Skip to main content

PressTV - Troops attack Saudi protesters

PressTV - Troops attack Saudi protesters

Anti-government protesters in Qatif are calling for human rights reforms, freedom of expression and the release of political prisoners.

They are also calling for the immediate withdrawal of Saudi troops from neighboring Bahrain.

After dispersing the protesters by force, Saudi troops attacked several homes in the city and arrested many people. They also destroyed vehicles parked in the streets.

Saudi Arabia's east has been the scene of anti-government protests over the past months.

Human Rights Watch says more than 160 dissidents have been arrested since February as part of the Saudi government's crackdown on anti-government protesters.

"Saudi authorities have arrested over 160 peaceful dissidents in violation of international human rights law since February 2011," HRW said in a statement last week.

HRW also criticized the European Union and the United States, Saudi Arabia's allies, for not taking a harder line over Riyadh's arrest of dissidents.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Evidence of torture used in Iraq | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Evidence of torture used in Iraq | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics : "The Foreign Office says the 'government, including its intelligence and security agencies, never use torture for any purpose' ( MI5 and MI6 to be sued for first time over torture, September 12). The evidence in the public domain from the court martial into the death of Baha Mousa and the serious abuse of 10 other Iraqi civilians is clear in establishing this is not true. UK armed forces went into Iraq with a written policy that allowed hooding, and with a policy of training interrogators to use hooding, stressing and sleep deprivation to gain intelligence. Iraqi civilians were routinely hooded in up to three sandbags - and even old plastic cement bags. When Baha Mousa died in September 2003, partly as a result of abuse while hooded, common sense dictates that at least at that point those in positions of responsibility within the civil service and military would have acted to change the poli...