Saudi's Secret Uprising

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:00:20. > :00:32.Peaceful and prosperous. A royal family in control. This is what you

:00:33. > :00:43.don't see. People are taking to the streets to fight against what they

:00:44. > :00:48.see as oppression. They are the biggest political protests that

:00:49. > :00:49.Saudi Arabia has ever experienced. The Saudi government is determined

:00:50. > :01:03.to stop the protests. It is nearly impossible for

:01:04. > :01:10.journalists to operate here. But I have travelled in under the radar.

:01:11. > :01:15.Activists have given the rare footage, showing how the conflict

:01:16. > :01:29.has developed. Hundreds have been injured in jail. 20 young men have

:01:30. > :01:47.been killed. I am Saffer a mad, and I have come home to see an

:01:48. > :01:59.unprecedented uprising. `` Safa Al Ahmad.

:02:00. > :02:09.In the kingdom's oil`rich Eastern province, three years of protests

:02:10. > :02:17.are ongoing. In the epicentre, this region. According to many locals,

:02:18. > :02:24.the vast oil wealth has failed to trickle down, and discontent has

:02:25. > :02:32.been growing. Foreign journalists rarely get access to Qatif these

:02:33. > :02:37.days. Even inside Saudi Arabia the protests are hardly ever recorded.

:02:38. > :02:44.But I know the area well, as I was born and raised in a city nearby. I

:02:45. > :02:51.want to find out how protests by the Shia minority have lasted three

:02:52. > :02:54.years, without being silenced. The uprising kicked off in early 2011

:02:55. > :03:01.with protesters demanding the release of nine men, held for years

:03:02. > :03:04.without trial. The demonstrators were also emboldened by the Arab

:03:05. > :03:15.uprising sweeping through the Middle East. But in a country ruled by an

:03:16. > :03:21.autocratic monarchy, organised dissent is rarely tolerated.

:03:22. > :03:29.Security forces were swiftly sent in, dozens of people were arrested.

:03:30. > :03:35.But the protests didn't stop, and three years on, checkpoints are

:03:36. > :03:39.still in the area. Even though I am Saudi, it is still difficult for me

:03:40. > :03:44.to move around, and I could be arrested. I want to know why

:03:45. > :03:49.activists are risking their lives to demonstrate. Although few have

:03:50. > :03:53.spoken to the media, I have tracked down some young men who have agreed

:03:54. > :03:54.to be interviewed. But they are afraid to be identified and want

:03:55. > :04:11.their voices altered. I meet dozens of protesters in

:04:12. > :04:15.secret meetings, and it becomes clear there are no unified demands,

:04:16. > :05:00.but all want major reform in the country.

:05:01. > :05:07.In this Muslim country of 28 million people, there have been

:05:08. > :05:14.long`standing tensions between the majority Sunni sect, who run the

:05:15. > :05:17.government, and the Shia community. Shia are in a minority, and most

:05:18. > :05:23.live in the eastern province, which sits on top of the world's largest

:05:24. > :05:27.oilfields. They make up less than 15% of the population, and many

:05:28. > :05:32.claim they suffer sectarian discrimination. It takes me months

:05:33. > :05:39.to find someone who will speak freely about how the protests are

:05:40. > :05:40.organised. I finally meet a man who believes they are having a definite

:05:41. > :06:00.impact. He is part of a loose coalition of

:06:01. > :06:04.activists formed in 2012. He agrees to give the BBC access to dozens of

:06:05. > :06:08.hours of extraordinary footage. Shot over the past three years. Most of

:06:09. > :06:24.it has never been broadcast before. I can't verify its Origin, but it

:06:25. > :06:28.would be hard to fake this year scale and range of the material. At

:06:29. > :06:31.the beginning, there are regular demonstrations, and the footage

:06:32. > :06:54.shows both the police and the activists are restrained.

