Saudi Arabia: In a rare show of public opposition, hundreds of Saudi protesters took to the streets in the capital Riyadh yesterday to demand reforms, during the kingdom's first human-rights conference.
Witnesses said they saw hundreds of protesters holding banners and demonstrating near where the conference was taking place in central Riyadh.
Police dispersed the demonstrators and set up roadblocks to prevent them from reaching the conference building.
The kingdom has mounted sweeping arrests against militants, especially after the May 12th Riyadh bombing which killed 35 people.
Saudi Arabia also faces international condemnation over its own human-rights record and for implementing strict sharia law punishments, including public beheadings, and for discrimination against women.
The human rights conference is the first to be held in the conservative kingdom.
The conference organiser, Saleh al-Tuwaijri, said the forum would discuss issues such as human rights under Islam, implementation of international human-rights laws and the rights of refugees.
"There is a misunderstanding between Islamic and Western societies and we believe the reason is a lack of intellectual contact. The more we can provide such contact, the wider the understanding for Islamic sharia in the West," he said.
On Monday, the Interior Minister, Prince Nayef, on Monday rejected Western criticism of the kingdom's rights record as one-sided. "We are used to hearing such accusations but unfortunately we never hear [the critics] when human rights . . . are violated by their own communities," Prince Nayef said. - (Reuters)