Saudi youths lashed after clash

newsimg.bbc.co.uk

Tuesday, 29 September 2009

Twenty Saudi youths have been given 30 lashes each following disturbances on the country’s national day, local reports say.

The Saudi press reported that gangs of hooligans had smashed shops in the eastern city of Khobar.

Other reports say clashes broke out when religious conservatives tried to stop the celebrations which they regard as blasphemous.

The public punishment allegedly took place in Khobar and nearby Dammam.

The original incident took place on the country’s national day on 23 September.

Saudi newspapers have accused the youths of going on the rampage, claiming that shops and restaurants were smashed and in some cases looted.

The BBC’s Sebastian Usher says the media have voiced serious concern over what would be a rare incident of unrest on the streets of the tightly-controlled kingdom.

Some Saudi websites say religious conservatives, offended when the young Saudis took part in festivities, provoked a violent confrontation.

Wahhabism is the dominant form of Islam practiced in the kingdom and followers adhere to a strict code of conduct.

Conservatives are said to be unhappy that a university opened on the day by King Abdullah was co-educational.

Saudi Arabia flogs teenagers after rare riots

reuters.com

Tue Sep 29, 2009

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia flogged a group of teenagers after a rare riot in the eastern region of the Islamic kingdom in which shops and restaurants were ransacked, a witness and local newspapers said on Tuesday.

Human rights activists and liberals condemned Monday’s flogging which Saudi newspapers said happened after groups of young people smashed windows of restaurants and shops in Khobar on Saudi national day last week.

Analysts and diplomats say the case shows the challenge for the government to offer social space for a young population in one of the most conservative states and birthplace of Islam.

Newspapers such as al-Hayat and al-Watan said some 20 teenagers had received at least 30 lashes each. They showed pictures of police readying a square for the public lashings.

« The flogging was carried out last night in public, » said a local journalist who witnessed it. Papers said some of the 20 youths were flogged in nearby Dammam.

A police spokesman in the eastern province declined to comment, saying he was not authorised to talk to foreign media. The interior ministry also declined to comment.

The Eastern Province is home to most of the country’s massive oil wealth. The bulk of Saudi Arabia’s Shi’ite minority, which has long complained of discrimination, also lives there.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 29 septembre 2009.

Publié dans émeutes, riots