:06:55. > :07:05.Within a month, the activists start throwing stones and Molotov

:07:06. > :07:29.cocktails. The police switch from firing tear

:07:30. > :07:31.gas to bullets. At the time, the government appeared confident the

:07:32. > :07:55.clashes were not significant. But by the end of 2011, it was more

:07:56. > :08:00.widespread than the government would admit. Human rights organisations

:08:01. > :08:05.recorded hundreds of people detained without trial. This man is key to

:08:06. > :08:41.stress the protests are peaceful. The pictures tell a more complex

:08:42. > :08:53.story. Here, the protesters are attacking police patrols. This kind

:08:54. > :09:38.of action has angered many locals, who don't agree with these tactics.

:09:39. > :09:47.As the protests intensified, the government appealed to Shia clerics

:09:48. > :09:53.to calm the situation. Only a few openly support the protesters. This

:09:54. > :10:01.footage shows the most vocal of them, Sheikh Nimr al`Nimr. This is

:10:02. > :10:07.him after the death of a highly controversial government minister,

:10:08. > :10:33.in June, 2012. It was speeches like these that many

:10:34. > :10:41.believe led to Sheikh Nimr al`Nimr's arrest hours later. I met

:10:42. > :10:42.his brother, Mohamed al`Nimr. We drive out to his farm under the

:10:43. > :11:13.cover of darkness. The police pursuit ended with the

:11:14. > :11:18.man injured. Police said he was opening fire on the police. He is

:11:19. > :11:28.now in prison, facing the death penalty.

:11:29. > :11:40.The arrest of such an influential cleric brings the people of Qatif

:11:41. > :11:50.onto the streets, demanding his release. This footage shows the

:11:51. > :12:08.dramatic scale of the protests. The police opened fire. More are

:12:09. > :12:15.injured. Two are dead. By the end of 2012, 15 young men have been

:12:16. > :12:26.killed. Nine of them from the town of Awamiya. Awamiya has a high level

:12:27. > :12:28.of poverty and unemployment, and has historically been at the forefront

:12:29. > :12:35.of confrontations with the authorities. He shows an eclipse of

:12:36. > :12:42.a young activist from the town, who appears in many of the videos. He

:12:43. > :12:51.was there from the start and quickly became one of the movement's most

:12:52. > :12:53.active leaders. Morsi is seen here, confronting the security forces and

:12:54. > :13:02.the police Lieutenant Colonel plainclothes.

:13:03. > :13:09.He is openly frustrated with the situation, as the crowd demands the

:13:10. > :13:18.release of a fellow activist. Morsi doesn't fear the authorities, and

:13:19. > :13:22.his actions get him noticed. He is named in a list of the 23 most

:13:23. > :13:34.wanted man in relation to the protests in Qatif.

:13:35. > :13:45.The battlelines are drawn. Qatif has become a militarised zone by the end

:13:46. > :13:50.of 2013. I get the message. The security forces have raided the

:13:51. > :13:57.houses of Morsi and another wanted activist. But they have managed to

:13:58. > :14:01.escape. As I make my way to their neighbourhood, the atmosphere is

:14:02. > :14:10.tense. I arrive just hours after the rain. `` raid. They have not risked

:14:11. > :14:11.speaking to the media before but now they are determined to tell their

:14:12. > :14:23.story. We go up to the roof and Morsi shows

:14:24. > :14:50.me where he says he came under fire. Was it's family was not home. He

:14:51. > :14:57.narrowly escaped by hiding in one of the neighbouring alleyways. ``

:14:58. > :15:24.Morsi's. I follow them to a house nearby. The

:15:25. > :15:37.security forces would show up at any moment so I turn off my camera.

:15:38. > :15:41.His disabled sister was in the house at the time. His mother is still in

:15:42. > :16:46.shock. They move away from their homes to

:16:47. > :16:56.protect their families. They have already seen other wanted then

:16:57. > :17:07.arrested and killed. `` wanted man. Five months earlier, he was shot

:17:08. > :17:08.dead in front of his house. He was the first of the 23 wanted to be

:17:09. > :17:34.killed. Thousands attended the funeral. And

:17:35. > :17:45.the day became known as bloody Wednesday.

