ANSD : Riyadh pumps money into Shiite town

SAT 23 - 11 - 2024

Date: Jan 18, 2019
Source: The Daily Star

Riyadh pumps money into Shiite town

_Reuters
AWAMIYA, Saudi Arabia: The old quarter of Awamiya, a town on Saudi Arabia’s oil-producing eastern shore that was once the center of Shiite protests, was leveled in 2017 following a security campaign against gunmen the authorities accuse of having links to Iran. The district’s maze of mud brick homes and narrow alleyways, which militants used for years to launch surprise attacks against police, have now been replaced by a shopping complex, events hall and expansive plazas dotted with palm trees.

The Riyadh government hopes investing in the broader area of Qatif after decades of alleged neglect will finally snuff out the violence.

These efforts are a test for the policies of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who has struck a conciliatory tone toward the kingdom’s Shiite minority while confronting archrival Iran in a decadeslong struggle for influence across the Middle East.

Shiites have long complained of discrimination they say keeps them from senior government jobs, reduces state investment in their areas and leads to closures of centers of worship. Security forces have repeatedly quashed mass protests in Qatif, starting with a 1979 uprising inspired by the Iranian Revolution of the same year. At the time, another district in Awamiya was destroyed and turned into a parking lot.

In 2011, Arab Spring uprisings in other Arab countries sparked more fighting, drawing Qatif deeper into Saudi Arabia’s regional contest with Iran and ultimately leading to the demolition of a district in Awamiya known as Al-Musawara.

The government has spent more than $60 million to rebuild the 18-hectare Al-Musawara and another $230 million to compensate residents for hundreds of razed homes.

More money is being pumped in to rehabilitate schools, hospitals and malls as well as beaches, a fish market and an old fort.

A military vehicle sitting at the edge of Al-Musawara, now rebranded Wasat (Central) Awamiya, is a reminder of battles that left buildings pockmarked with bullet holes.

A day before Reuters visited the quarter on a state media tour, six people were killed in a security operation in another part of Qatif, raising concerns that militants quashed in one area will pop up in others.

Fahad Jubeir, mayor of Eastern Province, said he was confident residents would embrace the government initiative.

“I expect it will have the magical effect of changing the area from a shelter for terrorists into a beacon of civilization,” Jubeir said, voicing hope that all traces of violence would disappear “very soon.”

A project manager said designers consulted with locals to faithfully replicate historical architecture amid concerns over the demolition of centuries-old buildings in a region where heritage is rarely preserved.

Gone are the covered passageways too tight for vehicles to pass, replaced by more than 5.5 hectares of green spaces.

Toby Matthiesen, a research fellow of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge, said even if residents are unsatisfied they are unlikely to resist amid growing repression. “That doesn’t mean that it’s somehow going well or that it’s a new approach to the Shia. There’s just a general sense of frustration and fatigue.”

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