Friday, March 11, 2011
Saudi police fired over the heads of protesters in the kingdom’s Eastern Province after demonstrators attacked policemen, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Thursday.
World stocks – already low on an unexpected trade deficit in China and a downgrade of Spain’s credit rating by Moody’s – were pushed even lower on the news, and oil recouped losses recorded earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 228.48 (1.87 percent), finishing at 11,984.61, while the broader S&P 500 gave up 24.91 (1.89 percent) at 1,295.11.
Brent oil prices jumped by $3 per barrel on the Saudi report, fully erasing earlier losses to trade close to $116 a barrel at 1900 GMT. Earlier in the day, oil was falling on the back of Europe’s debt woes. Three people were injured during the protest, one of them a policeman, the spokesman told reporters. He did not say how the injuries were caused.
Witnesses said earlier that Saudi police used force to disperse a demonstration by minority Shiites, on the eve of a day of protests called for on social media. Shots were heard near a protest by around 200 Shiites in the town of Qatif in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, home to some of the world’s largest oil fields and a large Shiite minority.
The clampdown was a sign that the Saudi government was serious about enforcing a ban on protests called for Friday by Internet activists emboldened by protests that toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia before spreading to the Gulf. “There was firing, it was sporadic,” one witness said, adding that the sound of gunfire was interspersed with the noise from stun grenades.
“They were not targeting the people directly. It was indirect firing,” said one Shiite activist who asked to be identified by only his first name, Hussein. “It seems they don’t mean to kill. We think this is a message not for Qatif but for all Saudis about tomorrow,” he added. A Facebook page calling for nationwide protests in Saudi Arabia had gathered more than 30,000 followers. In Riyadh police boosted their presence, parking with their lights flashing at major junctions and patrolling the roads. – Reuters, AFP
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