|
In
the limited public security structure inherited from the Ottoman Empire,
police work was done informally and justice was administered by local or
tribal authorities. Gradually, during the reign of Abd al Aziz, modern
organs of government were introduced and became responsible for
maintaining public order. By royal decree in 1950, Abd al Aziz created a
general directorate to supervise all police functions in the kingdom,
and a year later he established the Ministry of Interior, which has
since been in charge of police matters. Subordinate to the Ministry of
Interior general directorates charged with maintaining internal security
included Public Security, Investigation, Coast Guard, and Special
Security. The offices of the deputy ministers for administration,
national security affairs, and immigration and naturalization, and the
Internal Security Forces College were all on the same organizational
level as the four general directorates. Governors of the amirates
reported directly to the minister of interior
In
return for their loyalty and the maintenance of peace and order in the
tribal areas, the king provided subsidies to the shaykhs and a minimum
of government interference in tribal affairs. Under this system,
offenses and breaches of the peace were punished by the responsible
shaykh. The national guard acted as a support force to quell
disturbances or restore order if tribal authority could not.
The
public security forces, particularly the centralized Public Security
Police, could also get emergency support from the national guard or, in
extremis, from the regular armed forces. The Public Security Police,
recruited from all areas of the country, maintained police directorates
at provincial and local levels. The director general for public security
retained responsibility for police units but, in practice, provincial
governors exercised considerable autonomy. Provincial governors were
frequently senior amirs of the Al Saud.
Since
the mid-1960s, a major effort has been made to modernize the police
forces. During the 1970s, quantities of new vehicles and radio
communications equipment enabled police directorates to operate
sophisticated mobile units, especially in the principal cities.
Helicopters were also acquired for use in urban areas. Police uniforms
were similar to the khaki and olive drab worn by the army except for the
distinctive red beret. Policemen usually wore sidearms while on duty.
Dealings
with the security forces were often a source of difficulty for
foreigners in the kingdom. Ordinary policemen could be impatient with
those who did not speak Arabic and were often illiterate. Darker-skinned
workers were said to be treated more roughly than Europeans or North
Americans. Detentions of everyone connected with a serious crime or
accident could result until the police investigated matters.
The
police security forces were divided into regular police and special
investigative police of the General Directorate of Investigation (GDI),
commonly called the mubahith (secret police). The GDI conducted criminal
investigations in addition to performing the domestic security and
counterintelligence functions of the Ministry of Interior. The
Directorate of Intelligence, which reported directly to the king, was
responsible for intelligence collection and analysis and the
coordination of intelligence tasks and reporting by all intelligence
agencies, including those of the Ministry of Defense and Aviation and
the national guard.
An
important feature of domestic security was the Ministry of Interior's
centralized computer system at the National Information Center in
Riyadh. The computer network, linking 1,100 terminals, maintained
records on citizens' identity numbers and passports, foreigners'
residence and work permits, hajj visas, vehicle registrations, and
criminal records. Reports from agents and from the large number of
informants employed by the security services were also entered.
Officials of the Directorate of Intelligence had authority to carry
out wiretaps and mail surveillance.
The
Special Security Force was the Saudi equivalent of a special weapons
assault team (SWAT), such as had been incorporated into police forces
in various parts of the world. Reporting directly to the minister of
interior, the force was organized after the poor performance of the
national guard during the revolt at the Grand Mosque at Mecca in 1979.
The force was equipped with UR-416 armored vehicles from West Germany
and nonlethal chemical weapons. According to The Military Balance, the
force had a personnel strength of 500 in 1992, although estimates from
other sources have ranged much higher. It was reported in 1990 that
the antiterrorism unit of the Special Security Force was being
disbanded and its German training staff repatriated.
The
strength of the Coast Guard was 4,500 as of 1992 and of the Frontier
Force 10,500, according to The Military Balance. The Frontier Force
patrolled land borders and carried out customs inspections. The Coast
Guard deployed its units from ports along the Persian Gulf and the Red
Sea with a primary mission to prevent smuggling. Among its varied
inventory of craft, the largest were four 210-ton offshore patrol
craft acquired from West Germany in 1989. Two were based at Jiddah and
two at Ad Dammam. The Coast Guard also had about thirty large patrol
craft, 135 inshore patrol craft, and sixteen British-built Hovercraft.
An
unusual, if not unique, internal security force in Saudi Arabia was
the autonomous and highly visible religious police, or mutawwiin
.Organized under the authority of the king in conjunction with the
ulama, the mutawwiin were charged with ensuring compliance with the
puritanical precepts of Wahhabism. A nationwide organization known in
English as the Committees for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention
of Vice (also seen as Committees for Public Morality), the mutawwiin
earned a reputation for fanaticism and brutality that had become an
embarrassment, but the Al Saud has seemingly been reluctant to
confront the ulama in a showdown. Primarily, the mutawwiin enforced
public observance of such religious requirements as the five daily
prayers, fasting during Ramadan, the modesty of women's dress, and the
proscriptions against the use of alcohol
Once
an important instrument of Abd al Aziz for upholding standards of
public behavior, the ultraconservatism of the mutawwiin had become an
anachronism, contrasting with the modernization processes working in
other sectors of society. The government has occasionally disciplined
overzealous mutawwiin, following complaints from a foreign government
over treatment of its nationals. After a series of raids on rich and
influential Saudis in 1990, the government appointed a new and more
compliant leader of the religious police.
The
religious police had the legal right to detain suspects for
twenty-four hours before turning them over to the regular police and
were known to have flogged detainees to elicit confessions. They often
used switch-like sticks to beat those perceived to be in violation of
religious laws. Foreign workers, including some from the United
States, have been targets of harassment and raids. According to one
estimate, there were about 20,000 mutawwiin in 1990. Most mutawwiin
wore the traditional white thaub, were salaried, and were regarded as
government employees. Some incidents of harassment have been
attributed to self-appointed vigilantes outside the regular religious
police hierarchy.
|
General Section
