Brutal attacks and repression fail to stop demonstrations
The masses in Bahrain have overcome the fear to confront the repression and brutality of the regime. The government thought that it has crushed the protest movement after the brutal police attack on the sleeping protestors at mid night on Wednesday and cleared the Pearl Square. The regime also deployed the army to frighten the masses. But thousands of protestors came out on the streets on Thursday and Friday and confronted the brutality of the security forces At least dozen protesters were killed Thursday in clashes with police. More than 66 were injured Friday when the army fired live ammunition at demonstrators. This leaves more than 15 dead and over 350 injured since Monday. Nearly hundred still missing and many feared might be arrested or killed by the security forces during bloody raid.
If the government thought that by stepping up repression and displaying state brutality against the protestors will solve its problem. Than one only has to look at the scenes unfolding as the thousands who have turned out for the funerals of two of those killed shouting slogans such as “down with the government” together with calls for those responsible for the killings to be punished. They are chanting slogan, “Trial, trial for the criminal gang,” Some have gone beyond the initial demands and are even calling for the removal of the royal family.
The scale of the protests and determination of the masses have shaken the regime. In a bid to calm down the protesters and stop the further demonstrations, the Crown Prince announced to withdraw army from the streets. Initially the protesters were calling on the Sunni monarchy to adopt more liberal policies, democratic rights and also grant more rights for the country’s majority Shiite population. But as the movement grew in strength after it started on Monday of this week the demands of the protesters have become bolder, calling for jobs, better housing conditions and release of all political prisoners. Bahraini protesters, who have been inspired by successful anti- regime uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, were initially calling for democratic reforms, but have now upped that call to nothing less than a regime change.
Thousands of cheering Bahrainis flocked to Pearl Square yesterday as the military and the police withdrew from the area. Bahrainis raised their hands in victory as they reached the roundabout and began setting up tents. On Saturday protesters swarmed back into Pearl square putting riot police to flight and confidently setting up camp for a protracted stay. Protesters said they planned to camp at the site until their demands were fulfilled.
“Our protests are peaceful and will continue being peaceful and it is up to the government to prove that it has no ill intention by violently removing us from this place,” said Al Wefaq secretary-general Shaikh Ali Salman during a speech at the roundabout last night.
“Whenever we acknowledge goodwill then political powers and youth will consider sitting for debate and hopefully it is genuine and real.”
The tiny kingdom of Bahrain is a key part of Washington’s military counterbalance to Iran by hosting the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. Bahrain’s rulers and their Arab allies depict any sign of unrest among their Shiite populations as a move by neighboring Shiite-majority Iran to expand its clout in the region. While part of the recent revolt in the Arab world, the underlying tensions in Bahrain are decades old and pit the majority Shiites against the Sunni elite. The willingness to resort to violence against largely peaceful demonstrators was a sign of how deeply the monarchy fears the repercussions of a prolonged wave of protests.
Analysts said the wave of unrest has so concerned leaders in the Gulf that they are willing to risk bloodshed.
“It was one thing when it was happening in Tunisia and Egypt and another when it arrives on their doorstep,” said Toby Jones, an expert on Bahrain at Rutgers University. “The (Gulf rulers) are closing ranks now and showing how they are prepared to deal with challenges to their power. Their first instinct is to act quickly. It may be messy, but they don’t want this to linger.
“They see that (if) it can happen in Bahrain, it could happen anywhere — something that was unthinkable just weeks ago,” Jones added.
The protesters have two main objectives: force the ruling Sunni monarchy to give up its control over top government posts and all critical decisions, and address deep grievances held by the country’s majority Shiites. Who make up 70 percent of Bahrain’s 500,000 citizens but claim they face systematic discrimination and poverty and are effectively blocked from key roles in public service and the military. The protests began with calls for the country’s Sunni monarchy to loosen its grip but the demands have steadily grown bolder. Many protesters called for the government to provide more jobs and better housing, free all political detainees and abolish the system that offers Bahraini citizenship to Sunnis from around the Middle East.
Increasingly, protesters also chanted slogans to wipe away the entire ruling dynasty that has led Bahrain for more than 200 years and is firmly backed by the Sunni sheikhs and monarchs across the Gulf. Shiites have clashed with police before in protests over their complaints. But the growing numbers of Sunnis joining the latest protests have come as a surprise to authorities, said Simon Henderson, a Gulf specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“The Sunnis seem to increasingly dislike what is a very paternalistic government,” he said, adding that the crackdown was “symptomatic” of Gulf nations’ response to crises. “As far as the Gulf rulers are concerned, there’s only one proper way with this and that is: be tough and be tough early.”
