Last Updated – March 26, 2011 @ 07:48 GMT

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 through 118 of the US Copyright Law.

YEMEN AND BAHRAIN NEWS BELOW

————————– BAHRAIN ————————-

EU envoy defends Bahrain police amid unrest

March 23, 2011

A top EU diplomat says the police in Bahrain have had a “difficult task” dealing with opposition protesters and in such situations “accidents happen”. Robert Cooper, special adviser to EU foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton, was briefing Euro MPs about his fact-finding visit to Bahrain last weekend. Bahrain’s Sunni Muslim king called in Saudi and Emirati forces last week to help quell Shia-led demonstrations. The harsh crackdown has claimed several lives and dozens are reported missing. Mr Cooper, a veteran British diplomat, said that “the exceptional nature of recent events is part of the problem, because… it’s not easy dealing with large demonstrations in which there may be violence. “It’s a difficult task for the policemen, it’s not something we always get right in Western countries, and accidents happen.

“The authorities did at one stage apologise for the way the police had handled events. “It’s wrong to suggest that only violence has been from the police and the authorities. Undoubtedly there has been violence by some demonstrators and the deaths of at least two policemen.” Last week Bahraini riot police sealed off the main hospital and some smaller health centres in the capital Manama, and rights activists said medics were being beaten as they tried to help the wounded in the streets. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, voiced concern at “reports of arbitrary arrests, killings, beatings of protesters and of medical personnel, and of the takeover of hospitals and medical centres by various security forces.  “This is shocking and illegal conduct,” she said last Thursday.

Bahrain: mourners defy martial law and march through Manama

March 22, 2011

Shia mourners chanted “down with King Hamad” and “death” to his Sunni ruling family as they buried a woman who was shot dead by security forces, according to her family. Bahrain opposition leaders also accused the West of abandoning the movement to secure support from Gulf states for the military campaign to oust Col Muammar Gaddafi. Bahia al-Aradi, 51, was shot in the head as she drove to find petrol late on Wednesday evening, the day after the kingdom declared martial law following a fresh wave of violence. Her brother, Habib, 36, said witnesses said she was shot as she approached a military checkpoint and nearby villagers who tried to help her also came under fire. The government’s overwhelming force has largely swept protest from the capital, though many shops remain closed and the unrest has devastated commerce.

Shia mourners chanted “down with King Hamad” and “death” to his Sunni ruling family as they buried a woman who was shot dead by security forces, according to her family. Bahrain opposition leaders also accused the West of abandoning the movement to secure support from Gulf states for the military campaign to oust Col Muammar Gaddafi. Bahia al-Aradi, 51, was shot in the head as she drove to find petrol late on Wednesday evening, the day after the kingdom declared martial law following a fresh wave of violence. Her brother, Habib, 36, said witnesses said she was shot as she approached a military checkpoint and nearby villagers who tried to help her also came under fire. The government’s overwhelming force has largely swept protest from the capital, though many shops remain closed and the unrest has devastated commerce.

 

————————– YEMEN ————————-

Tawakul Karman, a Yemeni activist, provides thorn in side for Saleh

March 25, 2011

Tawakul Karman, a 32-year-old mother of three, may seem an unlikely leader of the fight to overthrow the president of Yemen. But the outspoken journalist and human rights activist has long been a thorn in Ali Abdullah Saleh’s side, agitating for press freedoms and staging weekly sit-ins to demand the release of political prisoners from jail – a place she has been several times herself. Now inspired by the uprising in Tunisia and the resignation of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, she finds herself at the head of a popular protest movement which is shaking the Yemeni regime to its core. “With two civil wars, an al-Qaida presence and 40% unemployment, what else is President Saleh waiting for? He should leave office now,” she says, claiming that Yemen, like Tunisia and Egypt, needs an end to a dictatorship in the guise of a presidency.

“This revolution is inevitable, the people have endured dictatorship, corruption, poverty and unemployment for years and now the whole thing is exploding,” she says. Karman has many grievances against her government but it was a sheikh’s tyranny against villagers in Ibb, a governorate south of the capital, that ignited her activism. “I watched as families were thrown off their land by a corrupt tribal leader. They were a symbol to me of the injustice faced by so many in Yemen,” she says. “It dawned on me that nothing could change this regime, only protest.” While she identifies herself first and foremost as a campaigner for Yemen’s alienated youth, she is also a member of Yemen’s leading Islamic opposition party, the Islah, a group that has caused alarm in the west, mainly because of its most notorious member, Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, a former Osama bin Laden adviser considered a terrorist by the Americans.

Karman has a mixed relationship with the Islah. She says it was the best party in Yemen for supporting female members but last October she ran into trouble after publishing a paper condemning ultra-conservative party members for blocking a bill that would make it illegal to marry girls under the age of 17. “The extremist people hate me. They speak about me in the mosques and pass round leaflets condemning me as un-Islamic. They say I’m trying to take women away from their houses.” Some of the student protest leaders have accused her and her party of trying to hijack their movement to make personal bids for power. Karman says: “Our party needs the youth but the youth also need the parties to help them organise. Neither will succeed in overthrowing this regime without the other. We don’t want the international community to label our revolution an Islamic one.”

Yemen anti-government protests – in pictures

March 24, 2011

Yemen tense as capital Sanaa sees huge rival rallies

March 24, 2011

Tens of thousands of people are attending rival mass rallies in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, a week after some 50 people were shot dead at a protest. Protesters predicted their biggest rally yet to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Mr Saleh told a rally of his own supporters he was ready to hand over power, but only to “safe hands”. Soldiers fired in the air to hold back Saleh loyalists when they tried to march on the opposition rally. In his speech, the president – who has been in office for more than three decades – condemned bloodshed but also urged his supporters to “stand firm”. He earlier denied that government forces had played any part in the shooting of demonstrators last week.

Amnesty International has warned the government against any further use of “deadly force”, saying: “The government cannot just shoot its way out of this crisis.” Yemen, the Arab world’s most impoverished nation, is a key ally in the US-led fight against al-Qaeda, which has established a strong presence there. Two recent bomb plots against US targets – two American cargo planes in October and a Detroit-bound airliner in December 2009 – originated in Yemen. Both the government and opposition have set up checkpoints in Sanaa and the streets are full of armed men. There is real fear of a new confrontation, a BBC correspondent reports from the city. According to an AFP news agency report, Friday’s crowds number in the hundreds of thousands.  President Saleh, dressed in a smart suit and sunglasses, took the microphone before a huge crowd.

“We don’t want power but we need to hand power over to safe hands, not to sick, resentful or corrupt hands,” he said. “We are against firing a single bullet and when we give concessions, this is to ensure there is no bloodshed,” he added. “We will remain steadfast and challenge them with all power we have.” Some Saleh loyalists were carrying guns and waving traditional Yemeni daggers at Friday’s rally, Reuters news agency reports. Others rode motorbikes with large posters of Mr Saleh affixed to them, waving flags and playing patriotic music. “No to chaos, yes to security and stability,” banners read. Mr Saleh has said the unrest risks taking Yemen into civil war. Several senior officials have left his side to go to the opposition.

Yemen unrest: UK embassy staff withdrawn for safety

March 23, 2011

Britain is temporarily withdrawing part of its embassy team from Yemen due to the security situation in the country, the Foreign Office has announced. Dozens of people are thought to have been killed in weeks of anti-government demonstrations. The Foreign Office (FCO) said it feared further violent protests on Friday and would therefore leave only a small core staff in place in the capital Sanaa. The FCO continues to advise against all travel to Yemen. It is also urging any British nationals currently in the country to leave as soon as possible by commercial means. On Friday, doctors in Sanaa told the BBC that unidentified gunmen firing on an anti-government rally had killed at least 45 people and injured 270.

The demonstrators are calling for corruption and unemployment to be tackled and demanding the president step down. Some 40% of the population live on $2 (£1.20) a day or less in the country, and a third face food shortages. In a statement on Wednesday night, the FCO said: “In light of the rapid deterioration in the security situation in Yemen and the high risk of increased tension in Sana’a and likely protests on Friday 25 March which might result in violent clashes, part of the British Embassy team in Sanaa is being temporarily withdrawn, leaving a small core staff in place.  “This will take immediate effect.”  Yemen is one of a number of countries in the region that have seen unrest since the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia were ousted in popular revolts. The UK government has urged all parties in Yemen to exercise restraint and to work towards political and economic reform.

