Bahrain Warns Protesters They Will Be Met With Force

THE GUARDIAN: Democracy activists planning to mark anniversary of failed Pearl revolution of 2011 face violence from government troops

Bahrain's government has vowed to forcefully confront demonstrators who are planning to take to the streets on Wednesday, to demand political change after the failed "Pearl revolution" near the start of the Arab spring, in 2011.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the prime minister, issued the warning as democracy activists reported intensifying security measures, arrests and intimidation designed to forestall new protests.

"The government will forcefully confront suspect calls to violate law and order and those who stand behind them through decisive measures," the official Bahrain news agency quoted him as saying.

Emergency decrees have banned demonstrations in Manama, the capital, and imposed other new restrictions on dissent and freedom of expression. » | Ian Black, Middle East editor | Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Bahrain Sentences Medics Who Treated Protesters
BBC: A court in Bahrain has jailed 20 medics who treated protesters to up to 15 years, after convicting them of incitement to overthrow the regime.

In a separate case, the special security court sentenced a protester to death for killing a policeman.

The medics had been released on bail after many staged a hunger strike.

They treated people injured when a protest movement calling for more rights for the country's Shia majority in the Sunni-ruled kingdom was crushed.

Human rights activists say the sentences against the medics come as a surprise.

They had been cautiously hopeful that the medics' release on bail was a sign that the government was softening its approach.

The Bahraini doctors and nurses were sentenced to between five and 15 years in prison on charges that include possessing unlicensed arms, seizing medical equipment, and provoking sectarian hatred.

All worked in the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama, which security forces entered on 16 March after forcefully clearing the nearby Pearl Roundabout of demonstrators.

Human rights activists say they were only doing their duty. » | Thursday, September 29, 2011

Schoolgirls Targeted in Bahrain Raids
In first of five exclusive reports, Al Jazeera has unearthed evidence that sheds light on kingdom's brutal crackdown.

Al Jazeera is learning more about the full extent of the brutal crackdown in Bahrain against those it believes took part in recent anti-government protests.

The kingdom's oil company has fired almost 300 employees.

And according to an opposition group, police have raided up to 15 mainly girls schools, detaining, beating and threatening to rape girls as young as 12.

Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford reports.

'Imperialism behind Bahrain Crackdown'
PRESS TV: Bahrain intensifies its crackdown on popular protests against the rule of Al Khalifa royal family in the Persian Gulf country, drawing criticism from the international community.

Amnesty International appealed to Manama to stop the arrests of opposition members. EU Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton has also expressed deep concern over the imminent executions of four anti-government protesters in Bahrain. (+ video) » | MN/MRS | Thursday, May 05, 2011

Relatives Fearful Over Bahrian Trials
In Bahrain, human-rights workers say at least 50 medical staff are still missing after a crackdown on hospital care for injured anti-government demonstrators.

There are fears that some of the detained staff could face stiff sentences for treating protesters. Among them is Dr al-Dallal, a prominent physician arrested on March 17 during a military raid at Salmaniyah Hospital in Manama.

His wife, Fareeda al-Dallal, was also arrested and beaten under custody last Tuesday. Al Jazeera spoke to her about her arrest and the fears she has about the safety of her husband.

Bahrainis Protest Crackdown as Saudis Rally in Solidarity
Bahraini security forces backed by Saudi troops intensified their crackdown on protests as they opened fire on Bahraini protestors and arrested many people, including pregnant women. Hundreds of Saudi Arabians in the eastern city of Qatif defied the ban on demonstrations and took to the streets to demand their rights and an end to government corruption. The protestors also demanded an end to Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Bahrain, assisting the government with crackdowns on protests

Shiites in Iraq Support Bahrain’s Protesters
THE NEW YORK TIMES: BAGHDAD — The violent suppression of the uprising in Bahrain has become a Shiite rallying cry in Iraq, where the American war overturned a Sunni-dominated power structure much like the one in place in Bahrain.