Thousands of mourners in the village of Sitra, east of Manama, chanted slogans calling for the ouster of the regime of the al-Khalifa dynasty, as well as songs urging unity between the Shiite majority and Sunni compatriots. Protesters, however, have taken efforts to avoid actions that would give them a sectarian image, waving the national red-and-white Bahraini flag and chanting slogans such as: “There are no Sunnis or Shi’ites, just Bahraini unity.”
They chanted “people want to overthrow the regime” — the slogan used by anti-regime protesters across the Arab world inspired by the uprisings of Tunisia and Egypt which brought down the former two strongmen of the Western-backed countries. In addition to withdrawal of security forces, the main opposition demands are the release of political prisoners, resignation of the government and talks on a new constitution, an opposition source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
Ibrahim Mattar, a former parliamentarian from the Shi’ite party Wefaq, had said earlier that a main demand of the opposition was that the government accept the idea of turning Bahrain into a constitutional monarchy. The demands likely will be put on Sunday to Crown Prince Salman, seen as a reformist, the opposition source said. The government said dialogue had already begun.
“The two main players are Sheikh Ali Salman and Ibrahim Sharif,” the source said. Sheikh Ali is the secretary general of Wefaq, whose members quit parliament over the crisis, while Sharif heads the secular Waad group that has not won seats in parliament. Neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which fears unrest might spread to its Shi’ite minority, called on Bahrainis “to act with reason … and accept the proposals of the government of Bahrain … which is keen to protect stability and security,” an official statement carried by Saudi state media said.
State repression and brutality
At least four people died and around 200 were injured as police stormed Pearl Square yesterday morning, where thousands of anti-government protesters had set up camp. Bahrain police used deadly force in breaking up an anti-government demonstration-taking place in Manama’s Pearl Square. The deadly police crackdown was denounced in Bahrain’s legislature as “an atrocity”. Witnesses described a blunt show of force by police who fired pellets, rubber bullets and tear gas to force out protesters who had been rallying and, in some cases, camping out throughout the week.
Manama was effectively shut down. For the first time in the crisis, tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled into the streets and military checkpoints were set up. The Interior Ministry warned Bahrainis in mobile phone text messages to stay off the streets. Banks and other key institutions did not open, and workers stayed home, unable or to afraid to pass through checkpoints to get to their jobs.
Thousands of citizens had gathered to demand greater personal freedom and economic opportunity, and calls swelled for the Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa to step down after nearly 40 years in power. Protesters described a chaotic scene of tear gas clouds, bullets coming from many directions and people slipping in pools of blood as they rushed about to seek cover. They were sleeping in tents at the site of the protest when they were shot, according to protesters. There was complete chaos and mayhem at around 3am when police suddenly arrived at the scene,” said one of the protesters, who identified himself as Mahdi.
“Almost everyone was sleeping, including men, women and children”.
“There were scores of elderly among them who could not even escape and run.”
They claimed many of the injured, including at least one who was critical, were women and children who were part of the peaceful protests that had been taking place at the roundabout since Tuesday.
“I woke up to find a gun pointed at my head,” said another protester, who did not wish to be named. “I was terrified and just ran leaving everything behind.”
The Bahraini said the protesters were given no chance to escape.
“Hundreds of men just descended on us and started shooting and tear-gassing us,” he said.
“This is like war and we are the victims.
“We were only protesting peacefully for our demands for more rights.”
Another protester claimed he had seen women and children being beaten up.
“I saw very small children hit by policemen and saw other children being separated from their mothers,” he said weeping.
Following the clashes, thousands of people gathered at the SMC, where the bodies had been brought and the injured were being treated. Zainab Farda a female activist said she was in a large tent for women and children with her two daughters ages 6 and 8, when they woke up to tear gas. She said they placed onions over their noses, but had to flee after security forces set fire to their tent.
“After all that has happened, we are not going to quit,” Farda said. “If we quit now, we’re going to die.”
The protesters shouted anti-government slogans and said those who had died were martyrs.
“One day we have the King come on television and apologise and the next day this happens. This is not acceptable,” said one of those at the hospital.
“What was our fault? We were only protesting peacefully.”
Bahrain’s most revered Shiite cleric, Sheikh Issa Qassem, described the police attack as a “massacre” and said the government had shut the door to dialogue.
Several thousand Shi’ites joined funeral processions in the village of Sitra, south of Manama, for three of the dead. “The people want the fall of the regime,” they cried.
