March 18, 2004
By John R. Bradley

A NUMBER of liberal Saudis have been arrested in Riyadh and Jeddah before they could denounce a new government-backed human rights group and declare the establishment of an independent one in its place.

The arrests are a sign of a power struggle between senior princes within the Al-Saud ruling family, as the Islamic kingdom seeks to push on with gradual reforms and fight home-grown Islamist terrorism.

One group of conservatives, led by Interior Minister Prince Naif and other full brothers of King Fahd, is aligned closely to the hardline religious establishment.
Prince Naif is the interior minister of Saudi Arabia.

But reformist liberals have the backing of de facto leader Crown Prince Abdullah, a half-brother of the king, and his chief ally, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal.

Analysts say that the arrests show the conservatives and Islamists still retain much of the control over the kingdom's internal affairs.

'Arresting people like this - we thought it had ended a long time ago,' said a university professor. 'We thought this only happened now to the terrorist suspects.'

The Interior Ministry, which controls the internal security apparatus, confirmed yesterday's arrests. The liberals, it said in a tersely worded statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, 'do not serve the unity of the homeland or the integrity of society'.

Mr Ali Al-Ahmed, head of the Washington-based opposition group The Saudi Institute, told The Straits Times: 'We call on the US government, the United Nations and all international civil and human rights bodies to condemn these arrests.'

Saudi Arabia has come under pressure from its long-time ally Washington to reform following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, carried out by mainly Saudi suicide hijackers.

It has promised to hold municipal elections, its first concrete political reform, by October. It has also introduced changes to its education and religious institutions.

But powerful clerics in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, fear the domestic and foreign pressure to reform will also limit their influence and secularise the state.

REFORM IN IRAN: KHATAMI CONCEDES DEFEAT

TEHERAN - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami acknowledged the failure of the pillars of his presidency yesterday, conceding his two key reform proposals could not be salvaged.

But he ruled out resigning after his reformist camp was defeated by Islamic hardliners in the recent controversial legislative elections.

One of the Bills was aimed at increasing presidential powers to stop constitutional violations by hardliners.

The other sought to bar the hardline oversight body, the Guardians' Council, from disqualifying parliamentary and presidential election candidates. -- AP, AFP


In recent months, Saudi reformers have reportedly faced travel restrictions and have been threatened with dismissal from their jobs.

Even members of the royal family who have stepped out of line have been caught up in the crackdown.

In December, Prince Sultan bin Turki, a nephew of King Fahd, told the BBC and Al-Jazeera from his besieged palace in Riyadh that he had been kidnapped in Switzerland by fellow Saudi royals after he set up a group aimed at combating corruption among Saudi princes and high officials.

A specially hired Boeing 747 medical evacuation aircraft was allegedly used to smuggle Prince Sultan out of the country, after he had been drugged and gagged.

A landmark letter from mainstream reformers said they have been threatened and harassed personally by Prince Naif.

They said he accused them, in a meeting in his office in December, of being 'terrorists, secularists and foreign tools'.

He asked the reformers to sign a pledge that they will stop making demands for greater democracy, but they refused.

The letter went on to lambast the ruling family's indecision on reforms and their endless 'empty promises'.

At the meeting, Dr Matrook al-Faleh, one of the reformers, reportedly told the minister: 'We will not be scared by threats because our reform demands are supported by the citizens.'

To this Prince Naif replied: 'So you obviously want to go to prison.'

Sources in Saudi Arabia yesterday confirmed that Dr Al-Faleh was among those arrested.

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