Hundreds of Saudis staged an illegal protest in the capital, an unprecedented call for reform in this conservative Islamic kingdom.
Police fired tear gas to break up Tuesday's demonstration, which followed months of public debate, also a rarity, over growing terrorism. Critics charge that a lack of democratic freedoms has made the kingdom a breeding ground for extremists.
The Saudi royal family has been under pressure to bring democratic reform to the country since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the US and increasing terrorist violence at home. Fifteen of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi.
On Monday, the government announced it would hold the kingdom's first-ever elections, a vote to select members of 14 municipal councils.
The electoral announcement was applauded by the US.
"We support any initiative that leads to greater participation of all elements of Saudi society in political life," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Tuesday's protest appeared to be in response to repeated calls by the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia for political, economic, and administrative reforms.
The protesters, mostly young people, demonstrated in front of Al-Mamlaka shopping mall and blocked traffic before police moved in, breaking up the crowd with tear gas and arresting some. Some of the protesters chanted religious phrases such as, "God is great," but no anti-regime chants were heard, witnesses said.
The Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, or MIRA, is one of the better-known dissident groups, bringing together a number of Saudi intellectuals. Its faxes and e-mails are widely circulated in pro-reform circles inside and outside the kingdom. Founded in 1996, the group, which opposes the policies of the Saudi royal family, champions a liberal, moderate system of government and has never been linked to violence.
Saad al-Fagih, MIRA's director, said police detained nearly 300 of the protesters.
"It was a totally peaceful sit-in but Saudi police handled it in a very violent manner and it turned into chaos," al-Fagih said in a telephone interview from London.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency said "a number of individuals" had gathered, causing traffic congestion when bystanders paused to watch.
"The police immediately dealt with this gathering in accordance with security duties and returned traffic to its normal course," it said.
Analyst Dawoud el-Sheryan said the demonstration "reflects that the winds of change sweeping the region have reached Saudi Arabia," but questioned the motive behind the protests.
"I think the reform movement might be seeking personal gains from this," he said
Turki al-Sudeiry, editor-in-chief of the private, pro-government Al-Riyadh daily, said the protest was incited by a group with "certain interests."
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