JAN 26, 2004 Rebellion brewing in Saudi city
By JOHN R. BRADLEY FOR THE STRAITS TIMES
SAKAKA (Saudi Arabia) - The tiny city of Sakaka in the remote al-Jouf province that borders Iraq may seem an unlikely setting for the beginning of a revolution against the ruling al-Saud family. But one does not have to spend too long here to realise that this is what is happening. Al-Jouf has witnessed an extraordinary level of political violence in recent months. The deputy governor, say local residents, was assassinated. Also shot down was the police chief, executed by a group of men who forced their way into his home. Even before these bloody incidents, the region's top Syariah Court judge was shot down as he drove to work early one morning. Seven men have so far been arrested over the shootings, according to Saudi officials. They admit that the attacks are linked, and that the seven may have been aided by as many as 40 others.
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But residents of the provincial capital Sakaka insist that the violence here is political. They say it stems from the fact that al-Jouf is the historic power base of the al-Sudairy branch of the royal family, which includes King Fahd and his six full brothers. Known as the Sudairy Seven, they include Prince Naif, the Interior Minister, Prince Sultan, the Defence Minister, and Prince Salman, the Governor of Riyadh. They make all the important economic and political decisions in Saudi Arabia, with the King's favourite son, Abdul Aziz, standing in increasingly for his father. But all members of the vast al-Sudairy clan consider themselves, and expect others to treat them as, princes and princesses. When it comes to business and local government in al-Jouf, the clan has ruled the roost for the seven decades since the kingdom was founded. For more than 40 of those years, the governor was one of their own. But other merchant families and tribes which were prominent before al-Jouf was incorporated into the Saudi kingdom and al-Sudairy took over are rebelling.
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The families and tribes here are exploiting the vulnerability of a perhaps fatally weakened Saudi ruling family to reassert their territorial claims over those of the al-Sudairy. As many as 60 per cent of Saudis identify strongly with a tribe. Since the increased instability following last year's bombings in Riyadh on May 12 and Nov 8, the ruling family has been eager to show that it has the full support of the tribal sheikhs. But al-Jouf shows what everyone knows: that tribes will switch their 'allegiance' as soon as it is convenient. Residents say the final straw was the build-up to the invasion of Iraq, when United States troops took control of the airport in the nearby Arar, the kingdom's official border crossing with Iraq. This was deeply resented by all Saudis, but especially by al-Jouf's residents, who have historic tribal links to Iraqis across the border. Many local officers in the Saudi army resigned at the time in protest against being relieved temporarily of their duties by US soldiers, say Saudi opposition groups. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Saudis have since sneaked across the border into Iraq to join the jihad against US-led occupation forces.
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