————————– YEMEN ————————-

Yemen military commanders join opposition as tanks take to streets

March 21, 2011

Three Yemen army commanders, including a top general, have defected to the opposition calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, as tanks were deployed in the streets of the capital. The most senior of the three officers is Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a long-time confidant of Saleh and commander of the army’s powerful 1st Armoured Division. Units of the division were deployed on Monday in a major square in Sana’a, where protesters have been camping out to call for Saleh to step down. All three officers belong to Saleh’s Hashid tribe, which called on the president to step down on Sunday, delivering a serious blow to his attempts to cling on to power.

The two others are Mohammed Ali Mohsen and Hameed al-Qusaibi, both brigadiers. News of the defections came one day after crowds flooded cities and towns across Yemen to mourn dozens of protesters killed on Friday, when Saleh’s security forces opened fire from rooftops on a demonstration in Sana’a. Ahmar has been a close aide of Saleh for most of the 32 years the Yemeni president has been in power. He is a veteran of the 1994 civil war in which Saleh’s army suppressed an attempt by southern Yemen to secede four years after the two parts of the impoverished Arab nation united. The south had until then been a separate nation. Ahmar also fought in recent years against Shia rebels in the north. Ahmar announced his defection in a message delivered by a close aide to the protest leaders at the Sana’a square, the epicentre of their movement.

  

Yemeni president fires government

March 21, 2011

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has fired his cabinet amid continuing protests against his rule. The announcement came after tens of thousands of people turned out at funerals for dozens of protesters shot dead on Friday. Earlier, Yemen’s ambassador to the UN became the latest official to resign in protest at the killings. At least 45 people were killed on Friday after gunmen in civilian clothes fired on an anti-government rally. Despite firing his government, President Saleh has asked the cabinet to remain in place until a new one could be appointed, Yemen’s official news agency reported. President Saleh has faced a string of resignations over Friday’s crackdown, which have caused widespread anger in Yemen.

The resignation by Yemen’s ambassador to the UN, Abdullah Alsaidi, followed those of the ministers for human rights and tourism, several senior ruling party officials, the head of the state news agency, and the Yemeni ambassador to Lebanon.  Mourners in the capital, Sanaa, gathered on Sunday in a square near Sanaa University.  The university was at the centre of Friday’s crackdown, and bodies of many of the victims were laid out as people paid their respects. Opposition parties joining the procession said they had changed their position from a demand for political reform to a demand of President Saleh’s departure, the Associated Press news agency reported. “This is an acknowledgment of the failure of the security in repressing the revolution, and the crowds that came out today are a signal of the readiness to put forth more sacrifices,” said opposition spokesman Mohammed al-Sabry.

Demonstrations were also reported in several other regions. President Saleh declared a state of emergency following Friday’s shootings, which he denied had been carried out by his security forces. But opposition accused the president of presiding over a “massacre”. President Saleh has been in power for 32 years. He has recently been challenged by a separatist movement in the south, a branch of al-Qaeda, and a periodic conflict with Shia tribes in the north. He has promised political reforms and said he will not seek another term in office in 2013, but has also vowed to defend his regime “with every drop of blood”.

————————– BAHRAIN ————————-

 

Bahrain hospitals under siege as soldiers maintain Manama crackdown

March 20, 2011

Bahrain’s two main hospitals remain surrounded by masked soldiers despite demands from America that the kingdom must ease its violent crackdown on demonstrators and the medical workers treating them. Soldiers also continue to patrol all main roads in the capital Manama and have cordoned off access to the former hub of the protest movement, Pearl Roundabout, which was destroyed under government orders on Friday, denying the restive demonstrators a focal point. The tiny Gulf state has the feel of a nation under siege as it approaches a second week of martial law imposed for three months by its besieged rulers. In addition to the troop presence, neighbourhoods remain largely empty; large, glitzy shopping malls have been virtually abandoned and helicopters regularly buzz over the debris-strewn scenes of recent street clashes. Hospitals, particularly the Salmaniya medical clinic near the centre of town, have received extra attention, largely because of the significance they have taken on since the protests began in January.

 

As well as being used to treat hundreds of casualties, nearly all of them unarmed protesters, the hospitals served as rallying points for protesters, who took refuge from riot police in the relative safety of their grounds. Salmaniya was one of several hospitals attacked by security forces during the week. Their entrances clearly show scuffs from rubber bullets and teargas canisters, as well as sound grenades were found well inside hospital grounds. Images of thousands of protesters, joined by doctors with bullhorns and outraged ambulance drivers, lionised the anti-government movement and contributed greatly to the regime’s public relations woes outside Bahrain. Several doctors have been arrested, among them a leading surgeon, Ali al-Ikri, who has been accused of having contact with foreign agents. Others claim to have been intimidated by security forces and prevented from leaving their homes. “I live in a neighbourhood surrounded by colonels and senior officers,” said one doctor, who did not want to give her name. “If I go out I will be followed. There is a real risk to my safety and those of my colleagues. I have been prevented from returning to work. When I left the hospital, it was in utter chaos.

 

Kuwait is to send a medical team of 40 specialists to be deployed inside the hospitals as the government looks for new ways to manage the vehement anti-regime movement. “This is about us being sidelined and them getting in people who will stay on message,” said another doctor. “I know for a fact that the wards will be tidied up and some of the patients moved. The Kuwaitis will report back in good faith that all is in order and that will be the official narrative.” The US state department demanded on Friday that attacks on hospitals stop. “We call on security forces to cease violence, particularly on medical facilities and personnel,” it said. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said the solution to the country’s crisis could only come through political dialogue. “We have made clear that security alone cannot resolve the challenges facing Bahrain,” Clinton told reporters in Paris. “Violence is not the answer; a political process is.” In the face of sustained international criticism, the strategy of the ruling dynasty has been to make Bahrain’s crisis a regional problem, by inviting Gulf forces into the kingdom. Hundreds of troops from the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council alliance were dispatched to Bahrain last week. Qatar said it had deployed troops and Kuwait has sent navy ships to patrol waters near Bahrain, where a maritime curfew has been ordered from 6pm-6am.

 

However, Saudi Arabia continues to take a regional lead in the crisis, insisting on a hard line against the predominantly Shia Muslim protesters who have defied the authority of the Riyadh-backed Sunni dynasty for two deeply destabilising months. Regional repercussions continue, though, with new demonstrations in Iraq on Saturday against the Saudi role and strident criticism from Shia Islamic clerics, which have sharply raised the sectarian stakes in Bahrain, a majority Shia Muslim state. At least 70% of Bahrainis are Shias. The establishment, however, is almost exclusively Sunni.

The Shias have long complained that the status quo discriminates against them, denying them opportunities and access to decision-making. “We are not waging war,” said Bahrain’s foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin-Ahmed al-Khalifa. “We are restoring law and order. It is a very volatile situation and in volatile situations you expect violence to happen.” A fourth Bahraini protester died on Saturday from wounds he suffered earlier in the week. Relatives of another victim, IT technician Ahmed Farhan, said they saw him being executed as he lay prostrate on a street in the suburb of Sitra.”They killed him in cold blood,” said Ali Hassan Ali, a physical education teacher. “I was standing near him when he was shot. He fell, they chased us away and shot him in the head at point-blank rage with a bird-shot gun.” The victim’s injuries were consistent with being shot in the head from close range.

 

 

 

————————– BAHRAIN ————————-

Bahrain crackdown on protests in Manama’s Pearl Square

March 16, 2011

Security forces with tanks have overrun a square in the centre of Bahrain’s capital Manama where anti-government protesters have been camped for weeks. At least three civilians were reportedly killed after police fired on mainly Shia protesters. Officials said three police also died. Troops have taken over a hospital treating the wounded. Officials have imposed a curfew and banned protests. The country’s Sunni rulers on Tuesday called in Saudi troops to keep order. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Gulf states were on the “wrong track” in sending in troops to Bahrain. “We find what’s happening in Bahrain alarming. We think that there is no security answer to the aspirations and demands of the demonstrators,” she said in an interview with CBS.

Bahrain’s health minister, himself a Shia, has resigned in protest against the government’s use of force, and the BBC’s Caroline Hawley in Manama says Shia judges have resigned en masse.  Bahrain – which has a population of 800,000 and is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet – is the first Gulf country to be thrown into turmoil by the wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world. Protests there began last month.