Inside the Sitra mosque, men washed the body of 22-year-old student Mahmoud Abu Taki, who was peppered with buckshot. “He told me before he went there, ‘don’t worry, father, I want freedom’,” said his father, Mekki Abu Taki, 53. Many of the protesters were sleeping and said they received little warning of the assault. In the wake of the bloodshed, angry demonstrators who milled around one hospital for treatment or to transport wounded friends and relatives chanted: “The regime must go!”
They stomped on and burned pictures of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa outside the emergency ward at Salmaniya Medical Complex, the main hospital where most of the casualties were taken.
“We are even angrier now,” shouted Makki Abu Taki, after viewing the birdshot-riddled body of his son in the hospital morgue. “They think they can clamp down on us, but they have made us angrier. We will take to the streets in larger numbers and honor our martyrs. The time for Al Khalifa has ended.”
“This is a failed government,” said Abu Taki, a real estate company manager. “Of course the protests will continue. The government here is like people of the jungle.”
The bodies of his son and of Ali Mansour Khudeir, 58, were then draped in red and white Bahraini flags and placed on top of two vehicles which drove slowly through the streets.
“Trial, trial for the criminal gang,” the crowd shouted. “Justice, freedom and constitutional monarchy.”
Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said the police action was necessary because his country had been on the “brink of a sectarian abyss”.
But Hassan Radi, 64, a lawyer in Sitra, contested that. “Nobody wants to be sectarian, but the people are forced into it when they are discriminated against. No jobs, no respect, this is obvious,” he said outside the mosque. “What they are demanding is . . . a modern state with a real democratic constitution that ensures their rights and equality.”
There were chaotic scenes at Bahrain’s main hospital yesterday as thousands of people marched to the building to protest at the early morning police raid at the Pearl Square.
As bodies of the men who died and around 200 others injured were brought to Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC), people chanted anti-government slogans. The protesters gathered in front of and also got inside the Accident and Emergency department as well as the hospital mortuary, where they spoke about their anger at the way the “unprovoked attack” was carried out.
At one point, several doctors also joined the protesters and shouted slogans as they claimed they were being prevented from attending to the injured.
“We are being regularly prevented from going to the site where the attack happened and are being threatened,” said one doctor.
“We have tried going there several times but have been turned back.”
Bahrain Medical Society chairman Dr Ahmed Jamal said it went against all international norms that medical teams and ambulances were being prevented from reaching the injured at the roundabout.
“One of our senior doctors, consultant surgeon Dr Sadiq Al Ekri, has been badly beaten as he worked in a triage clinic at the site,” he said.
Bahrain Medical Society chairman Dr Ahmed Jamal said it went against all international norms that medical teams and ambulances were being prevented from reaching the injured at the roundabout.
“One of our senior doctors, consultant surgeon Dr Sadiq Al Ekri, has been badly beaten as he worked in a triage clinic at the site,” he said.
“He was first beaten up at the clinic and then inside a police vehicle and he has received grievous injuries to his head, face and eyes.
“Several paramedics and health workers were also beaten up and threatened.”
In a statement issued later, the society said circumstances in the country were critical and required all parties to stand together to avoid conflict.
“Today, there was the use of unjustified force by the riot police against peaceful protesters that resulted in the injuries and deaths of numerous civilians,” it said.
“According to the Bahraini constitution and international treaties, the people have the right to peaceful protests.
“These events were utterly devastating and unacceptable.
“Preventing health workers from providing care to the injured and transporting them to the proper facilities is not acceptable by any international treaty.
“Preventing health workers from providing care to the injured and transporting them to the proper facilities is not acceptable by any international treaty.
“Health care workers were also attacked and injured while attempting to provide care to the injured.”
A doctor at Salmaniya Hospital told Al-Jazeera that the hospital is full of severely injured people after the latest shootings.
‘We need help! Our staff is entirely overwhelmed. They are shooting at people’s heads, not at the legs. People are having their brains blown out,’ the doctor said, describing the chaos at the hospital as something close to a war zone.
The response of Bahrain’s security forces to the protests has rocked the small nation, with many feeling shocked at the harsh measures being taken.
Divided Royal family
It is becoming clear that there are differences in the royal family and ruling Sunni elite. One faction led by Crown Prince wants to give concessions to the protesting masses to calm down the situation but the other faction led by long time prime minister opposing any concessions and wanted to crush the protests with state power.
A decade ago Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa enacted a constitution allowing elections for a parliament with some powers, but royals still dominate a cabinet led by the king’s uncle who has been prime minister for 40 years. Formally speaking, Bahrain is a “democracy”, with a constitutional monarchy that was established back in 2001. In 2002 a 40-member parliament was elected in the first elections for 30 years. However, the monarch maintained supreme authority and his family members occupy key posts in politics and the military apparatus. The Khalifah family has in fact ruled the country since 1783, although for years it was under a British protectorate status.