Ahmad Chalabi, an erstwhile American partner in the period before the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and a Shiite member of Parliament, on Friday denounced what he called a double standard in the Western powers’ response to the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East — particularly in Bahrain, where a Sunni minority dominates a vast and restive underclass made up of his Shiite brethren.

“They called for international action in Libya,” Mr. Chalabi said in a meeting hall on the grounds of his farm outside Baghdad. “But they kept their mouths shut with what is happening in Bahrain.”

The Iraqi Parliament briefly suspended its work to protest Bahrain’s crackdown on largely peaceful protesters, and the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, also a Shiite, recently said in an interview with the BBC that the events in Bahrain could unleash a regional sectarian war like the one that menaced Iraq just a few years ago. » | Tim Arango | Friday, April 01, 2011

Oil Interests Muted Bahrain Criticism: Analysts
VANCOUVER SUN: BAGHDAD - Saudi Arabia's massive oil wealth and Sunni solidarity against Shiite Iran is the main reason Arab states remained muted over repression in Bahrain, while loudly protesting over the crushing of a popular revolt in Libya, analysts say.

"Riyadh has traded Bahrain for Libya, because what happens at its borders is vital for the kingdom," said Burhan Ghalioun, director of the Centre for Contemporary Oriental Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris.

He said "the allied military intervention in Libya is secondary for Gulf countries, because their relations are very bad with Moamer Gadhafi," the Libyan leader facing a revolt at home and air strikes by an international coalition to prevent his brutal crackdown on civilians.

On March 14, Saudi Arabia sent 1,000 troops across the causeway into Bahrain, and two days later police cracked down on protesters who had been camped in the centre of Manama for a month, killing three demonstrators.

"Nobody is interested in showing hostility to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries. Westerners and Arab states alike need their oil and huge financial resources," Ghalioun added.

Nearly half of the world's oil reserves are owned by the Gulf monarchies, which since 1984 have been linked through the "Peninsula Shield" defence pact.

It has been conflict between Sunnis and Shiites, and the looming shadow of Iran, that has been instrumental in coalescing support behind King Hamad, the Sunni monarch who rules over a Bahrain population that is 70 per cent Shiite. » | Agence France-Presse | Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Saudi Shi'ite Protests Simmer as Bahrain Conflict Rages
REUTERS: Hundreds of young Shi'ite men marched down a commercial street in the Saudi city of Qatif, near the heart of the kingdom's oil industry, pounding their fists in anger over their country's military intervention in Bahrain.

"With our blood and soul we sacrifice for you, Bahrain," they chanted as they walked, according to videos of a recent protest posted on the internet. Some wore scarves to conceal their faces. Others waved Bahraini flags.

"People are boiling," one Shi'ite activist in Qatif told Reuters by phone, asking not to be named for fear of arrest. "People are talking about strikes, demonstration and prayer to help the Bahrainis."

The protests were in response to Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter and most powerful Gulf Arab state, sending troops to Bahrain last week to help quell weeks of protests by majority Shi'ites in the Sunni-led monarchy. Bahrain's opposition called it a declaration of war.

Riyadh, facing Shi'ite protests of its own, fears a sustained revolt in neighboring Bahrain could embolden its own Shi'ite minority, which has long grumbled about sectarian discrimination, charges Riyadh denies.

The military intervention, however, appears to have only deepened Shi'ite resentment in the kingdom, where between 10 and 15 percent of the 18 million Saudi nationals are Shi'ites.

Leading Saudi Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Hassan al-Saffar has called for Gulf leaders to find a political solution.

Saudi Shi'ites, inspired by pro-democracy protests across the Arab world that toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia, have held sporadic protests in a handful of eastern towns over the past three weeks.

"Before the start of revolution in Tunis, people felt rather incapable of making a difference," activist Tawfiq al-Seif said. "They (now) feel they can make a difference." » | Cynthia Johnston | QATIF, Saudi Arabia | Monday, March 21, 2011

Iran Cleric Tells Bahraini Shiites to Protest On
SIFY NEWS: A senior Iranian cleric on Friday urged Bahrain's majority Shiites to keep up their protests — until death or victory — against the Sunni monarchy in the tiny island kingdom.

