Saudi Shias protest at Bahrain intervention

Hundreds of Saudi Shias protested in the kingdom’s oil-producing east yesterday seeking the withdrawal of Saudi troops from neighbouring Bahrain and political rights and freedoms at home, demonstrators said.  The peaceful protests, with riot police nowhere to be seen, were held in the main Shia centre of Qatif, where demonstrators, some of them women, waved Bahraini as well as Saudi flags. Others gathered in the nearby village of Awamiya. Banners read “respect the rights to demonstrate” and “freedom of expression and opinion.” Saudi Arabia sent 1,000 troops to Bahrain, a Sunni Muslim monarchy, to help contain pro-democracy protests led by that Gulf Arab country’s Shia majority. Saudi Shias complain of discrimination, saying they often struggle to get senior government jobs and benefits available to other citizens. The government of Saudi Arabia, a monarchy that usually does not tolerate public dissent, denies such charges. The world’s No.1 oil producer and a US ally, Saudi Arabia has escaped the kind of mass uprisings that have rocked the Arab world this year, but some protests have occurred in the Eastern Province, where most of the kingdom’s oil fields are.