Saudi Arabia Feature: A Growing Rebellion? (Hill)
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 7:33A protest in Qatif, 9 February
Saudis are protesting. They’ve been protesting for over a year. Their numbers are growing. And there’s no sign of them stopping.
It’s all happening in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, home to most of the Kingdom’s Shia minority, and 90 per cent of its oil. Seven people have been shot dead by Saudi security forces since October 2011, two in the past month alone. The Saudi Interior Ministry says these deaths resulted from gun battles between protesters and police. But in all amateur videos that show protesters being shot, there is no evidence that protesters were shooting back.
There have been remarkable scenes of rebellion. One photograph, taken on February 10 this year, shows a young man hurling an effigy of Crown Prince Nayef at a row of armoured anti-riot tanks.