In other developments:

The largest Shia opposition group, Wefaq, has urged followers to avoid confrontation with authorities, and said it had not organised any protests, Reuters news agency reports

Senior Bahrain opposition MP Abdul Jalil Khalil, quoted by Reuters, described the crackdown as a “war of annihilation”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, the major Shia power in the region, said the crackdown was unjustifiable and irreparable, and blamed the USThe country’s stock market said it had closed until further notice. Two of Bahrain’s main banks – Standard Chartered and HSBC Holdings – said they had closed all their branches

It is not clear whether soldiers from other Gulf states are taking part in the crackdown, but there are indications that the Saudi troops are being kept in reserve. A doctor there told the BBC that she and her colleagues were hiding from troops who had taken over the building and were shooting at people inside the hospital, threatening the doctors with live ammunition. “They are all around Salmaniya medical complex with their guns and they are shooting anybody,” she said.  Meanwhile a surgeon told the BBC’s Bill Law that he had been called to a private hospital to operate on a man with gunshot wounds but was forced to turn back.

He said government claims that protesters were not being denied treatment were false. “I am terrified,” he added. “This is a genocide directed against the Shia.” Human rights groups said live rounds had been used in some parts of the city. There are reports of dozens injured but our correspondent says it is difficult to get any sense of casualty numbers. Seven people had been killed during a month of protests prior to Tuesday’s clashes.  The Shia majority complain of economic hardship, lack of political freedom and discrimination in jobs in favour of Sunnis. The king has reshuffled his cabinet but has not replaced the prime minister of more than 40 years, Sheikh Khalifah ibn Salman al-Khalifah.  The protesters were inspired by the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, whose long-serving presidents were forced from power after weeks of demonstrations.

The Fabrication of Bahrain’s Shiite-Sunni Divide

March 16, 2011

One afternoon last year, as I was driving through Adliya in the northeastern corner of the island of Bahrain, I was surprised to find a man begging on the side of the street. Adliya is a nice part of Bahrain — a Western part. Not far from the street I was on was the British Club and a shiny host of high-rise apartments, of the sort ex-pats of all stripes live in. I had never seen a beggar in Bahrain, and I certainly wouldn’t have expected one to find his way to Adliya. Driving up a bit further, I noticed he wasn’t alone. In the grassy median between the two sides of the boulevard, he had set up a small red tent and surrounded it with a few white cardboard signs with imperfect English written all over them.  “My famly homeless.” “Bahreini gouvermant don’t give house to Bahreini.” He was a clever man for setting up this one-family protest. Drivers on this boulevard could see his children who should have been in school on this weekday. His wife was carrying a baby as she stood in the tent’s doorway. Boxes of household items, and even a few appliances were scattered around their tent, on the grassy median.  He wasn’t even the very poor kind of Shiite I had seen from time to time when, during their annual December 16th protests of Bahrain National Day, some of them would make their way into the ex-pat parts of the island, near the fancy malls, and light a bonfire in the major highway. I once saw a bathtub ablaze in the middle of Manama highway.

I stopped to take a few pictures with my cell phone camera, but was honked at by the other drivers — no one else seemed to be bothered by this tragedy in front of our eyes. I drove by and then made a U-turn to go back and see again. I U-turned 3 times before I had to go to my appointment.
For decades, international news has refused to shine a light on the realities of Bahrain’s primary domestic conflict: colonialism. Instead, headline after headline portrays Bahrain’s problems as a sectarian divide. It’s the Shiites versus the Sunnis in every news item — Saudia Arabia versus Iran.  But that is simply not what is happening on the ground in Bahrain, a geostrategically important island nation right in the middle of the Persian Gulf where the largest base for the US Navy exists, outside of the U.S. itself.  Bahrain, like so many other countries in the region and in the world, is just another victim of British mapmaking, American business interests and the seedy intersection of these forces. For centuries, the British have supported the Al Khalifa Sunni tribe — a family originating in the Saudi peninsula — as rulers of Bahrain, inserting themselves into any possibility of the Al Khalifa family aligning itself with Iran, or with the interests of the Bahraini people over and above the interests of business and power.  Because of the close relationship between the Bahraini people and Iran, the encouragement of sectarian divisions has been a primary tool for sustaining a power structure that is favorable to Western corporate and strategic interests.

Little hints in daily Bahraini life belie the essential failure of this approach and the deep resentments it has germinated, however. Just attend a soccer match in Bahrain between Bahrain and Iran and you’ll find a noticeable imbalance of cheers and support for the Iranian side. The native population is full of Ajam (ethnic Iranians of Shiite and Sunni faiths who still speak Farsi or a creole of Farsi and Arabic in their homes), Howala (people who migrated to Iran, then returned to Bahrain — many of whom are ethnically Iranian, as well, and therefore also speak Farsi or a Farsi creole), and Baharna (Arab Shiites who naturally have an affinity for Shiite Iran).  The Al Khalifa family’s Saudi roots are never forgotten in a region of the world where tribal ancestry has religious significance. The fact that the Al-Khalifas have now openly used Saudi troops against the Bahraini protesters proves that they, too, have not forgotten.  For generations, the Al-Khalifa government has made it a priority to prevent large segments of the Bahraini population from having a say in their government and their military, proving that the Al-Khalifa colonial implant has been serving its purpose to a tee. Native Bahrainis of Iranian ancestry or who are Shiite are prohibited from serving in the government — with the exception of a few benign ministries — and from serving in the military and security forces. They also face discrimination in education and employment opportunities — all this in a country where they are in fact the majority.  Further, it is well known that large numbers of Pakistani Sunnis of Baluchi descent are imported into the country, automatically given citizenship and installed in the military and security forces. They are given cushy jobs and houses to live in — always bypassing the queue of native Bahrainis who wait decades to be given houses by the government. Sunnis from other countries, as well, have priority in Bahrain. Syrian imports, in particular, are on the rise.

They, too, get priority over Bahrainis who patiently and desperately waited decades for housing and employment opportunities that they must line up for, only to see foreigners being handed them upon arrival.  The policies against Shiites take ludicrous turns that many a Bahraini can tell you about. My grandmother was once refused a transit visa to Bahrain — no doubt because she is Iranian. More than one friend has either been refused a visit visa or had exceptional delays to being granted one, because the name on their passport was mistakenly taken to mean that they are Shiite. On separate occasions, two Sunni Pakistani friends had to explain their religious background to immigration authorities just to get visit visas — their names seemed typically Shiite, but they happened to be Sunni.  Amongst the Bahraini population, these issues are particularly troubling because despite what you may hear in the media, Bahrainis of both religious backgrounds intermarry quite normally. Even the deeper distinctions of a family’s ancestry do not prevent young Bahrainis in particular from intermarrying, especially in the middle and upper middle economic classes. As American bullets fire from the weapons of foreign security forces appropriated by foreign rulers onto Bahraini bodies, the grim reality of 21st-century colonial vestiges and imperialist policies could hardly be clearer.

As the bulk of the island struggles with discrimination for being Shiite or Sunni or both, Bahrain’s entire southern tip is a U.S. military base where frightened young Alabamans and Iowans pace through the streets to eat at Chili’s or grab a burger from Fuddruckers. They too, are pawns in a game that has no benefits for ordinary people.  The so-called sectarian divide of Bahrain is a manipulative simplification of a far greater divide: that of the colonially-installed government that has no connection with or compassion for the people of Bahrain. The Saudis are there to preserve Anglo-American power — as they do in Saudi Arabia. They are Sunni. The people they rule over are primarily Shiite. These are the kinds of tensions the British specialized in and the Americans are taking advantage of in so many parts of the world. It’s an insidious approach to world affairs. Coupled with nonstop mainstream media portrayals of sectarian divides amongst the population, it has been a successful model for damaging the locals, their reputation, and their chances of getting the help they actually need.

————————– BAHRAIN ————————-

Bahrain king declares state of emergency after protests

March 15, 2011

The king of Bahrain has declared a three-month state of emergency, state TV reports, following weeks of pro-democracy protests in the kingdom. It comes a day after troops from neighbouring Gulf states were sent to Bahrain to help deal with the unrest. Protesters have blocked all roads leading to the capital’s financial centre, the scene of clashes on Sunday that left more than 200 people wounded. At least two people have been killed in Tuesday’s clashes, reports say. One is reported to be a member of the Bahraini security forces killed in clashes with thousands of protesters in Maamee, state television and the information ministry said. Another Bahraini was also killed in clashes in nearby Sitra, reports said. “People are coming in with bullet wounds and injuries caused by rubber bullets. There are hundreds of people,” he said. “We received one major case – a man whose skull had been split open by something.”

