RIYADH, June 10: Saudi Arabia’s National Human Rights Association (NHRA), set up in March last year, has received a barrage of complaints from jail inmates – both nationals and expatriates.

It was very much expected, an elderly Saudi commented on hearing the news. It seems only the tip of the iceberg has been touched, some felt here.

“We have received about 2,000 valid complaints so far - most of those have been processed and resolved, either through letters to officials or some sort of action,” Dr Lubna al Ansari, an executive director of the NHRA, told Al Jazeerah television network.

Western diplomats say there was also foreign pressure for the creation of the NHRA.

The Saudi government says the group was set up with a mandate to protect the basic rights of people of all races and nationalities in line with international agreements and Islamic law.

Of the 1,300 cases taken up by the NHRA in Riyadh, about 33 per cent involved complaints from prisoners or their relatives, but this did not mean this was the main human rights issue in the country, NHRA’s Executive Director Lubna al Ansari said.

“The society is still building credibility at the moment. I think it will be getting more cases when it is more widely known. For this reason the ones we have at the moment may not reflect the kind of problems there are,” Lubna Ansari told reporters.