Saudi Arabia breaks world beheading record, UN human rights chief not happy

BalcombeSt4

Saudi Arabia, NATO's best ally in the Middle East along with Israel, broke ISIS's records and beheaded 81 people in a single day, which is just absolute sadistic savagery, this country is run by a bunch of serial killers. I guess these are the guys we'll be getting our oil from now?

https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/03/1113922

"The UN human rights chief has condemned the beheading of 81 people by Saudi Arabia during the course of a single day, charged with terrorism-related offences."

I'm happy people are helping Ukrainian refugees & a huge amount of them are children, and we should be helping no matter what your political views are, its the right thing to do, but also save a thought for the 10,000+ children killed or injured in Yemen since the Saudi invasion of Yemen in 2015.

"More than 10,200 children have been killed or injured since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015, the UN agency said."

"At least 47 children were “killed or maimed” in Yemen’s civil war in January and February following a surge in violence, the United Nations children’s fund said on Saturday.

Children are the “first and most to suffer”, UNICEF said, adding that at least 10,000 minors have been killed or injured since 2015, when the Saudi-led military alliance launched air raids in the Middle East’s poorest country."

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/12/47-children-killed-maimed-in-yemen-in-two-months-says-unicef

patnor1011

Yawn. Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia and even Syria are not on the agenda for our bleeding heart activists. Too busy trying to expand war in Ukraine. That conflict is better for business.

BalcombeSt4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118791902#Comment_118791902

I mean 81 people in just a single day is just astonishing. I'm not even sure the French Revolutionaries beheaded that much in one day at the height of the Terror.

I posted it because I didn't know about it myself till I came across a recommended video on Youtube, didn't see anything about this on any news channels or in tabloids, I think people do like to know what's going with the Saudis since most people who were neutral on the Saudi issue finally realized how fucked up the regime is after they chopped up a journalist, which was really just the tip of the iceberg. The situation in Yemen is crazy, hospitals that haven't been blown up yet are so full they are just sedating people with server mental health issues & PTSD and putting them out on the street, and places, where they can't get medicine in some severe cases violent mentally disturbed people, are chained to a wall.

longvacation

There can be only one.....

olestoepoke

The Saudis getting away with murder, literally. The Prince admitted to approving an operation to capture or kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The slaughter and famine in Yemen, and yet they are allowed to buy Newcastle FC without any meaningful challenge. And less than a year later the Chelsea FC owner is heavily sanctioned and forced to sell or worse could have it taken from him. This shows the power of the media and their propaganda wheel. In an age of social media and news on demand whatever narrative they push is played on a loop. Speak up about it and you're a Putin apologist or Putin bot or their favourite term "whataboutery" comes out.

All war is bad and all invaders should be sanctioned. There should be no distinction made between people like Putin, the Saudis, the Americans or the Isrealis when it comes to invaders of sovereign nations. We shouldn't have a class of victims. A dead child is a dead child no matter where in the world they are or dare I say what colour their skin is. Hypocrisy and double standards from the the west as usual.

I'd wager that a lot of people don't even know what is going on in Yemen because it's not on the news every night, they aren't showing crying victims on a loop. Footballers aren't wearing Yemen t-shirts. Propaganda doesn't always have to be a lie it can be how you choose to tell the truth and what truths you choose to leave out.

patnor1011

There is also no mention of any sanctions against SA coalition and their oil and gas despite that Yemen destruction and casualties are like 100x of current russia ukraine conflict. Who we are kidding right? This show something about where our values lie. Some lives are more valuable than others as it seems.

Jequ0n

The ironic thing is that people don’t even realise their own hypocrisy when vehemently defending their stance on the Ukrainian war, while shrugging off the other ongoing conflicts.

My theory is that most people don’t care about either situation, but that the Ukrainian war is just the fashionable topic to have an opinion on atm. It will pass like anything else, as soon as people find a new topic that will occupy their brains, and which provides a new reason to update their profile pictures.

rock22

I started a similar thread in Politics.

From the response, and the response here, I have to agree that most people don't care, sadly.

There is also the suggestion, that the saudi's chose their time for this outrage because social media was distracted by Ukraine.

There is a huge effort right now to Sportswash these middle east tyrannies with F1 ,gof and football all lending a hand.