Two other men were in a serious condition after being shot in the eyes, while a third had been shot in the back of the head, the doctor said. “We were at the health centre in Sitra, and they shot at us. The doctors and nurses were all scared because the windows were being broken and we could hear the shooting. This is a disaster,” he added. He said police and soldiers – both Bahraini and foreign – had seized six ambulances, and then used them to attack protesters. “The paramedics were kicked out, and they took the ambulances. They went everywhere in them and they were shooting people.” ‘All measures’ Not including the deaths on Tuesday, seven people have been killed since the start of the protests a month ago.The nation’s armed forces chief has been authorised to take all measures to “protect the safety of the country and its citizens”, the emergency law announcement said.

About 1,000 troops from Saudi Arabia and a further 500 from the United Arab Emirates deployed in Manama, the capital, on Monday at the invitation of the government. It is believed they intend to guard key facilities such as oil and gas installations and financial institutions. The White House called on Bahrain to find a political rather than military solution to its problems. “The use of force and violence from any source will only worsen the situation,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said. The US has sent a senior diplomat, Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman, to Bahrain to encourage talks between the government and opposition.  The US state department has urged its citizens to avoid travelling to Bahrain due to the ongoing unrest.

The protesters are demanding widespread political reforms in the kingdom. The country’s Shia opposition alliance wants a constitutional monarchy and other democratic reforms, but other groups want to bring down the Sunni dynasty. Bahrain’s Shia Muslim majority has long complained of discrimination and dominance by the Sunni minority, including the ruling royal family. Iran – the main Shia power in the Gulf – has denounced the use of troops from neighbouring Gulf states in Bahrain as “unacceptable”. “The presence of foreign forces and interference in Bahrain’s internal affairs is unacceptable and will further complicate the issue,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast. In turn, Bahrain has recalled its ambassador to Iran in protest at Tehran’s “blatant interference” in its internal affairs, the state news agency reported.

Some in the Gulf region fear Iran, as a Shia-majority country, will try to inspire or organise the anti-government protesters; but many analysts believe the Shia majority in Bahrain is simply campaigning for better civil and political rights – and has no desire to be dominated by Iran, says the BBC’s Tehran correspondent James Reynolds, who is based in London. In the financial district of Manama, demonstrators have built barricades from upturned rubbish bins, says the BBC’s Caroline Hawley in the capital, and many are wearing masks to protect themselves from tear gas. The Shia-led opposition has said the arrival of Gulf states troops – the first time that any Arab government has called for outside military help during the current wave of protests sweeping the region – is tantamount to a declaration of war. The troops are part of a deployment by the Gulf Co-operation Council, a six-nation regional grouping which includes Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Thousands of Bahraini protesters marched towards the Saudi embassy on Tuesday, waving banners and chanting slogans against the king, the AFP news agency reported. They also called for unity between Sunnis and Shias in the Shia-majority country, which has been ruled by a Sunni dynasty for more than 200 years. The G8 powers hope to see a democratic transition in the kingdom, said French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who has been hosting a meeting of G8 foreign ministers in Paris. Earlier, the European Union urged “utmost restraint” in Bahrain and called on security forces to respect the “right to assemble peacefully”.

Bahrain declares martial law as protesters clash with troops

March 15, 2011

The streets of Bahrain’s capital, Manama, have again erupted in violence as the kingdom’s besieged monarch declared martial law and ordered troops – including Saudi forces – to take all measures to quell a festering rebellion. The clashes had been anticipated since more than 1,000 troops from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states arrived in Bahrain on Sunday, after being invited by the ruling dynasty to help restore order. Demonstrators and security forces faced off from mid-morning in the Sitra area on the outskirts of Manama. Bystanders reported the sound of gunfire and the scent of teargas by early afternoon, followed by the familiar cacophony of ambulance sirens as they sped casualties towards the city’s two main hospitals. By late afternoon, there were numerous reports of clashes inside Shia villages throughout Manama that had led to dozens of injuries. At least nine people were admitted to hospital with moderate to serious injuries. Hospital officials reported that two victims had what appeared to be gunshot wounds. Many more appeared to be unconscious as they were wheeled into wards amid chaotic scenes.

The Bahrain government denied a claim from Riyadh that one of the troops it deployed on Sunday night had been killed by protesters. An ambulance arrived at SMC hospital with penetrating damage from what seemed to be a large projectile. Diplomatic tensions also intensified with Bahrain recalling its ambassador to Tehran, following the Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar’s warning on Monday that Bahrain’s rulers and the Gulf states who have sent troops to the kingdom needed to act with “wisdom and caution”. A standoff also appears to be worsening between the two key regional protagonists – Saudi Arabia and Iran – both of whom have accused each other of using the Arab world’s smallest state as an arena for their broader agendas. The latest events seem to mark a new phase in the crisis that has paralysed the tiny kingdom since January. Demonstrators have drawn strength from the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt that saw autocratic regimes toppled by popular protests. However, unlike in either place, Bahrain’s protests have taken on a strong sectarian dimension.

The ruling minority is almost exclusively Sunni, while the majority of the population is Shia. The latter feels disenfranchised and disadvantaged by an establishment which it claims does not represent its interests. Protesters were on Tuesday afternoon on the move towards the Saudi embassy to express their anger at the involvement of Saudi troops, who they see as buttressing the regime from legitimate political pressure. The US government has stood behind the 200-year-old kingdom, which allows it to maintain its Fifth fleet naval base in Bahrain’s port and is considered to be pro-western.

————————– BAHRAIN ————————-

Saudi Arabian forces prepare to enter Bahrain after day of clashes

March 14, 2011

Saudi forces are preparing to intervene in neighbouring Bahrain, after a day of clashes between police and protesters who mounted the most serious challenge to the island’s royal family since demonstrations began a month ago. The Crown Prince of Bahrain is expected to formally invite security forces from Saudi Arabia into his country today, as part of a request for support from other members of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council. Thousands of demonstrators on Sunday cut off Bahrain’s financial centre and drove back police trying to eject them from the capital’s central square, while protesters also clashed with government supporters on the campus of the main university. Amid the revolt Bahrain also faces a potential sectarian conflict between the ruling minority of Sunnis Muslims and a majority of Shia Muslims, around 70% of the kingdom’s 525,000 residents. The crown prince, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, said in a televised statement that Bahrain had “witnessed tragic events” during a month of unprecedented political unrest. Warning that “the right to security and safety is above all else”, he added: “Any legitimate claims must not be made at the expanse of security and stability.”

The crown prince has also promised that national dialogue would look at increasing the power of Bahrain’s parliament, and that any deal could be put to nationwide referendum. However, some protesters have pressed their demands further to call for the toppling of the Sunni dynasty. The unrest is being closely watched in Saudi Arabia, where Shia are some 15% of the population. The secretary general of the Gulf Co-operation Council, Abdulrahman bin Hamad al-Attiya, expressed the “full solidarity with Bahrain’s leadership and people”, adding that “safeguarding security and stability in one country is a collective responsibility”. In an apparent reference to Iran, which Gulf Arab ruling elites fear may capitalise on an uprising by Shiites in Bahrain, he also expresssed “strong rejection of any foreign interference in the kingdom’s internal affairs, asserting that any acts aiming to destabilise the kingdom and sow dissension between its citizens represent a dangerous encroachment on the whole GCC security and stability.” Reports that the Saudi National Guard was poised to enter Bahrain were cited by the Foreign Office, alongside a recent increase in protests, as it changed its advice to advise British citizens against all travel to Bahrain.

Earlier on Sunday, police moved in on Pearl Square, a site of occupation by members of Bahrain’s Shia majority, who are calling for an elected government and equality with Bahrain’s Sunnis. Witnesses said security forces surrounded the protesters’ tent compound, shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at the activists in the largest effort to clear the square since a crackdown last month that left four dead after live ammunition was fired. Activists tried to stand their ground yesterday and chanted “Peaceful, peaceful” as the crowd swelled into thousands, with protesters streaming to the square to reinforce the activists’ lines, forcing the police to pull back by the early afternoon. At Bahrain University, Shia demonstrators and government supporters held competing protests that descended into violence when plainclothes pro-government backers and security forces forced students blocking the campus main gate to seek refuge in classrooms and lecture halls, the Associated Press reported. The latest demonstrations took place a day after the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, visited Bahrain and said that the Khalifa family must go beyond “baby steps” reform and enact substantial economic and political change.

————————– YEMEN ————————-

—————————————————

—————————————————

Yemen protest attacked by police

March 12, 2011

Police in Yemen have attacked anti-government demonstrators in the centre of the capital, Sanaa, killing up to six people and injuring many more. Reports say hundreds of police moved in, using tear gas, water cannons and live bullets at a protest camp in Tahrir Square. The clashes came after the US urged opposition groups to take up President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s call for talks. Weeks of protest against his 32-year rule have left about 30 people dead. The protesters have been camping out in Sanaa’s Tahrir Square for weeks. Doctors in the camp said police were blocking medical teams from entering the area. One doctor told BBC Arabic that six people were dead and 1,250 injured – 250 of them seriously. “It felt like a massacre, there were police teams in official uniforms and plain clothes police and they were attacking the protesters,” one witness told the Reuters news agency. “They used tear gas and gunfire and chased some people out into the streets.” On Thursday, President Saleh announced plans to change the constitution to move to a parliamentary system.