:17:46. > :17:48.His mother is still in mourning when I visit and doesn't want her face

:17:49. > :18:19.shown. Khaled Labad I ask's mother if she

:18:20. > :18:39.would let her children protest now. I'm getting concerned the

:18:40. > :18:45.authorities will discover I am filming. And I decide to leave Saudi

:18:46. > :18:49.Arabia. It is important to get the videos out of the country and

:18:50. > :18:56.protect the identities of those I have spoken to so far. Between

:18:57. > :19:01.visits, I spend months scrutinising the protest footage. Dozens of hours

:19:02. > :19:09.of it. One of the things I find surprises me. A video of an attack

:19:10. > :19:15.on the police in Awamiya, dated October three 2011. The day before,

:19:16. > :19:19.the police had arrested two men to pressure their sons to surrender.

:19:20. > :19:22.You can see an activist on the right`hand side, pulling a small

:19:23. > :19:51.handgun from a scarf. I showed footage to Toby Matthiesen

:19:52. > :20:02.who has closely monitored the uprisings in the Gulf. I have never

:20:03. > :20:05.seen it before but of course, as soon as a small group uses of

:20:06. > :20:10.islands against the state, it is easy for the state to legitimise the

:20:11. > :20:13.whole movement. If a fight people take up arms, they can do a lot of

:20:14. > :20:19.damage to the overall movement but it doesn't mean it represents

:20:20. > :20:20.everyone. The government has always maintained the protesters are using

:20:21. > :20:36.weapons. We wanted to talk to someone from

:20:37. > :20:41.the Saudi government or at least to get answers to our questions. But

:20:42. > :20:47.after more than a year of many calls and e`mails they stopped responding.

:20:48. > :20:58.When I returned to Saudi Arabia in 2013 the mood is very different.

:20:59. > :21:07.Sleeping antiterrorism laws than in most forms of dissent are about to

:21:08. > :21:08.be passed throughout the country. People are even more afraid to

:21:09. > :21:21.speak. After weeks of trying to find people

:21:22. > :21:33.to talk to me on the record, this woman finally agreed.

:21:34. > :21:39.She is scared of retaliation from the government and the activist. She

:21:40. > :22:06.lives near the police station and is regularly caught in the crossfire.

:22:07. > :22:13.Even Shia clerics who once supported the protesters are now critical of

:22:14. > :22:47.the violent turn of the uprising. But the activists say the government

:22:48. > :22:53.has been engaging in a violent crackdown. A crackdown where Morsi

:22:54. > :23:01.was targeted again. This time he did not get away.

:23:02. > :23:09.His friends say he was shot dead by police while preparing for a

:23:10. > :23:21.religious festival. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds.

:23:22. > :23:32.After the death of Morsi, I find Hassan, views have changed. ``

:23:33. > :23:49.Hassan's. With activist taking up weapons,

:23:50. > :23:55.both sides are now entrenched. And then, in a recent clash, two

:23:56. > :24:01.policemen are killed in a shootout with activists. The government now

:24:02. > :24:09.considers armed protesters terrorists. This is a game changer

:24:10. > :24:14.for both sides. The ruling family don't want any political reform and

:24:15. > :24:18.really just want to show their iron fist. The only reaction to that can

:24:19. > :24:23.either be apathy or violence. There is no way of engaging with the state

:24:24. > :24:32.at the moment. If you are a reformist in Saudi Arabia.

:24:33. > :24:38.I go to the Awamiya Cemetery where there is a special plot for those

:24:39. > :24:59.killed during the uprising. It is the final resting place of Morsi.

:25:00. > :25:10.Of the 23 most wanted, to have been killed, 13 have been arrested. And

:25:11. > :25:14.eight are in hiding. It has become too risky for me to continue

:25:15. > :25:20.investigating the story. I must leave my country. A country where

:25:21. > :25:24.fear and paranoia have taken hold of the people around me. And dissent

:25:25. > :25:27.has been wished underground once again. `` pushed underground once

:25:28. > :26:21.again. Hello again. After a drab week with

:26:22. > :26:24.outbreaks of rainfall most of us, we can promise is a change. It is

:26:25. > :26:27.looking it with a few scattered showers but most will see some

:26:28. > :26:29.sunshine. There will be some wet weather working its way into the

:26:30. > :26:34.north`west on Sunday. Those of us start the week and dry but one or

:26:35. > :26:37.two showers could break out in parts of south Wales, the Midlands,

:26:38. > :26:38.north`west England. That is