Saudi Arabia, a major supporter of opposition forces in Syria, has increased crackdown on its own dissenters, with 30,000 activists reportedly in jail. In an exclusive interview to RT a Saudi prince defector explained what the monarchy fears most.

“Saudi Arabia has stepped up arrests and trials of peaceful dissidents, and responded with force to demonstrations by citizens,”

Human Rights Watch begins the country’s profile on its website. Political parties are banned in Saudi Arabia and human rights groups willing to function legally have to go no further than investigating things like corruption or inadequate services. Campaigning for political freedoms is outlawed. One of such groups, which failed to get its license from the government, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), was cited by AFP as saying the kingdom was holding around 30,000 political prisoners. Saudi Prince Khaled Bin Farhan Al-Saud, who spoke to RT from Dusseldorf, Germany, confirmed reports of increased prosecution of anti-government activists and said that it’s exactly what forced him to defect from his family. He accused the monarchy of corruption and silencing all voices of dissent and explained how the Saudi mechanism for suppression functioned.

http://rt.com/news/saudi-arabia-opposition-prince-374/
“There is no independent judiciary, as both police and the prosecutor’s office are accountable to the Interior Ministry. This ministry’s officials investigate ‘crimes’ (they call them crimes), related to freedom of speech. So they fabricate evidence, don’t allow people to have attorneys”, the prince told RT Arabic. “Even if a court rules to release such a ‘criminal’, the Ministry of Interior keeps him in prison, even though there is a court order to release him. There have even been killings! Killings! And as for the external opposition, Saudi intelligence forces find these people abroad! There is no safety inside or outside the country.” Prince Khalid Bin Farhan Al-SaudThe strong wave of oppression is in response to the anti-government forces having grown ever more active.

A new opposition group called Saudi Million and claiming independence from any political party was founded in late July. The Saudi youths which mostly constitute the movement say they demand the release of political prisoners and vow to hold regular demonstrations, announcing their dates and locations via Facebook and electronic newspapers. Human rights violations are driving people on to the streets despite the fear of arrest, according to activist Hala Al-Dosari, who spoke to RT from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. “We have issues related to political and civil rights, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. These are the main issues that cause a lot of people to be at risk for just voicing out their opinions or trying to form associations, demonstrate or protest, which is banned by the government.”

very soon barrel of dollars would flow on the streets

And as for the external opposition, Saudi intelligence forces find these people abroad! There is no safety inside or outside the country.” Prince Khalid Bin Farhan Al-Saud The strong wave of oppression is in response to the anti-government forces having grown ever more active.

I wonder how the repressive regime manages this feat without the collaboration of foreign regimes, unless the noble prince is saying something we don know!!

Nairatalks:

He means opposition is difficult to sustain when the "activists" bellies are full.

maclatunji:

He means opposition is difficult to sustain when the "activists" bellies are full.

Dude you know politics

maclatunji:

He means opposition is difficult to sustain when the "activists" bellies are full.

True talk but how does that relste to the actions of the Saudi government?

More democratic freedoms in Saudi Arabia? Not going to happen



Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.

Published time: August 12, 2013 11:05


Saudi Shi'ite Muslim women take part in a protest in Qatif, against a film made in the U.S. that mocks the Prophet Mohammad (Reuters / Zaki Ghawas)

Saudi Arabia policies are enormously hypocritical. They discriminate against 10 percent of their own population, the Shiites, while saying they are intervening in Syria for more democracy, journalist Pepe Escobar told RT.

RT: There have been protests since 2011 in Saudi Arabia. There have been many arrests since then too, but there hasn’t been much global media coverage of this. Why do you think that is the case?

Pepe Escobar: We should break down the strategy of the House of Saud. Basically it’s carrots and stick. Carrots in the form of a $60 billion handout program by King Abdullah at the beginning of the Arab Spring in 2011. The Saudis were horrified by the beginning of the Arab Spring in neighboring Bahrain. So they bribed their own subjects.