There was growing speculation that Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa will be replaced with the crown prince on an interim basis, the source added.
Observers in Bahrain say that the crown prince has emerged as the strong man who has pushed aside for now the hawks in the royal court and the Prime Minister.
Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa is posing himself as a moderator and reformist and some one different from the rest of ruling elite and royal family. Both the factions wanted to keep the control over the country and two sides of same coin. The only difference is that one wanted to keep ruling through some reforms and other wanted to continue to rule with iron hand and wanted to keep the state of fear. The king has authorised the crown prince to negotiate with the opposition instead of his uncle and Prime Minister since 1971. Prime minister is the most hatred royal in the country who is known for his strong handed tactics to crush any opposition. Now king wanted to use him as scapegoat to appease the opposition and young protestors and remove him to further consolidate his position through his son. The opposition wants the ruling family to give up its grip over government posts. Opposition on Thursday demanded the resignation of the widely despised Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman, the uncle of king Hamad who has been in office since 1971.
Speaking on Bahrain State TV, Crown Prince Salman expressed regret for ‘these painful days’ and called for unity. ‘We are at a crossroads,’ he said.
‘Youths are going out on the street believing that they have no future in the country, while others are going out to express their love and loyalty. But this country is for you all, for the Shia and Sunnis.’
“All political parties in the country deserve a voice at the table,” Crown Prince Salman told CNN of the dialogue, adding the king had appointed him to lead it and to build trust with all sides.
“I think there is a lot of anger, a lot of sadness, and on that note I would like to extend my condolences to all of the families who lost loved ones and all of those who have been injured. We are terribly sorry and this is a terrible tragedy for our nation,” he said.
The crown prince said protesters would “absolutely” be allowed to stay in the square.
On Saturday, the crown prince suggested the unrest was the result of a lack of action on demands by Shi’ites who make up the majority of the population of the small Gulf Arab kingdom, which is ruled by a Sunni Muslim family.
He told Al Arabiya television that there might be a feeling that some basic demands had not been met. “We want to correct this situation and prevent its repetition.”
“The protesters in Pearl Roundabout represent a very significant proportion of our society and our political belief,” the crown prince told CNN.
“But there are other forces at work here. This is not Egypt and this is not Tunisia. And what we don’t want to do, like in Northern Ireland, is to descend into militia warfare or sectarianism,” he said in the interview, aired late on Saturday.
Western reporters are fond of describing the struggle of the people of Bahrain for equality and self-determination as an expression of antagonism between a disenfranchised Shiite majority (70% of the population of Bahrain) and the Sunni minority who rule as a monarchy. For more than two decades the king has been favoring a minority of non-Bahraini emigrants and denying the native citizens employment and participation in certain governmental sectors.
He is desperately trying to avoid the Egyptian like situation in which mass mobilisation and massive demonstrations forced Hosni Mubarik to resign. But he himself, his family and ruling elite is responsible for the miserable conditions faced by the masses. He is not the solution but integral part of the problem. The only way to correct the situation is the removal of the royal family and ruling elite from the power and replaced by the genuinely elected democratic government of the working masses. The replacement of the Sunni ruling elite with the Shia ruling elite or deal between the two will not solve the basic problems faced by the masses.
Opposition Withdraws in Protest
The al-Wefaq Party, a Shiite opposition group, has said it would withdraw from Bahrain’s legislature in protest over the violence.
On Wednesday the Wefaq party demanded a new constitution that would move the country toward democracy.
“We’re not looking for a religious state. We’re looking for a civilian democracy … in which people are the source of power, and to do that we need a new constitution,” its secretary-general Sheikh Ali Salman told a news conference.
Bahrain’s leaders banned public gatherings and sent tanks into the streets Thursday, intensifying a crackdown that killed five anti-government protesters, wounded more than 200 and turned a hospital into a cauldron of anguish and rage against the monarchy.
According to the World Bank, in gross national product per head was estimated to be $40,400 in 2010, far higher than most countries in the region. The country is a centre for banking and a financial service centre and has what is considered to be a “reasonably prosperous economy”. It has the structure of an advanced economy with only 0.5% of its GDP coming from agriculture, while industry provides 56.6% and services 42.9%.
So one would imagine that Bahrain would have been one of the last of the Arab countries to be affected by the spreading wave of revolution. But there is another side to this picture. For example, official youth unemployment presently stands at 19.6%. If one consider that the average age of the population is 30.4 years, and 56% are below the age of 25, one can see how the issue of youth unemployment is a key one. The unemployment rate amongst Bahraini youth between the ages 15 and 24 years old is as follows: Males 55.90%; Females 51.20% and the overall total standing at 54.10%.
