JEDDAH, 29 March 2004 — Three days ago, Arab News ran a small rather innocuous brief about a Saudi policeman killed in the line of duty.

Police Corporal Abdullah Al-Muawad was struck by a truck while directing traffic at the scene of an accident.

Al-Muawad’s passing shared headlines with a shoe thief that got caught and punished. It didn’t make front page news or merit a photo. No headlines, no photos, no interview with family members. Nothing to honor this man who paid the ultimate price.

Let’s move the focus to the United Kingdom, where Police Constable Andrew James was struck by a car and killed while chasing a burglar in the city of Cardiff last week. Hailed as a hero, his death made television news and was covered by the local press. The effect of his death on the community and on his own family has received daily press coverage for a number of days.

Dozens of police officers from all over the UK joined dozens of citizens to attend the funeral.

I remember while living in the United States that when a police officer is killed in the line of duty, television shows are interrupted. Then information about the officer and his background is announced. Then information about the family he has left behind. The community is drawn into the tragedy, providing everything from donations to cakes to the family. The officer is honored with a plaque bearing his name for all to see for decades. The governor will probably attend the funeral along with hundreds of officers from all over the United States.

My question is, why don’t we honor our fallen public servants in a similar manner?

I remember seeing the graphic pictures of the security officers that were killed in shootouts with terrorists in the Kingdom. There were so many. Who are they? How many children did they leave behind? What kind of compensation did they receive? Are the futures of their wives and children secured somehow?

I know of a Saudi naval officer who died while training in Pakistan in the 1980s. He had a wife and two boys aged three and two. The officer’s uncle received SR90,000 compensation and used it to pay his own debts. The wife and children never saw any of that money.

Today, the boys have grown up to be 21 and 20. The mother is a schoolteacher earning SR1,600 a month. The younger son is in Riyadh looking for work, the older one is finishing university so he can become a police captain. Their financial situation is quite hard. They all live in a single bedroom in an apartment they share with their grandmother. They have no maid and no driver, putting the responsibility on the 21-year-old, who begins his day at five in the morning to take his grandmother to King Fahd Hospital to undergo dialysis, and doesn’t return home until one in the morning. “Had my father been alive, our situation would have been far better,” he said.

“My father was a first lieutenant in the Saudi Navy more than 15 years ago, so he would have been of a high rank now. My mother wouldn’t have had to work, and life would have been easier.”

Fatalities among officers in Saudi Arabia are quite common. Less than ideal road conditions and lack of sufficient training and equipment lead to serious accidents that claim the lives of dozens of public servants every year. Now with the recent arrival of terrorism to the Kingdom, Special Forces officers, and others are being injured and killed in the line of duty.

In Saudi Arabia police officers do not have to undergo rigorous training as they do in the US, nor have to sit through challenging classroom examinations. They are given simple training to enable them to do a specific, simple task. When something complicated happens, many don’t have the training or equipment to allow them to make sometimes lifesaving decisions.

In New York City after Sept. 11, Governor George Pataki brought in legislation to benefit the families of New York City firefighters and police officers killed in the line of duty.

“Our courageous New York City police officers and firefighters place themselves in harm’s way to protect the public and keep New Yorkers safe,” Governor Pataki said.

“While nothing can replace the loss of a loved one, this new law will help to ensure that the families of brave New Yorkers who are killed in the line of duty receive the benefits and support they deserve.”

Senator Martin Golden said, “The Sept. 11 terrorist attack forever changed the way our police officers and firefighters approach their jobs. This law ensures that if another such event occurs, the families will be compensated at the level they deserve.”

Our police officers and special forces are being injured or killed in the line of duty.

Their sacrifice and the sacrifices their loved ones made are no less important than the sacrifices the policemen and firefighters made in New York on Sept. 11. Shouldn’t our Saudi public servants killed in the line of duty, and their families, be honored also?