Saudi Security Policy Under Fire
By Dominic Moran for ISN
In a external pagedamning report released last week, Amnesty International roundly condemns Saudi Arabia's treatment of detainees, directly linking an alleged deterioration in the kingdom's rights record to security measures taken in response to a spike in militant violence.
Under pressure due to the preponderance of Saudi nationals in the al-Qaida attacks on the US in 2001, the Saudi security forces launched a major crackdown on Islamic militant groups. The frequency of militant attacks and reported raids and shootouts reached a crescendo from 2003-2005.
Militant attacks have included shootings, abductions, attacks on government forces, and energy facilities and assaults on housing complexes in which dozens died.
Al-Qaida is a key movement within the Saudi militancy, but the provenance of attacks is extremely difficult to verify. This problem is magnified by the clear interest of both the Saudi authorities and al-Qaida in magnifying the latter's threat to the kingdom and foreign interests therein.
Referring to the ongoing security operations, Ali al-Ahmed from the Institute for Gulf Affairs told ISN Security Watch: "The US and the UK have provided not only military training but equipment. And the US has provided data and intelligence," including satellite imagery.
The security crackdown has led to a significant drop-off in attacks, the arrest and deaths of a number of al-Qaida leaders, and purported disruption of associated funding mechanisms. The last major attack claimed by al-Qaida was a failed strike on the world's largest oil processing facility at Abqaiq, Eastern Province, in February 2006.
Asked by ISN Security Watch if al-Qaida's activities in the kingdom have been attenuated, Ali Alyami, from the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, said: "No they have not. These people are very clever, they lie down when they need to and then […] they rise up. They keep changing their strategies."
Abuse allegations
In its report, Amnesty accuses the kingdom of instituting "a range of counter-terrorism measures that have worsened what was already a dire human rights situation."
According to the group, these measures have effectively swept aside limited legal and rights reforms and created a situation wherein Saudi citizens are now almost completely divested of all basic fundamental freedoms.
Amnesty reports that detainees arrested since 2003 have often been held without any legal recourse in a prison system in which torture and ill-treatment are purportedly commonplace.
The group provides details of the alleged widespread abuse of detainees; ill-treatment that allegedly includes severe beatings, suspension and the administering of electric shocks.
Amnesty also believes that an unknown number of political reformists, human rights defenders and members of religious minorities have been caught up in the security sweeps.
The Saudis have used the "cover of terrorism to silence peaceful reformers - either liberal, Islamists, or from the religious minorities - and to cover up their abuse of women, religious freedom, press freedom and educational freedom," al-Ahmed said.
external pageA Saudi Interior Ministry official told AP that Amnesty's findings were unproven and that clear orders were given that prisoners should receive respectful treatment in keeping with "international human rights principles."
Trials begin
Saudi officials reported in July 2007 that over 9,000 people had been arrested since 2003 in ongoing security operations, with over 3,100 still incarcerated at that point.
Earlier this month, the verdicts in the trials of 330 alleged al-Qaida militants were announced. The bulk of the defendants were sent to jail for periods ranging from a few months to 30 years. One was sentenced to death by beheading, while only seven were acquitted of some of the charges against them.
The charges included membership in al-Qaida, providing financial or other support to the group, traveling to other countries to engage in militant activity, and undermining Saudi security.
"I don't believe that all these people are al-Qaida or extremists at all," Alyami said.
The otherwise secretive nature of the trials contradicts a external pagepledge made by the Saudi foreign minister that court proceedings would be open to public scrutiny with defendants granted "full guarantees."
The state-controlled Saudi Human Rights Commission, while not supporting the holding of the trials behind closed doors, said that defendants had been granted the services of their own or court-appointed lawyers.
A legal code and law on criminal procedures have been enacted as part of the limited reform efforts of recent years, but the actual impact of these measures remains unclear.
"There have been a lot of announcements and things written down, but in terms of execution, nothing has been accomplished at all," Alyami said. He added that the royal family is sharply divided by disputes between supporters and opponents of reform.
According to al-Ahmed, "Saudi Arabia still lacks the basic institutions of law. […] These people, guilty or not, have not gone through a system that allows them to defend themselves."
The fact that the trials are taking place at all, and have been acknowledged, is an indication that the Saudi authorities are now confident that their impact on security and public opinion is, at worst, manageable.
Re-education controversy
The Saudi response to militant violence is notable in that it has included the Munasaha re-education program.
The stated aim of the prison program, which incorporates around 100 Islamic scholars, social workers and academics, is to convince detainees that the theo-ideological base that prompted their decision to join the militancy is flawed.
In rehabilitation sessions, two sheikhs and a psychologist hold discussions with individual prisoners and pass on religious texts that provide counter-arguments to the ideas espoused by the inmate's particular militant trend.
Lessons are then held on a number of topics, including allegiance and the true meanings of jihad and takfir (declaring apostasy). The program claims to have a 98 percent success rate, though it is clear that a number of prominent graduates, freed under its auspices, have returned to violence.
The program is important in that it is being held up as an exemplar by some politicians and analysts in the US and elsewhere.
Pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat has external pagelauded the program, arguing that the greatest threat to al-Qaida "does not come from armed conflict, but from ideological confrontation which exposes the movement and its leadership."
Alyami and al-Ahmed strongly disagree with this assessment of the program:
Al-Ahmed identified key figures within the program who, he says, have previously urged attacks on Americans, Christians, Shia, Jews and Israelis.
"The irony of it is that the very same people who indoctrinated these extremists are the ones who are deprogramming them," Alyami said. "They are not telling them to totally give up extremism, they are telling them not to fight ‘our state’."
"The Munasaha is to avoid putting these people on trial, and the US bought it," al-Ahmed said.