Kuwait's Acting Premier Calls on Media to Curb Sectarian Tensions

KUWAIT CITY, September 21, 2010 - At a briefing
(www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?Language=en&id=2111987)
with senior editors earlier this week, Acting Prime Minister and Defense
Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaber_Al-Mubarak_Al-Hamad_Al-Sabah), said the
Kuwaiti government and media were responsible for avoiding anyone who uses
sectarian incidents to cause national strife. "We need to come together for
mutual assistance," he said.

He told the assembled editors that prevention of sedition is a national
responsibility and is the responsibility of everyone in his or her respective
location. His comments were a continuation of what he recently said when
speaking to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) last week. He explained, "What is
going on is not of the country's interest and would not lead to 'objectively'
solving issues being discussed in the media."

At the meeting
(www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MzA1MjkzNzk1) at the Diwan
of His Highness the Prime Minister in Seif Palace, the Acting Premier
described the media as "one of the tools of the Kuwaiti people" to protect
those "who ask us for help and support." He said "the press is capable of
escalating events or scaling them down."

Sheikh Jaber, taking a stern and aggressive tone, said the government
will coordinate with Parliament "and if we see that there are shortcomings in
our laws, the interest of Kuwait will be above all," he added. "The
superpowers that have preceded us in a democracy have taken vigorous legal
action to extend personal freedoms. It is time for us to join hands in this
matter and protect the Kuwaiti people and our internal front from any harm."
Freedoms, he said, will always be respected.

Identifying oneself as a Kuwaiti is paramount, the acting Prime Minister
said. "Kuwait is greater than tribes. Identity cannot be affiliated to
tribes. I am basically a Kuwaiti." He said he had ordered the cancellation of
the tribal affiliation for the newly-enlisted citizens in the military
academy, "for everybody is a native of Kuwait."

The Minister of Interior Sunday issued a ban on "sectarian" gatherings
and warned against those trying to drag the country into a sectarian
Shiite-Sunni rift.

This has been issued by Al Madar. For more information, visit
www.almadar-kw.com/

Hani Megahed, +965-2266-6008