Not one politician has been reported condemning what has happened in Saudi Arabia. Shame

Wibbs

They're not pale enough of face for us to care. That's a huge part of it. They have the West by the nuts over oil. More than Russia. The West (America mostly)is both wary and tired of more intractable Middle East conflict boiling up yet again and there's a balancing act between support for Israel and Saudi Arabia. We seem to think keeping the latter inside the tent stabilises the region(it doesn't). The Saudi's have established far more political and economic "friends" in the West than Russia has, even though their background culture is more "alien" and more dastardly and autocratic in many respects. Russia has its problems that's for bloody sure, but they're not beheading people in the street as a cultural thing and as a function of modern law, they have labour laws against trafficking and slavery(the Saudi kip only banned slavery in law in the 1960's) and women can drive without a male family member in the car and don't have to cover themselves from head to toe to avoid getting a beating from religious police. Never mind the billions the Saudi's spend on supporting and spreading the worst form of Islam across the world.

If the Ukrainian war makes the EU move away from over reliance on oil from all sources, hopefully that takes the wind out of backward kips like Saudi Arabia too.

[Deleted User]

@BalcombeSt4 - 2 hours ago: "... posted it because I didn't know about it myself till I came across a recommended video on Youtube, didn't see anything about this on any news channels or in tabloids"

Posted 4 days ago: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-executes-81-men-terrorism-other-charges-spa-2022-03-12/

Posted 4 days ago: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/12/saudi-arabia-executes-men-in-one-day

Posted 3 days ago: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-60722057?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

A reaction posted 2 days ago: https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2022/0314/1286382-saudi-arabia-exectuion/

It was well covered.

SouthWesterly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118791919#Comment_118791919

17000 killed during the 10 months of the French revolution

247 killed on Christmas day in 1793. So much for civilised Europeans

Multipass

It’s a shocking headline, but worth mentioning that China has by far the highest death penalty rate, and they use firing squad and lethal injection. Beheading is a quicker death.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118792161#Comment_118792161

China has serious issues internally and externally as far as human rights go. I blame the West for supporting that regime even more than Saudi Arabia. American business gutted their working class like a fish, outsourced their manufacturing base for cheap labour to line the pockets of a repugnantly rich few while their government supported it, or certainly did feck all to halt it. While we, the Western consumer got hooked on ever more throwaway dopamine hits and consume more and more on the backs of cheap labour while still having the gall and pretence of trying to be "green" and "humanitarian".

smurfjed

Saudi Arabia is actively changing its legal system, they will define crimes and punishments rather than leaving them to the interpretation of each judge, this however will not change any law and associated sentence that is defined in the Koran, so no death sentence for drugs. But if you murder someone, you will be sentenced to death.

@wibbs “but they're not beheading people in the street as a cultural thing and as a function of modern law, they have labour laws against trafficking and slavery(the Saudi kip only banned slavery in law in the 1960's) and women can drive without a male family member in the car and don't have to cover themselves from head to toe to avoid getting a beating from religious police.”

1: They abolished slavery 30 years after they became a country, how long did it take the USA and Europe?

2: Check the present status about their actions on human trafficking.

3: Women don’t need anyone sitting beside them in a car.

4: what is the present dress code for women ?

5: ‘What religious police?

i find it funny when people call for a country to change, but at the same time they refuse to acknowledge these changes as they are happening.

‘Finally, Yemen is in the middle of a civil war, it’s not an invasion. Like any war, there are two sides involved and right now it appears that one side is refusing to come to any negotiating table, although they did finally release the SAFER thereby avoiding an ecological disaster..

Danzy

They have lots of oil which we need.

They have been at this since time immemorial.

It's mandated by their religion and no one is going to change that.

The 3 reasons it is not newsworthy in the West.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118791902#Comment_118791902

Ah feck off

smurfjed

Make it 82, not 81.

“The Ministry of Interior announces the execution of the death sentence as a punishment for the offender / Bandar bin Ali bin Muhammad Al-Zahrani - a Saudi national - today, Wednesday, in the Makkah region; For killing three of his daughters, aged six, four and two years, by slaying them with a knife.”

smurfjed

83.

”The Ministry of Interior implements the death sentence as a punishment for the offender / Hamid bin Safran bin Muqbel Al-Osaimi - Saudi - today in Makkah; For killing his infant son, Rayan, by hitting him in different parts of his body, and causing the death of his wife, Reem bint Hilal Al-Osaimi - Saudi Arabia - by intimidating her and escaping, which led to her running over from a car and her death.”

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118792463#Comment_118792463

1: They abolished slavery 30 years after they became a country, how long did it take the USA and Europe?

Stupid comparison. In Europe slavery was outlawed in England from the 12th century and the rest of Europe followed by the 16th centuries. SA only banned it after serious pressure from the USA and the UK. And their human rights aren;t exaclty up to par today. Last time I checked they hadn't even signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

2: Check the present status about their actions on human trafficking.

Yep, you should.

3: Women don’t need anyone sitting beside them in a car.

