DUBAI (AP) - A Muslim minority group in Saudi Arabia has called on the government to release 93 members it says are being held for criticising the government's treatment of the sect. In a statement to the Associated Press Sunday, the elders of the Yam tribe asked Saudi leaders and the international community to intervene on behalf of the men being held and to work to ensure full rights are granted to Yam tribesmen.
Yam tribesmen, who live in the kingdom's southern Najran province, are members of the minority Ismaili Shiite Muslim. International human rights monitors say Ismailis face discrimination in Saudi Arabia.
The statement was signed by “all the elders of the Yam tribe in Najran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” Representatives of the tribe were not available for further comment. Saudi government officials could not be reached for comment.
The statement said 17 of those being held were facing death sentences “for opposing the condition of degradation, repression and humiliation that is practiced against them and their tribesmen by Saudi authorities because of their faith.”
“We don't have any civil, political or religious rights. We call for reform or to be left to live in security and peace and with full rights like the rest of the kingdom's citizens,” the statement said.
The statement did not say how long the men have been held.
They likely were arrested following violent clashes in April 2000 in Najran province, 800 kilometres southwest of the capital, Riyadh.
Saudi authorities at the time denied that 40 people died in the clashes between Saudi forces and members of the Ismaili sect, as reported by a Yemeni tribal chief and a London-based Saudi opposition leader.
Instead, the Najran governor said that one policeman was shot and killed when authorities tried to arrest “a sorcerer” living illegally in the province, which borders Yemen.
At the time of the clashes, Interior Minister Prince Nayef said the Saudi government views members of the Ismaili sect as “brothers and citizens in whom we have complete confidence.”
The London-based human rights group Amnesty International said in its 2001 report that hundreds of Ismailis were arrested following demonstrations and clashes in April 2000 to protest the closure of their mosque by security forces.
The US State Department reports in its 2001 International Religious Freedoms Report that “members of the Shiite minority are the subjects of officially sanctioned political and economic discrimination.” The report says Shiites have restricted access to higher education and employment in government and the oil industry.