16 January 2006

KUWAIT CITY: Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, who died Sunday after ruling oil-rich Kuwait since 1977, weathered political and economic crises and channeled petrodollars into multi-billion investments. Sheikh Jaber was at the helm during Kuwait's worst modern crises - first, the eight-year Iraq-Iran war which started in 1980, an economic crash in 1982, then the Iraqi invasion - but even these did not dent his popularity.

Sheikh Jaber was born June 29, 1926, before Kuwait became rich exporting oil. He became a father figure for the country - said to be a quiet listener who avoided ostentation, despite his family's immense wealth.

He survived an attempt on his life in May 1985 when suspected Shiite militants intercepted his motorcade with a car bomb, apparently in protest at Kuwait's support for Iraq in the conflict with Shiite-dominated Iran. He escaped with minor bruises but immediately ended his habit of driving his own car to bustling bazaars and talking to shopkeepers.

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

Sheikh Jaber fled Kuwait when Saddam's armored columns invaded on August 2, 1990, with orders to capture or kill him. He drove to Saudi Arabia, accompanied by most of his children and scores of senior members of the royal family.

He set up a government-in-exile in a resort hotel in Taif, going on Saudi television to call on his people to resist.

Close aides say he denounced Saddam as a criminal and wondered out loud: "Why does this Saddam hate me so much?"

During exile, he said little and prayed often, Ahmad al-Jarrallah, editor of Al-Siyassah daily, has written. "I just want a small tent in my country. I don't want palaces or luxury," he quoted the emir as saying.

Bread and yoghurt often satisfied him at mealtime.

Kuwait's bitterness over the occupation led to years of enmity with Arabs seen as supporting Saddam - particularly Jordan and the Palestinians.

After Kuwait was liberated, the emir presided over the rebuilding of devastated oil fields, generous compensation handouts to Kuwaitis and the restoration of Parliament amid calls for power sharing by a reinvigorated opposition.

Since his reign began, the national assembly, the first elected Parliament in the Gulf region, was dissolved twice - the first time for six years in 1986 during which articles of the Constitution were also suspended, the second time for two months in 1999.

In September 2001, Sheikh Jaber suffered a minor brain hemorrhage and spent four months in Britain undergoing treatment. Since then, his health was on the decline. He spent two and a half months out of the country after undergoing leg surgery in the United States in May 2005.

In 2003, after calls by the opposition for the ruling family to loosen its grip on power, the emir issued a landmark decree separating the post of crown prince from that of prime minister, a move seen as an attempt to fill the power void caused by the illness of the crown prince.

Sheikh Jaber won the praise of human rights activists when he decreed in 1999 that women should have the vote and be eligible to run for office. However, conservatives in Parliament repeatedly kept his decree from being put into practice.

He could have disbanded parliament to press his view, but did not. Six years later, in May 2005, Parliament finally approved the legislation supported by the emir and the Cabinet appointed its first ever woman member.

Sheikh Jaber is the third son of the 10th emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, who ruled from 1921 to 1950.

Sheikh Jaber became director of public security of the oil-rich Ahmadi region in 1949, at the age of 21.

In 1959, he was named president of Kuwait's financial department, a title which changed after Kuwaiti independence in 1961 to minister of finance and oil. He held the post in addition to running the Commerce and Industry Ministry for 11 months.

Sheikh Jaber was behind the creation of the emirate's Reserve Fund for Future

Generations, a powerful tool that channeled the state's surplus funds into long-term investments, mostly in Europe and the United States.

The Fund proved its worthiness during the emirate's oil boom in the 1970s. Its assets had reached more than $100 billion by the time deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's troops invaded the emirate in August 1990.

Some $70 billion were spent on liberation by a U.S.-led international coalition in 1991 and subsequent reconstruction.

The Fund has since been replenished, topping $100 billion again, and it is expected to swell by an additional $30 billion by the end of the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2006 on the back of record high oil prices.

Sheikh Jaber was named prime minister on the accession to the throne in November 1965 of his cousin Sheikh Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah following the death of Sheikh Abdullah al-Salem al-Sabah, the 11th emir of Kuwait.

The following year, Sheikh Jaber was appointed crown prince and he retained the two positions until his own accession to the throne on December 31, 1977. He was sworn in Parliament on January 1, 1978.

He was from the Al-Jaber branch of the Al-Sabah family, which by tradition alternates the position of head of state with the Al-Salem branch, to which Sheikh Saad is affiliated.

Sheikh Jaber, who married several times, has a large number of sons and daughters, but none of them has reached the status of a Cabinet minister.

Under the Kuwaiti Constitution, the emir is the head of state and is highly respected and his status is protected. He is also supreme commander of the armed forces. - Agencies