Number two, the stick is against the Shiite minority - roughly 10 percent of Saudi Arabia - who live in the Eastern province where most of the oil is by the way. They don’t want to bring down the house of Saud essentially. They want more participation, judiciary not answering to religious powers and basically more democratic freedoms. This is not going to happen in Saudi Arabia. Period. Nor in the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) petro-monarchies.


So it’s an enormous hypocrisy. They say to the Americans that they are intervening in Syria for a more democratic post-Assad Syria and inside Saudi Arabia it’s the Sunni-Shiite divide. They go against 10 percent of their own population.

RT: I know your newspaper is covering this, but why isn’t there global coverage of this story?

PE: The problem is [the] Saudi lobby industry is very strong, so whatever they tell the Americans and obviously compliant US corporate media [goes]. The Europeans are also in the same boat, and don’t forget that the Saudis control at least 90 percent of the media in the Middle East itself. The other 10 percent we can account for Al Jazeera from Qatar. So they tell the Middle Eastern public and Western public that they are on a fight to death against the Iranian infiltration on Iranian destabilization. Most public opinion in the West, they buy it.


There is no critical analysis about what the Saudis do in the region, what they have done science the Afghan Jihad in the 1980s where, by the way, they helped to destabilize Afghanistan for decades, because they were basically supplying the Mujahideen, they were the most radical of them all. Some of them became Al-Qaeda or, what the US tells us is the global Al-Qaeda. They are doing the same thing is Syria.


We come back to the contradiction, inside Saudi Arabia; the old Shiites generation didn’t want to bring the monarchy down. There is a very strong possibility that the younger generation, some of them unemployed, connected to the internet, on Facebook, on Google, on everything, the will want something radical against the House of Saud themselves.




Reuters / Fahad Shadeed


RT: Do you think those people who are protesting at the moment actually have a good chance of succeeding? Because we hear about the crackdown, but we also hear there is another opposition group called the Saudi Million. So despite the crackdown new protests groups keep appearing. What do you think the future is for them? Could they succeed at all?

PE: It is a good question because the crackdown is not working at all against the part of their own population. They are in Qatif, there are demonstration practically every week. There is a very important Shiite cleric Nimr Al-Nimr, he is on trial at the moment and very hard core Wahhabi cleric in Saudi Arabia they are calling for his death penalty. If that happens, this is going to polarize the Shiite community as a whole, the old generation plus the younger Facebook-Google generation. It’s all extremely counterproductive because it is impossible for a feudal 7th-century regime to reform itself. The Wahhabi version of the Islamism Saudi Arabia is still 7th century. They will never reform and they will never respect Shiites.


RT: You say that they will never reform, but we have also seen and heard from the prince that is defected from the royal family. What impact do you think that will have?

PE: We are in the middle of a transition. King Abdullah, ‘is not busy being born, he is busy dying.’ That’s what is happening, he is busy dying and we don’t know who is going to be the heir to the throne in fact. Abdullah would like to put his son and there is a conflict between some of the most important branches of the House of Saud among themselves, including some of the top echelon of the 7,000 princes. Some of them we were used to seeing them in London, where they import their pink Lamborghinis and drive around like idiots. There is an internal configuration. They have an internal mini civil war, they discriminate against their own Shiites population, there is a problem inside the royal family and they still don’t know what they are going to do in the Middle East, even with the American support.


The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

http://rt.com/op-edge/saudi-arabia-democratic-freedoms-382/

^^^^
Salaam

Thank you Lagoshia for that expose.


The others are not ready to tell the truth about their "second country"


Saudi Arabia has a multitude of problems to solve.

Nothing more to add, the write up that LagosShia posted said it all.

FrostyZonn: Nothing more to add, the write up that LagosShia posted said it all.

Yes, Lagoshia's post hits the nail on the head concerning the intolerance and hypocrisy of Saudi Arabia. The people of Saudi deserve better