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JUST Response
country factsheets: SAUDI ARABIA
KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA
- Basic
facts
- Head
of state & prime minister: King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz (since
1982)
- Population:
26 million (of whom one fifth are foreigners).
- Population
growth rate: 2.44%.
- Unemployment
rate: 25%.
- GNP
growth rate: 4.7%.
- Oil
production: 8.7 million bbl/day (over 7.9 million bbl exported).
- External
debt: $24.2 billion (2003).
- Religions:
Muslim 100%.
- Total
area: 1,960,582 sq km.
- Currency:
Saudi riyal (SAR) US$ 1 = SAR 3.75 (August 2004).
- World's
leading exporter of petroleum.
-
- Persistent problems
- Punishments include death penalty,
flogging and amputation.
- Increasing consumption of heroin,
cocaine, and hashish.
- Continuing human rights violations
in the name of security and "combating terrorism".
- Discrimination especially against
women.
-
- Recent human rights violations
- At least fifty, mostly foreigners,
executed in 2003 - half for drug-related offences, half for
murder.
- Hundreds of protesters arrested in
context of national security following bombings in Riyadh.
-
- Important
dates
- 1747:
Alliance between ruler of peninsula and Muslim reformer leads to
founding of modern kingdom.
- 1932:
Unification of Saudi Arabia - Ibn Saud proclaims himself king.
- 1964:
Ibn Saud's son and successor deposed by King Faisal.
- 1975:
Faisal assassinated and replaced by King Khalid.
- 1982:
Khalid dies and is succeeded by King Fahd.
- 1990:
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and acceptance of 400,000 refugees.
- 1993:
Latest version of constitution (decreed by Fahd in1992).
- 2003:
Near-total withdrawal of US troops from Saudia Arabia to
neighbouring Qatar following rising tension.
[More information will be added at future
updates]
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