William Fisher

NEW YORK, Apr 30 2005 (IPS) — Rights groups and legal scholars are expressing disappointment that this week’s meeting between President George W. Bush and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah failed to address human rights abuses and discrimination against women in the oil-rich kingdom.

”Apparently Bush is more interested in discussing barrels of oil than the fate of those regularly detained, tortured, and oppressed within Saudi Arabia’s borders,” Alexandra Arriaga, director for government relations for Amnesty International USA, told IPS. ”By focusing primarily on the state of oil prices during his meeting with the crown prince, the president lost the chance to urge one of his key allies in the war on terror to stop terrorising its own citizens.”

Prior to the Apr. 25 meeting at the president’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, major U.S. civil liberties groups called on Bush to demand the release of dissidents, the appointment of women to municipal councils, and an end to the death penalty.

The leaders’ agenda included some reform-related subjects but its major thrust – and subsequent media attention – was on what Saudi Arabia was prepared to do to help lower the price of gasoline, and continued anti-terrorism cooperation.

”Unfortunately, because we’re so dependent on Saudi oil, the president has little leverage to preach the virtues of democracy and freedom to the oppressive Saudis,” said Brian J. Foley, a law professor at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, Florida.

Foley said the meeting reminded him of a speech Bush gave in 2003, in which the president said, ”Liberty is both the plan of heaven for humanity, and the best hope for progress here on Earth.”

The meeting’s focus on lower oil prices, Foley added, ”sends a different message to the part of humanity that lives in Saudi Arabia: ‘heaven can wait’.”

In a joint communique following their meeting, Bush and Abdullah said, ”The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia recognises the principle of freedom upon which the United States was founded, including the freedoms enshrined under the first amendment of the United States Constitution. The Kingdom appreciates the United States’ historic role in working to end colonialism and imperialism and promoting the right of self-determination. While the United States considers that nations will create institutions that reflect the history, culture, and traditions of their societies, it does not seek to impose its own style of government on the government and people of Saudi Arabia.”

”The United States applauds the recently held elections in the Kingdom for representatives to municipal councils and looks for even wider participation in accordance with the Kingdom’s reform programme,” the statement added.

Neil Hicks, director of international programmes for Amnesty International, said he found the communique to be ”very deferential.”

”The reference to the first amendment is frankly odd, but it indicates that freedom of religion in the Kingdom, which part of Bush’s (voter) base is rightly exercised about, was on the agenda,” Hicks said.

”It would have been better if Bush had called for wider participation in accordance with universally recognised principles of democratic governance, or some such universal value, rather than allowing the Saudis to reform in accordance with their own standards,” he added. ”The Saudis will definitely interpret this as a green light to continue systematically denying universally recognized rights of women, religious minorities, and others.”

Other actors in the U.S. civil liberties community had urged the president to call on the crown prince to immediately release three dissidents imprisoned for more than a year because they had petitioned for a constitutional monarchy.

The groups also called on the president to ”urge Saudi authorities to appoint women to the recently formed municipal councils, and to establish a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.”

Human Rights Watch said that official promises that women would be allowed to vote when municipal elections are held again were not reassuring, and asked Bush to urge Abdullah also to appoint women to unelected seats on the municipal councils as well as to the national level Consultative (Shura) Council, which is wholly appointed.

Sam Husseini, communications director for the advocacy group Institute for Public Accuracy, said the talks did not reflect the full spectrum of public opinion in the United States and Saudi Arabia.

”If it were up to the U.S. public, Bush would press Abdullah on human rights, democracy, and gender equality in Saudi Arabia. If it were up to the Saudi public, Abdullah would press Bush on U.S. aggression in Iraq and U.S. support for Israeli aggression in Palestinian land Israel is occupying,” Husseini said.

Human Rights Watch, in an open letter, also had urged Bush to address ”the recent proliferation of judicial executions of Saudi Arabian citizens and, in greater numbers, non-Saudi residents of the country.”

It noted that Saudi Arabia had publicly beheaded at least 40 persons since the beginning of the year, two-thirds of them from South and Southeast Asia and Africa. A number of those executed had been convicted of robbery and drug-related offenses.

The letter said Saudi Arabian judicial proceedings do not meet international fair trial standards and urged Bush to urge Abdullah to declare a moratorium on all judicial executions.