Dr. Abdullahi Mohamed (Deputy Editor Geeka Afrika Online)
Djibouti (HAN) April 9, 2005
Nairobi (HAN) April 9, 2005- The IGAD Human Rights Watch accused the Somalia Federal Government and the rest of the IGAD Frontline States today of ignoring human rights violations against their citizens by Saudi Arabia because of the desert kingdom's massive economic power.
Despite a history of arbitrary arrests, torture, unfair trials and harsh punishments such as flogging and beheading, Saudi Arabia has never been held to the same human rights standards that EU, UN and its allies apply to Sudan, Mozambiq and Eritrea and other nations accused of widespread repression, the human rights group said.
"The country's strategic position and vast oil resources have led governments and businesses around the world to subordinate human rights to economic and strategic interests," the group said in a 19-page report.
In addition to an annual report detailing the human rights situation in most of the world's countries, Amnesty International issues one detailed report each year focusing on a single country. This year the organization focused on Saudi Arabia. And it coupled its report with a call for a grass-roots campaign to protest Saudi abuses.
"The U.N. Commission on Human Rights has, over the years, publicly expressed concern about the human rights situation in a wide range of countries in all regions of the world, but it has never publicly addressed the serious human rights situation in Saudi Arabia," the report said.
The Somalis Worldwide expressed sadness About The Saudi Executions, while the President of Federal Somalia HE Abdullahi Yusuf in Nairobi did not respond to a request for comment on the Somalis Executions by the Saudi Authority in Jeddah.
report.
The Islamic Law and the Saudi Executions
Since the majority of the provisions in the Saudi Penal Code are based on Islamic law, at least in theory, I would like to examine the Saudi actions under both the strict interpretations of the classic Islamic Law and in light of the expositions by the early Islamic Jurists.
The State Department and Amnesty International agree that both Saudi citizens and foreigners were executed. Amnesty International said, however, that Saudi justice falls more heavily on outsiders and people from the margins of society. It said the system is especially harsh in its treatment of foreign workers, who make up about a quarter of the Saudi population; critics of the regime; and religious minorities, including Christians, Sikhs and Shiite Muslims.