Bahrain has been rocked by a month long uprising of the Shiite-led opposition against its Sunni rulers. And though there are no apparent links between Bahrain's Shiite opposition and Iran's predominantly Shiite nation, the Persian Gulf leaders are concerned that political gains by Bahrain's Shiites could give Iran a stepping stone to its archrival Saudi Arabia.

Iran has denounced the deployment of a Saudi-led force from Sunni Arab allies this week to prop up the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain.

In Tehran, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati spoke to worshippers after Friday prayers and called on "brothers and sisters" in Bahrain to "resist against the enemy until you die or win."

Jannati, a supporter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asked all Muslims to help the Bahraini Shiites "restore rights" and also accused the United States of being an "accomplice in all crimes." » | AP | Monday, March 21, 2011

Bahraini Medics Recount Hospital Horror
The Bahraini authorities have been accused of heavy-handed approach in handling with Shia Muslim protesters. According to medics at Salmania hospital in Manama, the security forces surrounded the hospital and did not allow ambulances to enter. The hospital staff have told Al Jazeera doctors and nurses were beaten up and many doctors are still under arrest. Our special correspondent has this report.

Related articles here and here

Bahrain Hospital Attack: 'Physical Abuse and Humiliation of Doctors'
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: The full story of how thuggish Bahraini security forces surrounded and took over a hospital treating injured protesters has emerged from eye-witness testimony of one of the medical staff involved.

Security forces burst into operating theatres, beat staff and searched from ward to ward for doctors according to the first detailed accounts of a violent government crackdown at the hospital in Manama.

Opposition leaders in the small island kingdom described the attack by security troops as a "crime against humanity" and the United Nations said it seemed to have broken international laws.

Now a member of staff, who spoke to The Sunday Telegraph in secret for fear of retribution from government forces, has described the full sequence of events which caused outrage around the world.

"They are really after us," he said. "There's been a lot of physical abuse and humiliation of doctors. They treat us as if we were terrorists."

Salmaniya medical centre, which had been treating people hurt in Bahrain's street clashes with government troops, was surrounded by security forces last week during a violent crackdown on a month-long, anti-government movement which has been calling for a constitutional monarchy and equal rights for Bahrain's Shia Muslim majority, which has been marginalised by the ruling Sunni Muslim elite.

The hospital had become one of two focal points for the protest movement, inspired by other Arab uprisings, along with nearby Pearl Roundabout, where demonstrators had repeatedly gathered and set up camp.

Security in the country, which is home to up to 10,000 British expatriates, dramatically decreased last week when thousands poured onto the streets after weeks of stalemate over the protesters' demands. » | Ben Farmer, Manama | Sunday, March 20, 2011

Bahrain Hospitals Under Siege as Soldiers Maintain Manama Crackdown
THE GUARDIAN: Doctors arrested or prevented from working amid martial law in tiny Gulf state

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. » | Martin Chulov in Manama | Sunday, March 20, 2011

Bahrain Bans Demonstrations
Mar 19 - Martial law and a ban on gatherings have been imposed in Bahrain. Julie Noce reports

Bahrain: Regierung reisst symbolische Statue nieder
Sicherheitskräfte in Bahrain haben in Manama auf dem Perlenplatz die Statue niedergerissen, die dem Platz ihren Namen gab. Der Platz und die Perlen-Statue waren in den letzten Tagen Treffpunkt und Symbol der Demokratiebewegung

Related »

How the Bahrain Regime Wants to Erase Its Bad Memories
TIME: The 45 helmeted men, armed with rifles, their faces masked, came for Ibrahim Sharif at 2 a.m. on Friday. They hopped the fence and entered his home, carted him off to jail — or Saudi Arabia — no one's really sure. "They were ringing the bell and shouting 'open, open, open,'" the dissident's wife, Fareeda, told TIME later that day. "Ibrahim told them to lower their guns, to calm down. They took him anyway. It took less than 10 minutes." The vans outside, she said, sported the insignia of Bahrain's national security forces.

