ALKHOBAR, 31 May 2004 — Following the confirmation yesterday by the British Foreign Office of the murder of British national Michael Hamilton, British Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles spoke with local and foreign media prior to meeting with members of the British Warden’s Network.
Cowper-Coles declined to provide any details of his briefing yesterday by the Saudi authorities concerning the Alkhobar terrorist attacks. He said 52 Britons had been registered as residents of Oasis Compound and all had been accounted for.
However, he did not completely rule out further British casualties from the attacks. Arab News has learned that eleven victims of the tragedy remained unidentified at the Dammam Morgue.
Cowper-Coles remembered Hamilton (61), the vice president of Project Finance at APICORP, saying the Briton had lived in the region for 25 years, spending 12 years of that time in Saudi Arabia. He said Hamilton had great affection for the Kingdom and his death was a great tragedy for all those who valued the ties between the two nations. The ambassador had condoled Hamilton’s widow Penny, who he met last month in Alkhobar at the Queen’s Birthday celebration.
Cowper-Coles expressed the sorrow of the British government and people for all the victims of the terror attacks. While in the Eastern Province he visited Governor Prince Muhammad ibn Fahd and conveyed messages to him from the Prince of Wales and the British prime minister.
The ambassador pointed out that there is “solidarity between the two governments in the fight against terrorism and good cooperation between British intelligence and their Saudi opposite numbers.”
In regards to the response to terror attacks, Cowper-Coles said: “We mustn’t be complacent but we mustn’t lapse into panic.” He said the Saudi authorities had seriously disrupted the operations of the terrorists in the Kingdom. However, he pointed out British intelligence does believe that further attacks may be in the final stage of preparation in Saudi Arabia.
As for whether Britons should stay in the Kingdom or leave, the ambassador said: “Britons should come to this country and remain here only if they believe their presence is essential.”
He emphasized that the British government believes that its citizens are “grown up individuals who must make up their own minds” concerning remaining in the Kingdom. All the British government could do was to offer its citizens the best advice, but the choice on whether to leave or stay was an individual one.
As for the rumors that continue to circulate concerning other British deaths in the terror attacks, Cowper-Coles acknowledged that he knew of them but that Hamilton’s was the only confirmed death.
Responding to a question concerning the economic impact of the attacks, the ambassador said he was not an economist but clearly a mass exodus of foreign technicians and other experts would be damaging to the Saudi economy. He felt that immediately after a terrorist attack was not the right time to come to conclusions concerning its long-term impact. He emphasized that prudence, not overreaction, and measured judgment would be the correct response to events of this kind.
