pan-Gulf group, expected a low turnout because the call came from London-based Saudi dissidents who do not have a large following in the kingdom.
Other Facebook youth activists have called for nationwide protests on March 20.
Saudi security forces shot and wounded three Shiite protesters in Al-Qateef in the eastern province on Thursday while dispersing a protest calling for the release of nine Shiite prisoners who have been in jail for 14 years without trial, a witness told AFP.
Following the incident, the United States said it would closely monitor unrest in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, and restated its support for universal values.
The Saudi interior ministry had earlier issued a stern reminder that any demonstration was illegal and warned activists that the security forces had been authorised to crack down on any protests.
The kingdom's top clerics have also condemned as un-Islamic calls for demonstrations and petitions saying "reform and advice do not take place through demonstrations and methods that fan sedition."
Political parties are banned in Saudi Arabia, which controls a quarter of the world's oil reserves.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Monday the kingdom "completely rejects any intervention in its internal affairs," and warned it will "chop off the fingers," of those trying to meddle in Saudi affairs.
"Dialogue is the best way for citizens to gain their rights," he said.
Rights groups Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called on Riyadh for a relaxation of the protest ban, insisting it was "obliged under international law to allow peaceful protests to take place."
Traders were anxiously watching developments in the kingdom, but US experts have said that Riyadh seems unlikely to catch the contagion of Arab revolutions sweeping other parts of the Middle East.
Benchmark crude prices dipped below the $102 level in Asian trade Friday after easing off two-year highs.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for April delivery, fell 97 cents to $101.73 per barrel in the afternoon.
Brent North Sea crude for April dipped 39 cents to $115.04.
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