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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Omani Elected Officials Still Locked Up Over Liwa Protest

Today, Gulf News put out an article reporting on how Talib Mamari, an Omani Shura Council member and another elected local Municipality member have been in jail with out bail since late August over their alleged 'participation' in the anti-pollution demonstration in Liwa.

See article: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/oman/shura-member-case-in-muscat-adjourned-to-september-29-1.1232954

Mr. Mamari claims he was there only to calm people down. He even has immunity as a Shura member but as far as we know has been lock-up due to some type of exception of being 'at the crime scene'. This protest was attended by members of the Liwa community and local tribes including ladies (not just a few hooligans) as cry for help to the fact that they are being sickened by the surrounding pollution. There are Royal directives in place to help the citizens regarding the issue but the directives seem not to have been fully implemented yet for whatever reasons.

These actions of locking-up elected officials over a 'pollution demonstration' attended by ladies and children create an appearance to the outside world that does not seem to fit a country with a reputation of being signaled out for the most improved country status in the Human Development Report by the UN in 2010 given improved life expectancy and health was one of the areas in which Oman excelled in the report.  The opening of this report reiterates, “People are the real wealth of a nation.”

http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2010_EN_Complete_reprint.pdf  - Oman most improved nation 2010 - UN report.

Ladies of Liwa 'pollution' demonstration - Aug. 2013


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