Kuwait emir dies, succeeded by ailing crown prince

By Omar Hasan
AFP
KUWAIT CITY
Petroleumworld.com 01 16 06

Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah died on Sunday aged 79, after a quarter-century in power marked by the trauma of the Iraqi invasion and the fruits of unprecedented economic prosperity.

Under the constitution of the oil-rich Gulf state, 75-year-old crown prince Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, himself ill since undergoing colon surgery in 1997, automatically became the new emir, a cabinet statement said.

The appointment of Sheikh Saad as emir sent a sigh of relief in Kuwait where the ruling family was plunged into a crisis in recent months over succession.

Sheikh Jaber was laid to rest as thousands of Kuwaitis massed for a funeral ceremony attended by a number of Arab leaders, with Sheikh Saad participating in his wheelchair.

Security officials struggled against the dense crowds when the emir's body, wrapped in a Kuwaiti flag and placed in a simple open box, was carried by relatives and aides to a common cemetery 15 kilometers (10 miles) west of the capital.

He was buried in a section reserved for the dead of the ruling Al-Sabah family and the country's martyrs.

Women clad in traditional "abayas," or long black robes, wept as the emir's body was lowered in to the ground and covered with earth, in keeping with Muslim tradition, while many mourners took pictures with camera-equipped mobile phones amid chants of "La Ilah Illa Allah" (there is no God but Allah).

Sheikh Jaber, who ruled for 28 years, is the third elderly Gulf ruler to die in the past 15 months, following the deaths of Saudi king Fahd and UAE president and founder Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan.

A 40-day period of mourning was declared in Kuwait, which sits on 10 percent of the world's proven oil reserves.

Top oil executives said Sheikh Jaber's death would not affect crude oil production in the emirate, which pumps some 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd) and has a native population of just under one million.

"Projects in the oil sector are progressing normally without being affected by the calamity that hit Kuwait and its people," Hani Hussein, chief executive at Kuwait Petroleum Corp, told the state KUNA news agency.

Government offices will be closed for three days and flags were flown at half-mast over government buildings.

Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who has been running daily affairs in recent years, rushed back home from Oman, where he was on vacation.

Sheikh Sabah, 76, is the most likely candidate to be appointed new crown prince, but it was not immediately known whether he will also remain premier.

For the first time since Kuwait gained independence from Britain in 1961, the late emir in 2003 split the posts of crown prince and prime minister which had been held by the crown prince since 1978.

The unrecognised Islamist Ummah (nation) Party called in a statement for maintaining the separation of the two posts and for the appointment of a premier from outside the ruling family.

The party also called for adopting pluralism and the peaceful rotation of power.
Islamist MP Waleed al-Tabtabae also expressed hope that the two posts would remain separate.

Liberal MP Mohammad al-Sager called on the ruling family to "remain united and cohesive" to overcome this delicate situation.

The late emir was from the Al-Jaber branch and Sheikh Saad is from the Al-Salem branch of the Al-Sabah family, the two lines that have traditionally been alternating power.

Sheikh Jaber, who ascended the throne on December 31, 1977 and was confirmed by parliament a day later, had been ill since suffering a brain haemorrhage in September 2001. Since his health began deteriorating, he delegated most of his public duties to Sheikh Sabah due to the illness of Sheikh Saad.

Sheikh Jaber survived an assassination attempt in May 1985 when a suicide bomber intercepted his motorcade, killing several of his guards. He escaped with bruises.

Sheikh Jaber's darkest hour as emir came on August 2, 1990, when Iraqi troops stormed over the border, beginning a seven-month occupation that annexed the emirate as the 19th province of Iraq.

The emirate was liberated by a US-led international coalition on February 26, 1991.

The late emir was behind the creation of the emirate's Reserve Fund for Future Generations (RFFG), a powerful tool that channelled the state's surplus funds into long-term investments, mostly in Europe and the United States.

AFP 01/15/06

Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved

 

 

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