Yep they allowed women to drive in 2018. How do they regard a woman driving with a man who isn't a relative?

4: what is the present dress code for women ?

The official line is the headscarf requirement was relaxed in 2019, but culture and law don't alwayys gel.

5: ‘What religious police?

They were a strong force in the nation until 2017 and yes that has improved as their powers have since been massively reduced.

smurfjed

1: And yet we still have the top 10 of 167 countries that still have some form of slavery.

https://www.wonderslist.com/10-countries-with-most-slaves/

2: As Human Rights is a varied subject, they have a lot of bases covered.

https://www.my.gov.sa/wps/portal/snp/careaboutyou/humanright

3: It isn’t an issue, no religious police to stop and ask their relationship.

4: Don’t confuse laws with desires. No one is presently forced to cover up, they only have to comply with modest clothing. However, if they personally desire to cover completely, sure that’s their right.

timmyntc

Saudis will not face any blowback for human rights violations - after all, UN only applies to poor countries. Saudi is far from it.

Their recent talk of trading oil for Chinese Yuan (not USD) may be their undoing however. The US could pursue regime change under the guise of human-rights violations, but everyone knows its all about oil and US hegemon

Danzy

Out lawing slavery in the Islamic world was due to Western guns and pressure.

It was deeply unpopular and viewed as an attack against Islam, which it was.

smurfjed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118792852#Comment_118792852

There are only reports this morning that this statement about yuan/oil was translated incorrectly.

“This news is written in a wrong way due to a wrong translation. The First Street Journal, which was unique in the news, said: Discussions are to obtain revenue in yuan, not pricing oil in yuan.”

https://twitter.com/anasalhajji/status/1503770339167375371?s=21

smurfjed

“Prior to Johnson's visit to Saudi Arabia, the European Union 🇪🇺 announced the classification of the Houthi militia in Yemen 🇾🇪 as a terrorist organization and included it in the blacklist of the European Union, freezing its assets and prohibiting providing it with funding”

it’s always worth remembering that there are two sides in every war.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118792620#Comment_118792620

He certainly deserved it, they might be sending a message to the population as well, that certain behaviours are no longer going to be tolerated in an Arabia that is so dependent on the West for support, defense and for paying it insane money.

smurfjed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118792883#Comment_118792883

True, but to put it in context.

”King Faisal had used this combination of respect and royal authority to obtain clerical support when he introduced television, ended slavery, and opened schools for girls—none of which the ulama had initially wanted. In each instance Faisal had compromised; television stations broadcast more sermons than sitcoms, slave owners were well compensated,”

‘Some of these “slave” families have continued to work for the same families, generation after generation but as paid employees.

bullpost

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118792942#Comment_118792942

Same happened in US and Great Britain when slavery abolished. Owners compensated etc.

[Deleted User]

But Newcastle fans just care about more expensive players coming to the club and it isn't anything to do with them even though Mr Bone Saw himself is the chairman of the PIF who is the majority owner!

Also the Saudis are furthermore taking advantage of the focus on the invasion of Ukraine to conduct "double tap" air strikes in Yemen where the idea is to kill rescue and aid responders!

Scumbags

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-60742504

olestoepoke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118792046#Comment_118792046

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1iqjlwUjdk&ab_channel=TheJimmyDoreShow

Shelga

I consider myself reasonably well informed about current events, and I genuinely didn’t know about SA’s involvement in the Yemen conflict until just now, reading about it. I’m embarrassed to admit that. I thought there was an internal Yemen civil war going on, and that it had led to famine and terrible conditions, but didn’t know much more than that.

I think it’s a combination of just not looking into it too much, and it barely featuring on the news. Obviously I think Saudi Arabia is a hellhole- a company I worked for years ago wanted to establish a base there, and I had major problems with that at the time. But then, I happily went off to work in China for a few months and make extra money.

It seems like everywhere you look there are corrupt, violent and barbaric regimes behind most of the countries that we in the west do business with. Of course it has occurred to me that the focus on Ukraine is somewhat biased, but the first major war in Europe in 77 years was always going to generate more headlines.

It’s all incredibly depressing :(

rock22

it is worth pointing out what the UN high Commissioner , Ms. Bachelet, had to say about the legal process

"“Our monitoring indicates that some of those executed were sentenced to death following trials that did not meet fair trial and due process guarantees, and for crimes that did not appear to meet the most serious crimes threshold, as required under international law,” she said."

She also said

she understood that 41 were Muslims from the Shiite minority who had taken part in anti-government protests in 2011-12, calling for greater political participation.( i.e. protest ten years ago)

But the Saudis can rely on their friends in high places for cover for their barbarism

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-58930311