BIDOON KEPT AWAY FROM CANCELED PARLIAMENT SESSION

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 001159

SIPDIS

NEA/ARP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KISL KU BIDOON
SUBJECT: BIDOON KEPT AWAY FROM CANCELED PARLIAMENT SESSION
ON STATELESS RIGHTS

REF: KUWAIT 1154

Classified By: PolCouns Pete O'Donohue for reasons 1.4 b and d


1. (U) On December 10, the Kuwaiti parliament failed to hold
a planned session on a bill to extend education and
healthcare benefits to the country's 100,000 Bidoon
(stateless residents who assert rights to Kuwaiti
citizenship). Parliament Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi canceled
the session at exactly 9:30AM, citing that the assembled MPs
were two short of the 33 required for quorum, despite the
fact that several MPs were still trickling in. Later that
day, the Kuwait Human Rights Society (KHRS) NGO issued a
statement on their wesbite demanding that a new session be
scheduled as soon as possible to ratify the bill and end,
"the Bidoon's misery that has lasted for too long."


2. (C) On the morning of the planned session, police cordoned
off all roads leading to the National Assembly and PolOff
observed officers checking civil IDs and allowing only a
handful of cars through. KHRS Board Member Amer Al-Tameemi,
one of the few non-MPs who managed to reach the parliament
building, told the Embassy that he believed it was obvious
that the GOK used the police cordons to prevent Bidoon from
congregating outside the National Assembly and expressed his
disappointment that MPs were not more serious about the issue
and showed up late. Shaher Al-Subairi, an activist for
stateless persons' rights who is himself Bidoon, told the
Embassy that several Bidoon activists had planned to hold a
large rally across from the parliament but were pressured by
the GOK to cancel it. Tribalist MPs (who stand the most to
gain if tribal Bidoons are given citizenship and hence voting
rights) understandably followed the issue closely:
provocateur MP Musallam Al-Barrak, who grilled Interior
Minister Shaykh Jaber Al-Khalid Al Sabah in June, groused to
local daily Al-Qabas that he suspected the Interior Minister
had arranged for the Bidoon parliamentary session to have
insufficient attendance to ensure its cancellation.


3. (C) Comment: Having skillfully navigated the political
rapids of the closed-door grilling of the PM and three
government ministers December 8, many observers here hope
there will be smooth sailing ahead, with the government able
to move forward vigorously on long overdue major
infrastructure projects and legislation without further
parliamentary roiling of the waters. While this newfound
optimism may prove short-lived in any case (and may presume a
level of potential government energy and leadership not
obviously in evidence),it appears that when it came to the
parliamentary session on the Bidoon, the GOK was not prepared
to offer its tribalist detractors a platform from which to
launch yet another divisive and fractious debate -- certainly
not so soon after its December 8 "victory."

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For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit:
visit Kuwait's Classified Website at:

http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Kuwa it
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JONES