In a live televised address, he said a referendum would be held this year on measures including a new election law. However, opposition groups said their demands were “bigger than that”. They have also dismissed Mr Saleh’s earlier promise not to seek re-election after his current term ends in 2013. The Yemeni republic was created by the merger of North and South Yemen in 1990. Before that, Mr Saleh led the Yemen Arab Republic – the northern part of present-day Yemen – since 1978 when he came to power in a military coup. Direct presidential elections were first held in 1999. Although nominally a multi-party system, Yemeni politics has been dominated by Mr Saleh’s General People’s Congress since unification. Yemen is one of a number of countries in the North African and Middle East region that have seen increasing unrest since the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia were ousted in popular revolts earlier this year. President Saleh on Thursday promised to protect demonstrators. “We have ordered the security forces to continue to provide protection for all the protesters, whether they are supporters of our legitimacy or from the opposition,” he said. The president faces a separatist movement in the south, a branch of al-Qaeda, and a periodic conflict with Shia tribes in the north.

Perceptions of Arab women have been revolutionised

March 12, 2011

Saida Sadouni does not conform to the typical image of an Arab revolutionary. But this 77-year-old camped out in the bitter Tunisian cold for more than two weeks in front of the prime minister’s headquarters, leading the historic Kasbah picket that succeeded in forcing Mohamed Ghannouchi’s interim government out of office. “I have resisted French occupation. I have resisted the dictatorships of Bourguiba and Ben Ali. I will not rest until our revolution meets its goals,” she told the thousands of fellow protesters who joined her. She is today widely hailed as the mother of Tunisia’s revolution, a living record of her country’s modern history and its struggle for emancipation. Sadouni is one of many Arab women from older generations who have joined the revolutions in their countries after decades of political activism. But most women activists today tend to be in their 20s and 30s, highly politicised yet unaffiliated to any organised parties – young women such as Asma Mahfoudh, of Egypt’s April 6 movement. This 26-year-old’s interests had until recently been no different from those of any woman of her age. While surfing the net in 2008 she stumbled on calls for a general strike to demand an end to government corruption. This initial encounter with protest “marked the beginning of a new chapter” in her life, as she puts it. Ever since, she has been an avid campaigner for change, joining a struggle that culminated in the ousting of President Mubarak.

Even in ultra-conservative Yemen, demonstrations against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh have been led by a young charismatic woman, Tawakul Karman. She has campaigned since 2007 demanding political reform. When she was arrested in January, the authorities were forced to release her following a wave of angry protests in Sana’a. What has inspired these women and thrust them into the heart of protest is the yearning for change and political freedom that is sweeping across the region. The Arab revolutions are not only shaking the structure of despotism to the core, they are shattering many decades-long myths. Foremost among these is the perception of the Arab woman as powerless and enslaved, forced into a cage of silence and invisibility by her jailor society. That is not the type of woman that has emerged out of Tunisia and Egypt in the last few weeks. Not only did women participate in the protest movements raging in those countries, they have assumed leadership roles there. The virtual and real battlefields have been incubators of female leadership. Arab women have been proving themselves through continuous action on the ground, rather than in endless polemics behind closed doors.

These revolutions have been characterised by the open politics of the street, through which leaders have been tested, matured and approved. The movements have grown organically from the bottom, unrestricted by party hierarchy, age or outdated gender roles. The open parliaments of Kasbah and Tahrir Square – where people met, communicated and expressed their political views freely – brought everyone closer together, promoting collective identity over divisions of class, ideology, gender, religion and sect. Another stereotype being dismantled is the association of the Islamic headscarf with passivity, submissiveness and segregation. Surprising as this may be, many Arab women activists choose to wear the hijab. Yet they are no less confident, vocal or charismatic than their unveiled sisters. This new model of homegrown women leaders represents a challenge to two narratives. The first of these, which is dominant in conservative Muslim circles, sentences women to a life of childbearing and rearing, lived out in the narrow confines of their homes at the mercy of fathers, brothers and husbands. It revolves around notions of sexual purity and family honour, and appeals to tradition and reductionist interpretations of religion for justification.

The other is espoused by Euro-American neoliberals, who view Arab and Muslim women through the narrow prism of the Taliban model: miserable objects of pity in need of their benevolent intervention – intellectual, political, even military – for deliverance from the dark cage of veiling to a promised garden of enlightenment and progress. Arab women are rebelling against both narratives. They refuse to be treated with contempt, kept in isolation, or be taken by the hand, like a child, and led on the road to emancipation. They are taking charge of their own destinies, determined to liberate themselves as they liberate their societies from dictatorship. The emancipation they are shaping with their own hands is an authentic one defined by their own needs, choices and priorities. There is, and will be, resistance to this process of emancipation, as recent attacks on female protesters at Tahrir Square indicate. But the dynamic unleashed by the revolution is irreversible. Those who have led the struggle to dismantle the old regimes will no doubt remain at the forefront in rebuilding the new order on its ruins. Tahrir and Kasbah Square are now embedded in the psyche of Arab women, and have given voice to their long-silenced yearning for liberation.

————————- BAHRAIN ————————–

Saudi Arabia urges Bahrain to keep protesters at bay

AFTER the most explosive week in its recent history, with seven dead and hundreds injured when troops opened fire on protesters, an uneasy truce is holding in Bahrain. Protesters have reoccupied Pearl Square in the capital, Manama, after the crown prince, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, ordered the troops off the streets. The site now houses a sprawling camp of several thousand, with free-food stands and a barber doing a busy trade. From a small stage, a steady queue of speakers call for the downfall of the regime. A new youth movement, astonished at the speed and size of the protests it organised over social-networking sites, is finding its voice. The crown prince has now called for dialogue. His father, King Hamad, has announced the release of 23 political prisoners, including Ali Abdulemam, a blogger prominent in the youth movement, which the opposition parties had demanded before they would talk. This concession may not be enough. In the past Bahrain’s opposition groups have demanded a democratic constitutional monarchy, knowing that the king is supported strongly by other Gulf rulers. Now, however, three groups have called for revolution, saying the rulers cannot be trusted and dialogue is a trick. Meanwhile, the government is rallying its own noisy supporters.

The youth movement takes pride in having no leaders, but it thereby finds itself without a voice at the negotiating table. The main opposition groups would like to harness the movement’s energy, yet keep it at arm’s length. Instead a committee is forming to represent those encamped in the city centre. “It is delicate. Many feel we should not be negotiating at all with people who killed us,” said Mohammed al-Maskati, the 24-year-old head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights. Much will depend on whether the crown prince can implement real reforms. Ten years ago Bahrain forswore torture and set up a parliament, albeit with few powers. It was praised for this by Britain and America, but reforms have since stalled. Proper steps towards democracy will annoy some of the prince’s own relatives, who hold most of the high cabinet posts and much of the country’s wealth.

The government is also caught between its Western allies, who want to see democratic progress, and its Gulf neighbours, who urge caution. Saudi Arabia, with the largest population and the biggest unemployment problem, is especially troubled. Saudi pressure probably helps explain the sudden escalation of force in Bahrain last week. Indeed, the Saudi foreign minister, with four Gulf counterparts, visited Bahrain last Thursday to support its government. They warned against “foreign meddling”, usually code for Iranian interference; most of Bahrain’s protesters were Shia, but there is no evidence that they were helped by Iran. On February 23rd Bahrain’s king jetted off to Saudi Arabia for further talks about the unrest. In Saudi Arabia itself, last week, seven men were thrown in jail for establishing a political party. This week King Saud, who is 86, returned to the country after lengthy medical treatment overseas. He offered $37 billion in new public spending to stave off unrest. Civil servants will get a pay rise; unemployed students will get grants; more housing is to be built. But as Shibley Telhami, a Middle East specialist at the Brookings Institution, has observed, Arab protesters are seeking dignity, not just bread. Saudis have been offered no more say in the way they are governed.

