Saturday, April 02, 2011

MUSCAT: Hundreds of Omani protesters seeking jobs and better wages clashed with security forces in the port city of Sohar Friday, hurling rocks as the military fired in the air to try to disperse them.

The clashes, which witnesses said police brought to a halt with water cannon, came three days after a crackdown on protesters to try to clear a main Sohar roundabout where around 100 people had been camped out for weeks. The roundabout has become the symbol of protest after the earlier killing of a protester near a police station in the town.

Activists said security forces used tear gas and beat protesters with batons Friday. Two protesters said at least one person dhad ied but hospital sources said no one had been killed. Two of the eight people brought in for injuries were in critical condition, they said.

“Dozens of Omanis emerged from mosques in Sohar after Friday prayers to protest and demand the release of relatives” detained during protests earlier this week, one witness said.

Sohar, an industrial area some 200 kilometers north of the capital Muscat, particularly badly hit by unemployment, has been the scene of sit-ins this week, and last Sunday protesters pressed public sector workers in the city to go on strike in protest against graft.

Protests against autocratic rulers sweeping the region have not spared conservative and usually tranquil Oman, at the southeast end of the Arabian Peninsula. The Gulf Arab dynasty has long been backed by Washington and also has ties to Iran, a U.S. rival for influence in the region.
The Gulf Cooperative Council has tried to help protest-struck Oman and Bahrain by pledging $20 billion in assistance for socioeconomic and infrastructure development.

Sultan Qaboos bin Said offered a pay raise to try to coax Omanis off the streets, but protesters and workers have continued to stage sit-ins, including at two oil refineries two weeks ago.

Oman protests have centered on demands for better wages, jobs and an end to corruption in the autocratic state. Many have added to their demands that the government be held accountable for the detention of hundreds of protesters in Sohar.
Oman’s public prosecutor last week said that a number of “saboteurs” had been arrested in Sohar.

Sultan Qaboos, in power for 40 years, also vowed in March to cede some legislative powers to the partially elected Oman Council, which currently acts as an advisory body. At present, only the sultan and his Cabinet can legislate and a transfer of powers has yet to be announced. Qaboos also announced a cabinet reshuffle and the creation of 50,000 jobs.
But demonstrators in Oman have insisted all along that their protest was aimed at “corrupt” officials, not at Qaboos himself.

One witness said military personnel fired in the air Friday only when they failed to peacefully disperse the crowd after demonstrators left prayers and went to gather at the roundabout the army had cleared on Tuesday.
“It was all going peacefully with the military keeping a close eye,” according to a witness. “But a section of the protesters started to throw stones and other objects at the army. Then they responded by firing in the air. Many ran away but a small crowd remained and continued to protest.”

Activists from Sohar said security forces had harassed protesters from the very beginning of the sit-in and that they began throwing rocks when they heard live fire.
Some of the Friday protesters at the roundabout had set up road blocks and were charging drivers tolls, witnesses said, saying they were jobless and needed the money. – Reuters, AFP