Sharif, the leader of the Bahrain's opposition Waad party, was among several key anti-government activists arrested in a wave of pre-dawn raids on Thursday and Friday. At 4 a.m., on Friday, shortly after the raid at Sharif's home, the Waad headquarters was set on fire. All that remains of the two-story office building are charred walls and office furniture, gutted meeting rooms, giant shards of glass littering the floor. In a subsequent press conference, Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, dismissed the blaze as a random act of arson. But it comes as the regime of his cousin, King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa, stages an increasing ferocious crackdown against the Shi'ite majority, a campaign abetted by the unprecedented prescence of Saudi Arabian troops sent in to preserve the Sunni monarchy.

Until the end of last week, the political opposition had been rapidly been gaining steam, and support. Then, on March 11, the government let lose with the first of a series of increasingly ferocious responses. Now, Waad party leaders and even younger activists fear for their safety. On Friday morning, TIME received a text message from a protest organizer who said he had been warned that a crackdown on youth was underway. He said he had not left his [home?] for more than a day. "The streets are not safe," he texted, adding that his bank accounts had been frozen, phone tapped and every move monitored by police. » | Karen Leigh | SITRA | Friday, March 18, 2011

Bahrain Protesters Turn Defiant Over Deaths
Thousands of people in Bahrain have defied a government ban on public gatherings to mourn the death of a protester who was killed in Wednesday's violence.
Meanwhile, authorities have demolished a statue in Pearl Roundabout, as part of its effort to crack down on anti-government protesters. Al Jazeera's special correspondent filed this report from Manama. (Mar 19, 2011)

Bahrains Streitkräfte zerstören Monument in Manama
WELT ONLINE: Bahrainische Streitkräfte haben ein Denkmal auf dem Lulu-Platz in Manama zerstört. Das Bauwerk war zum Symbol für die Protestbewegungen geworden.

Die bahrainischen Streitkräfte haben ein Denkmal auf einem zentralen Platz der Hauptstadt Manama zerstört, das zum Symbol für die seit Wochen anhaltenden schiitischen Proteste gegen die sunnitische Regierung geworden war. Das 90 Meter hohe Monument auf dem Perlenplatz sei „ein schlechtes Andenken gewesen“, begründete Außenminister Chalid bin Ahmed al Chalifa die Maßnahme bei einer Pressekonferenz. » | dapd/sv | Freitag, 18. März 2011

Bahrain Authorities Destroy Pearl Roundabout
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Bahrain’s authorities have demolished the Pearl Roundabout monument which had become the symbolic heart of the country’s protest movement as forces continued a crackdown.

The monument was flattened two days after police used armoured vehicles and tear gas to sweep away a month-old Shia protest camp which had gathered around the monument.

State media said the monument, acknowledging Gulf unity and the kingdom’s pearl fishing history, was removed in a “facelift” to boost traffic flow.

Bahrain's most prominent Shia cleric criticised Britain and America for doing nothing to stop the violent crackdown by the Sunni monarchy against anti-government protests.

Sheikh Issa Qassem told a congregation of around 1,500 worshippers that protesters should remain peaceful, but that they would "bend to no one but God."

He gave the defiant Friday sermon before the funerals of two Shia men who died in clashes with the security forces earlier this week as the crackdown continued. » | Ben Farmer, Manama | Friday, March 18, 2011

Violence Continues Across Bahrain
Bahrain's largest opposition group has urged Saudi Arabia to withdraw its forces and called for a UN inquiry into the the government's on-going crackdown.
Clashes between security forces and anti goverment protesters continue, spilling into villages across the country. Our special correspondent, whom we are not naming for security reasons, filed this report

Police Crackdown against Bahrain