The town of Al-Awamiya in the eastern Qatif province of Saudi Arabia resembles scenes from a war zone.
While western mainstream media focuses on protests supported and funded by American NGOs in Venezuela, there is a true tragedy with irreversible consequences that is being promulgated by the regime of Saudi Arabia, it is an ethnic cleansing that the media refuses to cover. Far from being a secretive story, the regime is boasting of its crimes under the guise of ‘fighting terrorism’ and no western government has so much as batted an eyelid.
The ethnic cleansing is centered on the town of Al-Awamiya in the north east coast of the Wahhabi Kingdom. Al-Awamiya is a Shi’a town in a country whose extremist constitution looks at Shi’a Muslims as third class citizens.
The only justification the Saudi regime has given for the ethnic cleansing is that the impoverished Shi’a population has links to terrorism, although this claim isn’t backed up with any evidence. Furthermore, the regime claims that the narrow streets of old towns like al-Awamiya are easily barricaded and therefore need to be destroyed.
Furthermore, the regime attests that it’s Shi’a population, like that of the Saudi client state of Bahrain are loyal to Iran, even though this too is not backed up by any evidence. Iran has called for human rights in the region but has never called for any kind of rebellion.
Saudi Arabia has always enacted repressive measures against its Shi’a minority ranging from social and economic disenfranchisement to random death sentences. In 2016 the Shi’a cleric Nimr al-Nimr who lived in Al-Awamiya was arrested and executed after preaching for human rights among Shi’a Muslims.
Although actual statistics on Saudi’s Shi’a population are suppressed by the regime, they are thought to represent approximately 15% of the population. Far from the glitz, garishness, and modernity of Saudi Arabia’s Sunni areas, towns like Al-Awamiya are old fashioned and lacking in the essential first world infrastructure of Sunni cities and towns in the Kingdom.
Now though, Saudi authorities have begun bulldozing the town to the ground after issuing notices that all residents must leave and must wave white flags while they evacuate.
The following short notice was posted throughout the town not long before the demolition crews and heavily armed soldiers stormed in.
Just months after the demolitions and destruction began, al-Awamiya now looks like a war zone that it has become.
1st pic is in #Awamia, #Qatif. 2nd is in Syria. Imagine how big the destruction #Saudi Forces made in #Awamiasiege which media doesn't show! pic.twitter.com/vADfQyjOsm
— Angry Qatifi (@AngryQatifi) July 14, 2017
89 days since the beginning of the military siege of #Awamia: 89 days of death, destruction, displacement, & shameful international silence pic.twitter.com/9xjTpumJKx
— BAHRAIN DETAINEES (@BH_14DETAINEES) August 6, 2017
Further video has emerged where it is clear that the Saudi regime has fired live rounds on remaining residents.
Early today in #Mosawarah of #Awamia, #Qatif. #Awamiasiege #Saudi pic.twitter.com/JTaN98Mx0e
— Angry Qatifi (@AngryQatifi) August 2, 2017
An additional video has emerged of regime fighters firing shoulder fired rockets at civilians.
"Cleansing" plan against #Awamia is working, govt snipers are shooting people from the school roof #Awamiasiege pic.twitter.com/qfGpPuSJvZ
— Steve Tugwell (@tuggers1968) July 30, 2017
In the west, the ethnic cleansing has gained minor attention in Canada as it is believed that Canadian made weapons and military vehicles which were sold to the Saudi regime under the Canadian government of Justin Trudeau have been used during the attacks on civilians.
Another Canadian-made @TerradyneArmor appeared used by #Saudi SSSF in #Awamiasiege against citizens. #Awamia #Qatif pic.twitter.com/F6oxZkoOCv
— Angry Qatifi (@AngryQatifi) July 30, 2017
#Saudi SSSF posts vid online bragging about #Awamiasiege. Canadian-made @TerradyneArmor appears at the beginning. #Awamia #Qatif pic.twitter.com/u14wY34Lgj
— Angry Qatifi (@AngryQatifi) August 6, 2017
Journalist Amel Ahmed has recently Tweeted some of the horrors that surviving victims of the atrocities have been reporting,
“I was a peaceful protester, most of us in Awamiyah were, until the government decided to list us as wanted terrorists."
— Amel Ahmed (@amelscript) August 6, 2017
"All we did was maintain calls for reform. Bc we were not afraid of the regime, they targeted the whole city,” – Saudi anti-govt activist
— Amel Ahmed (@amelscript) August 6, 2017
Saudi forces beat his wife, pointed weapons at his 5-yr-old daughter and lifted his 8-month-old baby girl high and threatened to drop her.
— Amel Ahmed (@amelscript) August 6, 2017
#Awamia, #Qatif. #Awamiasiege #Saudi
Here's the exact location of this picture. https://t.co/Wh3OZigQRx pic.twitter.com/kuAfeDkG8p
— Angry Qatifi (@AngryQatifi) August 6, 2017
The Saudi war against its own Shi’a citizens is the biggest incident of violence in the Middle East in respect of a regime committing acts of deadly violence against its own people.
To make matters worse, the regime has now sentenced 14 Shi’a human rights protesters to death by beheading.
The biggest scandal of this genocide is not that a regime known for sponsoring Wahhabist jihadist terrorism could commit prolonged acts of genocide, but that the western media seems to not care. In Syria, leading western countries have accused the Syrian government of committing acts which it has not and objectively could not commit, yet when Saudi exposes its own crimes to the world, the US and its allies remain silent.
What is happening is something related to the concept of ‘victor’s justice’, it is called ‘ally’s justice’. So long as one is allied with the US, one can do whatever one wishes and get away with it. If one is not a US ally, the US will made up crimes about your government and use this as justification for war. This is the reality of American exceptionalism, it trickles down to Washington’s geo-political friends.
This work by The Duran licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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