TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/092490/0924011.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.5 KB | 80 lines

                                                                                THE GULF, Page 44

Shi`ites: Poorer Cousins



    On Sept. 30, 1988, shortly after Friday noon prayers, four
young Shi`ite men were beheaded by royal decree in the Saudi
town of Dammam. They had been convicted of blowing up fuel
storage tanks at the Sadaf petrochemical facility in Jubail.
The capture of the Shi`ites ended a six-month investigation
that imposed virtual martial law around the coastal towns of
Tarut and Qatif -- the strategic, oil-rich area of Saudi
Arabia's Eastern province, where most of the country's 300,000
Shi`ites live.

    The aftershocks from the Jubail blast and firestorm are
still being felt. Fearful of sabotage, Saudi Aramco, the
country's national oil company, has since refused to hire any
new Shi`ite workers, who until recently made up 40% of its work
force. The company has traditionally been the only major
employer in the Eastern province willing to employ Shi`ites and
thus has served as an important path of upward mobility.
"Shi`ite leaders are trying to convince the powers that be that
[Jubail]  was the act of a few individuals," says a U.S.
official. "Unfortunately, the whole community is paying the
price."

    The Shi`ites of Arabia's east coast have for decades met
with cultural and religious intolerance from the dominant
Wahhabi (Sunni fundamentalist) authorities. Among young Shi`ite
men, the unemployment rate is 30%, and would be far higher but
for Aramco.

    The tiger of Shi`ite discontent first roared dangerously in
1979, when Shi`ites in Qatif defied local authorities during
the holy period of Ashura. The ritual led to demonstrations
that according to the Saudis ended only after the National
Guard intervened, leaving 10 Shi`ites dead. According to U.S.
sources, the denouement was even bloodier. "The National Guard
is the core of the Wahhabi spirit," says a government analyst.
"They take a certain pride in going down to the Eastern
province and beating up Shi`a." Militants in Qatif responded
by shooting 12 or 13 guardsmen; the guard sealed the area and
killed more than 120 Shi`ites. Thousands more were arrested,
some held for a year. In early 1980 violence flared again; 40
died, and later more than a dozen suspected ringleaders were
beheaded.

    The unrest led the Saudi government to begin a major
public-works program in the Shi`ite region, which has always
produced the lion's share of modern Saudi Arabia's oil wealth
and received little in return. The situation further improved
in 1985 when the brutal administration in the province of the
bin Jaluwi family was replaced by Mohammed bin Fahd, a former
businessman and a son of the King. Still, Ashura continues to
be a time when grievances surface: demonstrations were put down
violently again in late 1985. Just last year scores of Shi`ites
mourning the death of Khomeini were arrested and interrogated,
some remaining in jail for nine months. "It is better now,"
concedes a Shi`ite. "But just a little." Says a Saudi official:
"We think we can gradually bring the Shi`ites into the system,
and it will be O.K."

    Clandestine Iraqi radio broadcasts have recently begun
calling on the Shi`ites to rise up -- so far, to no avail. "The
Iraqis have very good intelligence," says one U.S. official.
"They've already focused on the discrimination at Saudi
Aramco." Says another official: "The Shi`a have a grievance,
and if they are ignored, it will probably grow."


By Jay Peterzell.