Saudi policies aligned with UK colonialism: Analyst
Press TV has interviewed Arzu Merali, a member of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, in London, about a new report saying that the United Kingdom eyes top contracts, notably militarily ones, with Saudi Arabia despite an outcry over the Al Saud’s human rights violations.
What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: This is quite inconsistent on behalf of the British government when it claims to advocate human rights and democracy but at the same time it is elbow-deep in arms sales and arms contracts with the likes of the Saudis.
Merali: Exactly! And I think we have to both take a short-term and long-term view here. Ultimately, the whole Saudi project is closely aligned with British colonialism and I think it has been unrealistic for any of us to think that there has been any separation of that connection.
Over the last hundred years, in the last 50 years or last 40 years or whatever... when so many countries are supposedly independent, I think what we have seen in the last week particularly is just rank hypocrisy. There has been so much pressure on the British government with regard to cases like Sheikh Nimr, Ali Nimr, who is facing execution almost for protesting against the government and yet the prison contract was only canceled really because of pressure regarding the lashing of a British citizen...
Press TV: What can rights groups like the one that we mentioned in the news item Reprieve do to garner more awareness to what is happening?
Merali: I think all of us have been trying very hard to raise the actual level of the atrocities that in particular Saudi Arabia is responsible so Reprieve and other organizations will look at specific cases.
For example, we ourselves published data few years back that there are about 30,000 political prisoners. Now, if you look at the population and size of Saudi Arabia, it is not very big for them to have 30,000 solely political prisoners who are living in very, very cramped conditions.
But unfortunately the problem we have is that I think there is vast awareness of the kind of problems, abuses that are perpetrated by the Saudi regime. We have governments that are happily in bed with them because it serves their agenda. Human rights may be the mantra of different governments but ultimately they are more than happy for the rights of people around the world to be abused if it is in their own interest.
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