Blasts Open Fissures In Land Of Black Gold
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday February 7, 1987
Mohammed Ali Naki, a wealthy aluminum trader, the chairman of Arabian Light Metals, head of a large clan and, most importantly at the moment, a Shi'ite Muslim Kuwaiti citizen, thought it wise to take out front-page advertisements in the local Arabic and English newspapers.
The ads, which covered a quarter of page one, began in huge letters: "Announcement. Mohammed Ali Naki, his brothers and family hereby declare that there is no relation with those arrested by the Ministry of Interior on the accusation of arson. We issue this announcement because of the resemblance in the name.
"We condemn and denounce those malicious and malignant criminals.
"God save Kuwait, his Highness the Emir, the Crown Prince, the Government and Compatriots from any evil. God protect our generous ruling family. We are all for Kuwait and its sacred soil."
Naki's ad, motivated by a sense of self-preservation as well as patriotism, was a visible sign of the shock waves running through the predominantly Sunni Muslim Kuwaiti society after last Saturday's announcement of the arrest of a ring of Kuwaitis - all Shi'ites - charged with bombing the emirate's oil installations on the eve of last week's Islamic summit meeting here.
The bombings and arrests have been the talk of the diwaniyas, the evening gatherings where the men of the big merchant families visit one another. In each house, the merchants, who form a kind of ruling cabal, lounge on cushions, sip Arab coffee and discuss the gossip and issues of the day.
The last few nights, there has been considerable talk about whether the Shi'ites, about a third of the population and mostly of Iranian origin, are becoming a kind of fifth column of Islamic fundamentalism spilling over from Ayatollah Khomeini's theocracy.
What is most astonishing to the establishment here is that it appears that the 11 Shi'ites arrested and five being sought as fugitives were all Kuwaiti citizens, a status accorded about 40 per cent of the population of one million.
Even more remarkable, two of the surnames of the accused - Dashti and Behbahani - belong to the handful of clans of Iranian origin that can take their place among the so-called "big families" at the pinnacle of prestige, wealth and influence.
"This strikes at fundamental aspects, at the very foundations of this society," said one Western diplomat. "It's a very touchy issue."
Kuwait's emir, Sheik Jaber Ahmed Sabah, tried to speak to the fears of Sunnis and Shi'ites last Sunday night in a television address, warning that "national unity should be preserved, although some are seeking to desecrate it, and justice should be allowed to take its course".
"The mature society," he said, "is one that chose justice in times of both anger and satisfaction and does not leave the guilty without punishment, but applies the wisdom that no one bears the guilt of another," an apparent warning against reprisals on Shi'ites.
The three bombings occurred almost simultaneously on the night of January 19 at an oil well and a collection station in the Aqa oil field and at the man-made Sea Island loading platform.
Shi'ite fundamentalist groups had issued threats from Beirut against Kuwait after Iran announced a boycott of the Islamic meeting because of Kuwait's support for Iraq in the Gulf War.
When the arrests were announced on Saturday night, Kuwaiti television showed pictures of the large caches of weapons which the police said they had uncovered, including Israeli-made Uzi submachine guns, Soviet-made Kalashnikov rifles and large stores of pistols, hand grenades, explosives and detonating devices.
Kuwaiti sources said the police first suspected an employee of the Kuwait Oil Co. on the top-security loading platform, then raided a villa only two days before the summit opened in a shoot-out in which six policemen were wounded. Two of the houses of the accused are in well-to-do neighbourhoods only a few hundred metres from the conference centre where the summit was held.
Native Kuwaitis, descendants of Arab tribes from the Nejd Desert, are in a minority in their own country, where expatriate Palestinians, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Iranians and others do much of the work.
When the country began to modernise more than a quarter of a century ago, there was considerable debate over whether to extend full citizenship to Shi'ites who had migrated from Iran around the turn of the century.
Ahmed Jarallah, a newspaper publisher who was the target of an assassination attempt for which three Palestinians were found guilty, wrote an angry editorial entitled The Devils Want to Create Anarchy, taking the alleged plotters to task for attacking the oil that has made this country rich.
"These people have been given Kuwaiti citizenship," said Jarallah. "Kuwait has been very generous to them, giving them the status of its son."
But the editorial said they wanted to "kill and destroy the economic establishments that are the lifeblood of this country".
"What do these devils want and for what evil side do they work?" the editorial asked. "We would not have been surprised had this come from strangers or infiltrators not loyal to this country and without the honor of nationality."
© 1987 Sydney Morning Herald