TAIF, 16 July 2004 — A riot broke out near Taif at an auction to sell off traditional tribal lands. Three thousand people who had gathered to protest the sale smashed down temporary offices and set fire to tents and surrounding buildings. Ten people, including nine security personnel, were injured. Seven-thousand plots of land of in the “Al-Wisam” area, situated between Al-Hada and Al-Shifa regions that are both popular tourist locations in the country and urban area, were due to be sold off by public auction. Security personnel at the location tried to calm the crowds but failed and the situation swiftly escalated into a riot. The protesters broke the windows of the temporary offices, wrecked the office properties and destroyed documents and computers. After attacking the offices, the protesters wrecked three cars belonging to employees of the auction. They turned the vehicles over and then set fire to the auction building and to nearby tents erected for the sale. The protesters moved on to set fire to neighboring buildings to the astonishment of those who came to attend the auction. Firemen responded but arrived only after most of the buildings and temporary structures were gutted. Ahmad Al-Ghamdi who was visiting family nearby thought this was the first time something like this had ever happened in Saudi Arabia. “There have been protests in Riyadh and Jeddah but they were not like this; they were political and there weren’t this many people. These people gathered to do something, to stop the lands being sold and they did it!” The protesters were from a tribe whose traditional homelands are near the lands designated for sale. They arrived to the auction site after Asr prayer, some holding signs and banners calling for the auction to be stopped. They declared that the lands belonged to them, inherited from their forefathers. Riot police arrived to quell the riot and fired shots into the air in an attempt to control the situation and break up the crowd. The protesters resisted and fought back throwing rocks back at them causing injuries to nine security personnel in addition to a Yemeni man who received minor wounds. The wounded were taken to King Abdulaziz Specialist Hospital where a “code yellow” alert was declared in the expectation of more injured to arrive. An Arab nurse at the hospital, who chose to not reveal her name, said, “With all that’s been happening and all that does happen nowadays, we didn’t know what to expect. We heard there was some sort of riot or attack and then injured security men arrived. We were told to stand by and be ready.” Men from all over the Gulf region as far as Kuwait and Qatar had arrived to attend the land-auction. “I’ve attended many land-auctions in the region including Saudi Arabia,” said Abu Jassem. “I’ve never seen this happen before, and in this country of all places.”
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