Bahrain government funded MPs’ trip

Febraury 24, 2011

All-party political groups cover specific countries as well as subject areas. One covers Bahrain, where brutal government crackdowns on protesting citizens have drawn worldwide condemnation. The all-party group for Bahrain is supported by the country’s government, which engages Gardant Communications to act as its secretariat. The chair (Conor Burns, the new Tory MP for Bournemouth West) and two vice-chairs (Priti Patel, the Conservative MP for Witham, and Labour’s Thomas Docherty, the Labour MP for Dunfermline and Fife West) received a funded trip to Bahrain in October last year. All three properly declared the trip on their individual returns on the register of members’ interests. However, even as of the latest register, on 7 February, the trip does not appear on the all-party group for Bahrain’s page – where it should also be declared.

Burns said the missing group entry was completed and submitted at the same time as his individual register comment. He believes the non-appearance of the trip on the group page was likely due to an administrative error: “It should definitely be there; the documents were signed at the same time. There was no attempt not to disclose the trip, which was very clearly listed on our individual returns.” Burns, Patel and Docherty are not the only MPs to have received hospitality from the Bahraini government – senior Tories Liam Fox and Alan Duncan both declared trips to Bahrain in 2009 which were funded or part-funded by the Bahrain government. In addition, David Cameron declared a gift of a fountain pen and half-suite cufflinks from the Bahraini king in May 2009.

—————————————————

Bahrain king orders release of political prisoners

Bahrain’s king ordered the release of some political prisoners today, conceding to another opposition demand as the embattled monarchy tries to engage protesters in talks aimed at ending an uprising that has entered its second week. The king’s decree — which covers several Shiite activists accused of plotting against the state — adds to the brinksmanship on both sides that has included a massive pro-government rally yesterday, an opposition march in response and the planned return of a prominent opposition figure from exile. It’s unclear how many prisoners will be freed, said government spokeswoman Maysoon Sabkar. But they include some of the 25 Shiite activists on trial for allegedly plotting against the Sunni rulers of the strategic island kingdom, a leading member of Bahrain’s Shiite opposition, Abdul Jalili Khalil, told The Associated Press.

He called the prisoner release “a good step” and a “positive gesture.” Two of those in the case are being tried in absentia, including opposition leader Hassan Meshaima, who has been in self-exile in London since last year. He was expected to return to Bahrain later today. Mesheima’s presence could bolster opposition forces seeking a harder line against the monarchy, including some who have called for the complete ouster of the king and the royal dynasty that has ruled for more than 200 years. Meshaima’s group, known as Haq, is considered more radical than the main Shiite political bloc that has so far taken a central role in the revolt, which began last week with marches but quickly met with violent resistance from security forces. The primary Shiite group includes 18 members of the 40-member parliament, who resigned on Thursday to protest the killing of demonstrators by security forces.

More than 100,000 opposition supporters marched today through the capital of Manama, carrying Bahrain’s red-and-white flag and circling the Bahrain Mall and Manama’s financial district — symbols of the country’s prosperity in recent decades. Security forces did not move to confront the procession, but helicopters circled overhead. “Egypt, Tunisia, are we any different?” they chanted. The government said the overall death toll was seven from street clashes, which included the army opening fire on protesters. But it’s unclear whether it included a man who died of injuries yesterday. Reports from opposition groups and hospital officials in the past week set the death toll at eight and hundreds wounded — far more than the 25 listed by authorities. The attacks on protesters have brought stinging denunciations from Bahrain’s Western allies, including the United States. The US maintains very close ties with Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Bahrain authorities withdrew the military on Saturday and allowed protesters to reclaim the landmark Pearl Square, which has been the centre of the Shiite-led uprising. Bahrain’s Shiite majority has complained of discrimination and political persecution in the kingdom. They have staged protests in the past, but the current unrest — inspired by the toppling of regimes in Tunisia and Egypt — is the most serious against the Sunni rulers. In a brief statement on Bahrain’s official news agency, the king ordered the release of “a number of prisoners” and a halt to “several trials” of Shiite activists. Yesterday, Bahrain’s crown prince called off Formula One’s season-opening race scheduled for March 13, handing another victory to protesters. Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa owns the rights to grand prix and serves as commander of the armed forces. Protesters said it would have been disrespectful the hold the race. The crown prince told F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone by telephone that the race would not go ahead.

“We felt it was important for the country to focus on immediate issues of national interest and leave the hosting of Bahrain’s Formula One race to a later date,” the crown prince said in a statement. Sabkar told reporters the “immediate priority is to keep the peace and maintain calm.” She said the government, led by the same prime minister — the king’s uncle — for 40 years, was “deeply saddened by the tragic events of the past few days and its condolences go out to those families who have lost loved ones.” Opposition leaders have called for the government to resign after last week’s bloodshed to pave the way for a dialogue with the crown prince. “The government has taken a decision to shoot at its people,” said Khalil, a Shiite opposition leader. “Our objective remains for this government to resign after failing to protect its people.”

Middle East unrest: Saudi and Bahraini kings offer concessions

Bahrain’s King Hamad bin isa al-Khalifa flew to Saudi Arabia to hold talks with King Abdullah after his return to Riyadh. King Hamad freed about 250 political prisoners and has offered dialogue with protesters, mostly from Bahrain’s Shia majority, who demand more say in the Sunni-ruled island. Riyadh would be worried if unrest in Bahrain, where seven people were killed and hundreds wounded last week, spread to its own disgruntled Shia minority in the oil-rich east.

Bahrain unrest: Blogger among prisoners freed by king

A blogger freed by the king of Bahrain along with dozens of other prisoners has told the BBC World Service he was insulted and tortured in prison. Ali Abdulemam was arrested in September and charged with being a member of a terrorist cell and spreading false information about the authorities. He denied wrongdoing, saying he had no sectarian or party political loyalties. If the government had heeded calls for reform earlier, he said, it might have avoided today’s popular upheaval. “Our demand was to reform the constitution but it just ignored us,” he told the BBC on Wednesday. “I gave interviews in 2005 where I said clearly: the next generation is well-educated and will not accept anything we accepted from our fathers and grandfathers, they will ask for their rights and will limit the power of this royal family because it does not respect the people.” A campaign for Mr Abdulemam’s release was waged by his wife, Jenan Al Oraibi, who was not allowed to see her husband for four weeks after he was arrested.

Mr Abdulemam said the first he had learnt about the popular revolt against Bahrain’s Sunni Muslim monarchy was when he was released. His guards had been forbidden to give prisoners news from the outside world. The Bahraini officials behind his arrest said “bad things” about the Shia Muslim religion, he said, and called him a “bad citizen, disloyal to his country”. “I got tired of telling them that I am a liberal with no link to any sectarian [group] or party in Bahrain, but support all the parties in the country,” Mr Abdulemam said. In prison, he and others were constantly insulted and tortured, he said, adding: “I was allowed to enter a bathroom four times a day, each time for two minutes, whether I was taking a shower or anything else.” After his arrest last year, the blogger was sacked from his day job as an IT specialist for the Bahraini airline Gulf Air. Talking to the BBC in December, Mr Abdulemam’s wife said her husband’s “crime” had been to write with a “free pen”.

—————————————————

Amnesty calls for tighter controls before training foreign police

Amnesty International has called for police in Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK to review their training of Libyan and Bahraini police in the light of the crackdowns against pro-democracy protesters. The human rights organisation said significant questions must be raised about what human rights criteria and standards, if any, were applied to the training given by the police service, especially given Libya and Bahrain’s record on crushing internal dissent and public protest. Amnesty International Northern Ireland programme director Patrick Corrigan said: “The PSNI [Police Service of Norhtern Ireland] has been involved in delivering training to security forces in Libya, Bahrain and other countries with atrocious human rights records.

“Given events in those countries, with the deaths of perhaps hundreds of innocent protesters at the hands of security forces, it looks as if the government’s risk-assessment system isn’t working. We need much tighter checks when training is being given to police forces with a history of human rights abuses. “We call on the chief constable and the Northern Ireland policing board to look closely at recent events in Libya, Bahrain and other countries where they have helped to train the security forces, to ensure that much-needed lessons are learnt.

“A rigorous human rights assessment must be made before any future agreement to offer training to an overseas police force. In addition, the PSNI should carry out follow-up evaluation to ensure that any training offered results in an improvement in human rights and policing in that country. “The Northern Ireland Policing Board should ensure that such criteria and assessments are applied to all such overseas training. In addition, we call for greater transparency around the delivery of such training, and ask that the chief constable openly declares such training in his annual report.”

