Saudi authorities have authorized the use of lethal force to clear land for a futuristic desert city being built by dozens of Western companies, a former intelligence officer told the BBC.
Rabih Alenezi claims he was ordered to evict villagers from one tribe to make way for the construction of The Line, part of the Neom environmental project. According to him, one of them was shot for protesting against the eviction. The Saudi Arabian government and Neom project management declined to comment.
Other people ended up behind bars for protesting the project. The BBC also analyzed satellite images of the area, which confirm the destruction of several villages.
Neom is a project of the Saudi Arabian ecological region worth 500 billion dollars (approximately 11.6 trillion crowns). It is part of the Vision 2030 strategy, which aims to diversify the kingdom’s economy, which is still largely oil-based.
The centerpiece of the entire project is The Line skyscraper, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, was presented as a city without cars. It is supposed to be only 200 meters wide, but 170 kilometers long. Five million people could find a home there. But the plans assume that only 2.4 kilometers of this project will be completed by 2030.
The project is financed by the Public Investment Fund, an investment fund based in Riyadh, headed by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and de facto ruler of the country, Muhammad bin Salman.
He has carried out a number of reforms in Saudi Arabia since he became the head of the country in 2017. These include curbing the influence of the Wahhabi religious establishment by limiting the powers of the religious police and improving women’s rights.
However, the Al Jazeera Arab television server also draws attention to his “dark side”, which is evidenced by a number of problematic points of his government. Among them is the fact that a few weeks before the driving ban was lifted, he arrested a group of women and men who were demonstrating for the legalization of the move. At that time, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch also criticized him for this.
A new BBC finding on the forced eviction of tribes due to a giant project linked to the disposal of the inconvenient can now be added to the list. Introducing the project, the Prince described the area where Neom is being built as the perfect “blank canvas”. According to his government, more than 6,000 people were displaced by the project. However, the British human rights group ALQST estimates that this number is higher.
At the same time, the organization points out that the problem of illegal land grabbing and forced displacement goes far beyond the Neom megapole project. These are long-term practices of the Saudi Arabian authorities, similar expropriation with accompanying violations of human rights also occurs elsewhere in the kingdom, writes the BBC.
Tags: Saudis authorized killing opponents construction futuristic project writes BBC