While this is the case for most young people, the country is treated as a playground for the rulers of neighbouring countries such as Saudi Arabia, who while they impose strict Islamic laws on their own people have no qualms about enjoying the more western style entertainment available in Bahrain.
In the 1990s, the Arab state which faces Iran across the Gulf waterway, was plagued by a wave of Shiite-led unrest that has abated since the 2001 reforms restored parliament. The social contradictions, in what is formally a wealthy country, are at the root of the present protests. But it is not merely a question of social and economic problems. It is also one of a people that has suffered under an authoritarian government, albeit one with a “constitutional” monarchy, that yearns for freedom. The events in Egypt have shown the people of Bahrain that even the most oppressive of dictatorships can be overthrown.
And now, as in Egypt, western governments have suddenly discovered the need for “restraint” and for the government of Bahrain to “listen” to the concerns of the protestors.
Obama is singing this song as is Cameron in Britain. They must be very concerned indeed. Bahrain hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and is right next to Saudi Arabia another key ally of the United States in the region. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. has been encouraging reforms in the region for some time.
“The truth is I think the U.S. has consistently — primarily privately, but also publicly — encouraged these regimes for years to undertake political and economic reforms because the pressures were building,” Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “And now they need to move on with it and there is an urgency to this.”
During a visit to Manama, the capital of Bahrain this past December, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton with Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa at her side crowed, “I am impressed by the commitment that the government has to the democratic path that Bahrain is walking on.”
On February 17, 2011, at the order of the King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s government hired and set loose over 1000 Black Water and foreign-born assassins at 1:00 AM at night viciously attacking sleeping protestors with steel-coated exploding bullets, tear gas, lethal clubbing and beatings, burning down the tents of women and children, with small children screaming for their separated parents in the street, and beating and shooting doctors and nurses in medical tents. Paramedics who were struggling to get to the camp to help the injured were pulled out of ambulances and beaten to the ground, as western reporters were beset upon, beaten and driven from the bloody scene.
The encampment was completely demolished by riot police. After they cleared the square, armored tanks, personnel carriers, and the Bahrain Army took over the streets in a massive martial law action. At a White House News Conference, following this massive, brutal attack that killed scores and wounded over 200 people, all Clinton could muster, as a criticism was that she has “deep concerns”. The U.S. State Department personnel and the financial managers of the New York and Frankfurt Stock Exchange, having very little respect for the self-determination and sovereignty of the people on the islands in the Persian Gulf refer to Bahrain as a “gas station for the U.S. Fifth Fleet”.
Former White House Press Secretary Michael Rubin bluntly explained Clinton’s meekness in the face of such brutality: “It’s our most important strategic asset in the Persian Gulf,” so the Obama Administration is “not being too vocal on the riots in Bahrain because it’s pretty much the one country where we can’t afford regime change,” he said.
The headquarters of the U.S. Central war command is in Bahrain, extending its sphere of domination from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, Arabian Sea and the coast of East Africa as far south as Kenya. On this Archipelago in the Persian Gulf the U.S. has stationed the Headquarters of the entire U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT). The forces of the Fifth Fleet consist of five US Naval aircraft carriers, six US Naval amphibious assault ships and thousands of US. Marine Corps air ground combat elements, plus their escorting and supply vessels, over 30 British Royal and Australian Navy destroyers armed with long-range missiles targeting Iraq, Afghanistan and threatening Iran, along with almost 15,000 servicemen afloat and more than 1000 military support personnel ashore.
The hypocrisy of western governments stinks to high heaven. For years they have done good business with the rulers of Bahrain. The UK even provides them with the weapons, including the tear gas that is being used on the protesters today. Now they will have to face the consequences in the form of the revolt of the working people of Bahrain.
Stop the state repression and brutality. Release all the arrested political prisoners immediately.
For full democratic rights immediately, including the right to assemble, to strike and to organise democratic independent trade unions.
For the class unity of the Arab and non-Arab indigenous and expatriate workers at the work places and neighbourhoods
For the creation of democratically elected committees of mass struggle, and defence against state repression, in the workplaces, communities, schools and colleges, linked on local, regional and national scale, to spearhead the resistance.
For rank and file committees of police and soldiers – Side with the masses & purge the officers and hierarchy.
No to sectarianism – For the unity of all workers across religious lines.
No trust in any new ‘national unity’ regime based on the interests of the ruling class and imperialism
For a living minimum wage, guaranteed jobs, a massive programme of house building, education and health
For a socialist Bahrain and a socialist confederation of the region, on an equal and voluntary basis