[A-List] Saudi Arabian political crisis

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Religious police accused of blocking rescue

WILLIAM TINNING
The Herald, 18 March 2002 

      RELIGIOUS police in Saudi Arabia have been
      blamed for the deaths of 14 girls by blocking
      attempts to rescue pupils trapped in a school fire
      because some were not wearing Islamic dress
      which covers the entire body and hair.

      Fifty others were injured at the blaze on March 11
      at the 31st Girls' Middle School in Mecca.

      Amnesty International has demanded a public
      investigation into the allegations. The British-based
      human rights group said: "If these reports are true,
      this is a tragic illustration of how gender
      discrimination can have lethal consequences."

      Saudi government-controlled newspapers alleged
      that male firefighters and paramedics were
      prevented from rescuing the girls by members of
      the religious police, the Committee for the
      Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
      Such public criticism of the religious police is
      unprecedented.

      "They forced the girls to remain inside the school
      and didn't allow them to leave, saying that their hair
      wasn't covered and they weren't wearing the abaya
      (long robe)," the Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper quoted a
      number of firefighters and police as saying.

      Firefighters, police and medical crews said they
      were prevented from going inside the school for the
      same reason. "We tried to convince them that the
      situation was very serious but they just screamed
      at us and refused to move away from the gate," the
      officers told the newspaper.

      According to reports, most of the victims either
      suffocated, fell to their deaths from the windows of
      the four-storey building, or were trampled to death.

      Mohammed al-Harthy, the head of Mecca's police,
      yesterday said he arrived at the scene to find a
      member of the religious police "trying to interfere".

      "He was fighting with a police officer, trying to
      prevent him from entering the school," Mr al-Harthy
      said. "I immediately instructed him to leave and he
      did."

      Sheik Jaber al-Hakmi, the director of the
      committee, denied that his members prevented
      rescuers from entering the school. "There are
      some who are trying to pin the death of the 14 girls
      on the committee," he said.

      Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, has promised that
      "negligent, incompetent and careless" officials
      would be punished. Parents of the victims are
      considering taking legal action.

      The religious police are often criticised in private,
      but this is the first time Saudi newspapers have
      openly lambasted them.

      In the past, its members roamed streets and
      shopping centres, beating women who were not
      covered according to Islamic teaching.

Full article at:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/18-3-19102-0-44-38.html

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney@xxxxxx