Bahrain king under pressure to sack prime minister uncle

Shia opposition leaders said they would resist a government offer of dialogue until the kingdom’s Sunni rulers made a significant gesture by sacrificing Prince Khalifa, who has held his position since Bahrain’s independence from Britain in 1971. They also called for the release of political prisoners. A day after King Hamad was forced to call his army off the streets after a brutal military crackdown that killed at least seven people failed to quell the protests, the opposition has sensed momentum swinging its way. They are also hoping to take advantage of rumoured rifts in the Al Khalifa dynasty that have pitted hardliners, including the prime minister, against a group of reformists around the king and his son, Crown Prince Salman. The desire to see Prince Khalifa ousted is almost universally shared by the tens of thousands of protesters that reoccupied Pearl Monument, the symbolic centre of the capital Manama, after the security forces withdrew on Saturday evening. The prime minister, whose longevity has made him a hugely powerful figure in a royal family that numbers thousands, is widely blamed for the economic and political marginalisation of Bahrain’s Shia majority, which accounts for up to 70 per cent of the island kingdom’s native population.

Regarded as one of the richest men in the state, many Bahrainis – including some Sunnis – see him as a symbol of the corruption allegations that have blighted the ruling family. “After 40 years of being in power, the time has come for him to step down,” said Jawad Fairooz, a senior member of the main Shia opposition party Wefaq. “We are in favour of dialogue, but we should have enough confidence that the dialogue will be successful. We want some positive indications and a change of the government should be part of it.” With Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, adding her voice to international calls for reform yesterday, King Hamad has instructed the Crown Prince to begin negotiations with the opposition. It is demanding the introduction of a constitutional monarchy, genuine political representation and a fairer deal for Shias, who have largely shut out of jobs in government and the security forces. Protesters said they would remain at Pearl Monument until such demands were met.

—————————————————

The Full Video: Bahrain’s army deliberately kills peaceful protesters

—————————————————

Despite the killings after the army fired live ammunition at the crowds, the mood in Manama is one of staunch defiance

Ali Ismail had helped wash the body of a dead protester for burial and he was already talking of more blood. “We will go to them and they will attack us,” he said of Bahrain’s riot police. Within hours he was proved correct. Just after 5.30pm on Friday, central Manama again erupted in gunfire and screaming. Up to 200 demonstrators had attempted to march on Pearl Square, the scene of Thursday morning’s savage assault that left three dead. Just over a mile from the central Bahrain landmark, soldiers and police opened fire, killing at least one more protester and leaving 50 others wounded. “We don’t care if they kill 5,000 of us,” a protester screamed inside the forecourt of the Salmaniya hospital, which has become a staging point for Bahrain’s raging youth. “The regime must fall and we will make sure it does.”

Just before dusk, riot police advanced on the hospital, apparently chasing protesters who had attempted to link up with the group bound for Pearl Square. Sound grenades cracked in the distance, gradually getting closer as protesters beat a retreat to the only place in Manama where they now feel safe to gather in numbers. Within minutes, the bitter scent of tear-gas had wafted into the hospital grounds, sparking panic that the riot police were coming for them there as well. The police backed off and the crowd in the hospital swelled to at least 7,000 people, all of them chanting anti-regime slogans that they would not have dared to utter a month ago. “Down with the king, down with the Khalifas,” they cried, referring to the kingdom’s ruling family. Anger among the overwhelmingly Shia Muslim demonstrators towards the Sunni dynasty that has ruled Bahrain for more than 200 years is now virulent.

“They have done nothing for us in the past except discriminate against us,” said one nurse, sobbing against a hospital gurney. “Now their new trick is to kill us.” Inside the hospital I saw a young man being wheeled into a makeshift trauma room, which is usually used to conduct angiograms. The gurney was soaked in blood and he had been shot in the head. “There are at least two bullets. I don’t think he will live,” said a young doctor as he left the room. He didn’t. The man’s death takes to at least five the number killed during clashes with police since Wednesday. Scores more have been injured. Most of those brought to the emergency ward had wounds from rubber bullets, although at least one youth had a gaping wound to his calf that specialists said was caused by a live round.

The early evening clashes brought a dramatic end to a day that had started off with three large funeral rallies through the suburbs of Manama. More than 50,000 demonstrators attended – between 5% and 10% of the tiny kingdom’s population. They were among the biggest public rallies the Arab world’s smallest state has ever seen. At the largest of them, in the suburb of Sitra, around 25,000 mourners marched in a long looping column to a graveyard, demanding that the regime be changed. “No to Sunni; no to Shia,” they cried at one point. “We are all Bahraini.” Mahmoud Muhim, the father of one of the dead protesters, took the microphone during the march and said: “Not one person has offered me commiserations. Everyone has said congratulations, because I now have a martyred son. He died for Bahrain.”

Security Forces in Bahrain Open Fire on Protesters

MANAMA, Bahrain — At exactly 5:18 p.m. Friday, the pro-democracy demonstrators, mostly young men, came to a fork in the road. Turn right, and they would head to a hospital that has cared for protesters. Turn left, and into Pearl Square, the symbolic center of the nation, where the army was waiting. The crowd paused, just briefly, to let out a cheer, and turned left. Within minutes they were screaming, “Live fire, live fire,” as the military began shooting — from a high-rise building, from a helicopter and from the road in front of the demonstrators. King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa’s government had warned them: march and you will be shot. The opposition had warned the king that it would never give up.

Both sides held fast in a confrontation that continued to escalate by the day as the king, a Sunni, showed his increasing willingness to use lethal force to preserve his absolute authority, and the opposition, mostly from the majority Shiite community, showed that it was increasingly galvanized by that use of force. “My friend, my brother, he just got shot in the head,” said Mazen Al Smeh, 27, as he struggled to catch his breath on the side of the road, his face covered in tears, his hands painted with blood. “I tried to take him, but they kept firing. He’s dead, he’s dead now. We were just here to demand our rights.”

When ambulances arrived for the injured, the army opened fire. When the shooting seemed to stop, a few young men dropped to their knees to pray on the bloodstained road, and the army started to shoot at them, again. There are many details that remained unclear on Friday night, including how many died, how many were injured, and what kind of munitions were fired: live ammunition, rubber bullets or both. Doctors at Salmaniya Medical Complex said at least one young man was dead and four or five critically wounded with head and chest injuries.

What was clear though, was that if the king’s goal was to intimidate his critics into staying home, he appears to have miscalculated, at least so far. The politics of the Shiite community — which already felt disenfranchised — are deeply and inextricably linked with a faith that reveres martyrdom and holds social justice as a principal value. With each outrage this week, more people turned to the streets, perpetuating the cycle Bahrain now seems caught in, with no obvious way out. Friday night, thousands of angry demonstrators gathered outside the hospital, chanting “Death to Khalifa,” referring to the king.

“We are not going to stop and we are not scared at any time,’ said Raed Aman, 31, one of the demonstrators who escaped uninjured and was at the hospital checking on his friends. “If anybody in my family dies, I will have more power. Even if I lose my life, I will be there every time.” This small Persian Gulf nation, a strategic ally of the United States, has long strained against the pressure of the political tensions between a Shiite majority and a king and ruling class of the Sunni minority. That tension has been supercharged in recent weeks as demands for democracy, rule of law and social justice have rocked the Middle East with popular movements that have forced the resignation of the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt.

By Friday night, the royal family appeared to be trying to find a more peaceful solution, with the king authorizing the crown prince, his son, to begin a dialogue with the opposition, but it was unclear if the protesters would accept talks. In an appearance on Bahraini TV, the prince, Sheik Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, pleaded for calm and offered “condolences to the people of Bahrain for the painful days they are living.”

Journalists targeted in Bahrain, Yemen, and Libya

New York, February 18, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on authorities today in Bahrain, Yemen, Libya to cease their attempts to prevent media from reporting on anti-government demonstrations. Bahraini authorities used live ammunition–including fire from a helicopter–against peaceful protesters and journalists, according to news reports. Pro-government thugs attacked at least two journalists in Yemen, and the Libyan government appeared to be shutting down Facebook, Twitter, and Al-Jazeera’s website as a means of silencing reporting on protests. “Security forces firing on journalists from a helicopter is a dangerous escalation in Bahrain’s attempt to censor media coverage of the political turmoil,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “The authorities must cease all hostile acts against journalists immediately and allow the press to work freely and securely. “

Bahrain:

* According to the New York Times, “forces in a helicopter that had been shooting at the crowds opened fire at a Western reporter and videographer who were filming a sequence on the latest violence.” The targeted journalists were Times reporter Michael and Times video producer Sean Patrick Farrell, the paper reported.

* Sixteen foreign journalists from BBC, CNN, McClatchy Newspapers, CBS, and other media outlets were detained at the airport and not allowed to enter the country for several hours, according to local journalists and news reports.

