Oman protests carry on despite sultan's reforms

MUSCAT: Pro-reform demonstrators are keeping up a sit-in demonstration in Muscat and other Oman cities despite offers already on the table from Sultan Qaboos who has ruled the Gulf state for four decades. Residents of the Omani capital said on Monday that dozens of youths have been holding a daily vigil on a square near the offices of Oman's Consultative Council and huddling round at night-time to talk politics. Elsewhere in the sultanate, which has a 2.5-million population of whom an estimated 20 percent are foreigners, peaceful sit-in actions are being held in other cities, especially the industrial hub of Sohar, north of the capital. The army was posted outside public buildings in Sohar, residents said. On Sunday, a group of around 30 demonstrators pressed public sector workers in Sohar, where police killed a protester at the end of February, to go on strike, a civil servant said, adding the action carried on into a second day.

"They told us to leave our offices and stop work because of corruption in the administration," he told AFP, on condition of anonymity. A protester, meanwhile, said that activists were planning to seal off Earth Square in central Sohar and block off access to its industrial port unless their demands were met by Wednesday. They are calling for housing debts to be scrapped and for the resignations of Oman's housing and justice ministers. Sultan Qaboos earlier this month granted legislative power to the previously toothless Oman Council, or parliament, in his latest action to appease rare protests which flared up late last month. The announcement followed the sultan's sacking of controversial ministers in a major cabinet reshuffle. The economy and interior ministers were among at least 12 cabinet members who lost their jobs. Demonstrators are demanding more representation, jobs, better pay and an end to corruption but insist they do not want to topple the revered sultan, who has ruled for 40 years. They have been holding their sit-in at Earth Roundabout since February 27. In an effort to placate the protesters, Sultan Qaboos has also announced the creation of 50,000 new jobs, a monthly allowance for registered job seekers and a higher minimum wage for nationals working in the private sector. And the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council decided on March 10 to create a $10-billion development fund for Oman and Bahrain.