RIYADH, 8 June 2004 — Although the mood in Riyadh was somber yesterday following Sunday’s shooting of two BBC journalists, a number of Westerners appear prepared to give the security forces the benefit of the doubt.
Others argue that seen against the escalating crime rate in many developed countries, the Kingdom remains comparatively safe.
Phil Emmel, the president of an IT company, is accustomed to shuttling between Riyadh and the UK and doesn’t foresee the terrorist activities of the past months affecting his visits or his business interests.
When asked if he was intimidated by yesterday’s events he said, “It doesn’t bother me at all. As far as I’m concerned, the Kingdom is very safe and I feel secure being here. You just have to be street-smart and not go to places where there might be trouble.”
Dr. Volker Fiegel is currently on his third business trip to Saudi Arabia from Germany. “If you take statistics into account, the US is far more dangerous than this place,” he said. “In LA alone there are more than 800 murders reported every year.”
But an American who asked to remain anonymous admitted to feeling unsafe and was already in the process of making arrangements for repatriating his family to the United States. “After Alkhobar this is the last straw,” he said.
British Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles said the UK was not ordering its citizens to leave but “advice was being posted and updated on the Internet.”
Cowper-Coles said as most people were readying themselves to leave for their summer holidays, “the real effects of this act will be seen in September or October” when they may or may not return.
Meanwhile, the ambassador pledged the British government, the British Embassy in Riyadh and the British people “stand together with the Saudi government and their people” in the fight against terrorism.
“This act of terrorism has strengthened our relationship and our efforts to combat terrorism,” he said.
