Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (47552)	12/17/2004 5:28:49 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Saudi forces clash with protesters calling for regime change RIYADH: Security forces detained about 14 people on Thursday in Saudi Arabia’s main cities of Jeddah and Riyadh, deploying in force to confront demonstrations called by a dissident group against the strictly conservative regime. Witnesses told AFP that they had heard shooting near a cemetery in the Red Sea city and had seen about half a dozen people being detained. Protesters were seen running away chased by heavily-armed police down alleyways in Jeddah’s old town. The London-based group Movement for Islamic Reform (MIRA) had called for peaceful demonstrations in both Riyadh and Jeddah in support of a change in the ruling regime, which it accuses of corruption and deviating from the precepts of Islam. Leader of the Saad al-Fagih had given demonstration call. Riot police with helmets, batons and shields lined a main street in Jeddah and helicopters hovered over the area. By 4 pm there was no sign of any organised protest in central Riyadh. The demonstrations coincided with the release of an audiotape, in which a voice claiming to be that of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden called on Saudi rulers to abandon power or face a popular uprising. The tape laid the blame for unrest gripping the country on the kingdom’s own regime, warning: "The people have awoken." The authenticity of the tape, which was broadcast on a main Islamist site on the Internet, could not be immediately verified but the voice sounded like that of Osama. Earlier, Saudi interior ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki had told AFP that in Jeddah that "two people were arrested after they fired in the air from their car and are being questioned." In Riyadh, witnesses said around eight people were being questioned by police, who were deployed in the capital, with checkpoints on main roads leading to the assembly point announced on MIRA’s satellite channel. Dozens of buses packed with security men were sent in, while police cars and motorcycles cut off side streets, and helicopters hovered over the city centre, an AFP correspondent said. MIRA leader Saad al-Faqih said on Wednesday the group was expecting "tens of thousands" of people to turn out, even though political demonstrations are outlawed under the strict laws of Saudi Arabia. MIRA is the best-known Saudi opposition group whose avowed aim is a regime-change in the ultra-conservative kingdom. In a statement published in local newspapers, meanwhile, a group of 35 Saudi religious leaders and academics had warned people against taking part in the new protests, saying MIRA’s call was "damaging to the interests of society and the unity of the country". The signatories, among them a former member of a committee which draws up Fatwas or religious decrees, acknowledged that the kingdom "needed serious reform measures". But they said these needed to be carried out without recourse to events that could trigger unrest. "Our country needs stability and solidarity given the current international circumstances and religious events," the statement said.