* A local journalist speaking on the condition of anonymity told CPJ that independent journalists are receiving threats via phone and text messages to stop reporting on the crackdown.

* An unidentified foreign photographer was injured and seen being taken to a hospital, according to local journalists.

Comment with George Galloway

—————————————————

Protests have been banned in Bahrain and the military has been ordered to tighten its grip after the violent removal of anti-government demonstrators, state TV reports. The army would take every measure necessary to preserve security, the interior ministry said. Three people died and 231 were injured when police broke up the main protest camp, said Bahrain’s health minister. The unrest comes amid a wave of protest in the Middle East and North Africa. Bahrain’s demonstrators want wide-ranging political reforms and had been camped out in the capital, Manama, since Tuesday.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed Washington’s “deep concern” in a call to the Bahraini foreign minister on Thursday.

Mrs Clinton “urged restraint moving forward. They discussed political and economic reform efforts to respond to the citizens of Bahrain,” a state department official told the BBC. Police action was necessary to pull Bahrain back from the “brink of a sectarian abyss”, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said on Thursday. Bahrain’s Shia Muslim majority has been ruled by a Sunni Muslim royal family since the 18th Century. The announcement on state television said the army had taken control of “key parts” of the city. Tanks, army patrols and military checkpoints are out on key streets, with helicopters deployed overhead. Barbed wire has been erected on roads leading to the main protest area, Pearl Square, and the interior ministry has warned people to stay off the streets.

Protesters and opposition politicians expressed outrage at the violence of the crackdown. A leader of the main minority Shia opposition, Abdul Jalil Khalil, said 18 MPs were resigning in protest. Ibrahim Sharif, of Bahrain’s secular Waad party, told the BBC the protests would continue. “We are going to do what’s necessary to change this into a democratic country, even if some of us lose our lives,” he said. “We want a proper, functioning, constitutional democracy.” Mr Sharif said the riot police had moved into Pearl Square at about 0300 (0000 GMT) as people were sleeping.

Bahrain security forces accused of deliberately recruiting foreign nationals

Bahrain’s security forces are the backbone of the Al Khalifa regime, now facing unprecedented unrest after overnight shootings. But large numbers of their personnel are recruited from other countries, including Jordan, Pakistan and Yemen. Tanks and troops from Saudi Arabia were also reported to have been deployed in support of Bahraini forces. Precise numbers are a closely guarded secret, but in recent years the Manama government has made a concerted effort to recruit non-native Sunni Muslims as part of an attempt to swing the demographic balance against the Shia majority – who make up around 65% of the population of 1 million.

Bahrainis often complain that the riot police and special forces do not speak the local dialect, or in the case of Baluchis from Pakistan, do not speak Arabic at all and are reviled as mercenaries. Officers are typically Bahrainis, Syrians or Jordanians. Iraqi Ba’athists who served in Saddam Hussein’s security forces were recruited after the US-led invasion in 2003. Only the police employs Bahraini Shias. The secret police – the Bahrain national security agency, known in Arabic as the Mukhabarat – has undergone a process of “Bahrainisation” in recent years after being dominated by the British until long after independence in 1971. Ian Henderson, who retired as its director in 1998, is still remembered as the “Butcher of Bahrain” because of his alleged use of torture. A Jordanian official is currently described as the organisation’s “master torturer”.

“Now they recruit young Bahraini Sunnis to open Twitter accounts to give the government point of view in the social media battle,” a local journalist said. The large-scale naturalisation of foreign Sunnis has been described by analysts as a “clear political strategy to alter the country’s demographic balance in order to counter the Shia voting power.” Al-Wifaq, the leading Shia party, has long criticised these “political naturalisations”. The government claims few foreigners are being naturalised, but it has convinced few Bahraini Shias. “This is in part because hardliners grouped around the royal court minister, Khalid bin Ahmad, and cabinet minister, Ahmed bin Atiyatallah, have successfully resisted calls for a transparent naturalisation system,” the US embassy in Manama reported in December 2009, according to a cable released by WikiLeaks.

But the chief of public security, Major General Abdul Latif al-Zayani, was praised for blocking his subordinates’ efforts to naturalise the mostly Pakistani special forces company that was due to deploy in support of US troops in Afghanistan. “Zayani reportedly cited the political sensitivity of naturalising Sunni expatriates and wanted to avoid provoking the opposition,” the embassy said. Opposition groups have protested that people chosen for naturalisation are not just Sunnis but religious fundamentalists who have strong anti-Shia feelings.

Brutal Crackdown in Moderate Bahrain

As a reporter, you sometimes become numbed to sadness. But it is just plain heartbreaking to be in modern, moderate Bahrain today and watch as a critical American ally uses tanks, troops, guns and clubs to crush a peaceful democracy movement and then lie about it. This kind of brutal repression is normally confined to remote and backward nations, but this is Bahrain!  An international banking center. An important American naval base, home of the Fifth Fleet. A wealthy and well-educated nation with a large middle class and cosmopolitan values. To be here and see corpses of protesters with gunshot wounds, to hear an eyewitness account of an execution of a handcuffed protester, to interview paramedics who say they were beaten for trying to treat the injured – yes, all that just breaks my heart.

The pro-democracy movement has bubbled for decades in Bahrain, but it found new strength after the overthrow of the dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt. Then the Bahrain government attacked the protesters early this week with stunning brutality, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and shotgun pellets at small groups of peaceful, unarmed demonstrators. Two demonstrators were killed (one while walking in a funeral procession), and widespread public outrage gave a huge boost to the democracy movement. King Hamad initially pulled the police back, but early on Thursday morning he sent in the riot police, who went in with guns blazing. Bahrain television has claimed that the protesters were armed with swords and threatening security – that’s preposterous. I was on the roundabout earlier that night and saw many thousands of people, including large numbers of women and children, even babies. Many were asleep.

I was not at the roundabout at the time of the attack, but afterward at the main hospital (one of at least three to receive casualties) I saw the effects. More than 600 people were treated with injuries, overwhelmingly men but including small numbers of women and children. One nurse told me that she was on the roundabout and saw a young man of about 24, handcuffed and then beaten by a group of police. She said she then watched as they executed him at point-blank range with a gun. The nurse told me her name, but I will not use full names of some people in this column to avoid putting them at greater risk. I met one doctor, Sadiq Al-Ekri, who was lying in a hospital bed with a broken nose and injuries to his eyes and almost his entire body. He couldn’t speak to me because he was still unconscious and on oxygen, after what colleagues and his family described as a savage beating by riot police outraged that he was treating people at the roundabout.

Dr. Ekri, a distinguished plastic surgeon, had just returned from a trip to Houston. He identified himself as a physician to the riot police, according to other doctors and family members, based partly on what Dr. Ekri told them before he lost consciousness. But then, they said, the riot police handcuffed him and began beating him with sticks and kicking him, while shouting insults against Shiites. Finally, they pulled down his pants and threatened to rape him, although they abandoned that idea and eventually allowed an ambulance to rescue him. “He went to help people,” said his father, who was at the bedside. “It’s his duty to help people. And then this happened.” Three ambulance drivers or paramedics told me that they had been pulled out of their ambulances and beaten by the police. One, Jameel, whose head was bandaged and his arm was in a cast, told me that police had clubbed him and that a senior officer had then told him: “If I see you again, I’ll kill you.”

A fourth ambulance driver, Osama, was unhurt but said that a military officer – whom he said was a Saudi, based on his accent in Arabic – held a gun to his head and warned him to drive away or be shot. (By many accounts, Saudi tanks and other military forces participated in the attack, but I can’t verify that). The hospital staff told me that ambulance service has now been frozen, with no ambulances going out on calls except with approval of the Interior Ministry. Some of the victims, though not all, said that the riot police shouted anti-Shiite curses when they attacked the protesters, who were overwhelmingly Shiite. Sectarianism is particularly delicate in Bahrain because the Sunni royal family, the Khalifas, presides over a country that is predominately Shiite, and Shiites often complain of discrimination by the government. Hospital corridors were also full of frantic mothers searching desperately for children who had gone missing in the attack.

In the hospital mortuary, I found three corpses with gunshot wounds. One man had much of his head blown off with what mortuary staff said was a gunshot wound. Ahmed Abutaki, a 29-year-old laborer, stood by the body of his 22-year-old brother, Mahmood, who died of a shotgun blast. Ahmed said he blamed King Hamad, and many other protesters at the hospital were also demanding the ouster of the king. I think he has a point: when a king opens fire on his people, he no longer deserves to be ruler. That might be the only way to purge this land of ineffable heartbreak.