Clashes in Bahrain

Submitted by Matthew on 23 March, 2011 - 11:37

The protest movement in Bahrain has revived recently, with thousands of activists blockading the King Faisal Highway which leads to Bahrain’s main financial district. Security forces attempted to disperse them using tear gas.

At least three people are reported to have been killed in the clashes, with the regime claiming that three policemen have also died.

Following King Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa’s declaration of a three-month state of emergency, Saudi troops were invited into the country to help quell what the regime is denouncing as an “external plot”. Over 60 people are reported to have gone missing since Saudi forces arrived in Bahrain, and Bahrain’s own security forces are occupying the main hospital in Manama, Bahrain’s capital.

Opposition groups have said that no negotiations will take place until troops are off the streets and political prisoners have been released. Quite right!

Elsewhere in the region, Syria has become the latest country to be effected by democratic revolt. Protesters set fire to the headquarters of the country’s ruling Ba’ath Party in the city of Deraa. They also targeted the main court complex and a telephone company owned by the cousin of the dictator President al-Assad.

All opposition and dissent has been illegal since the Ba’athists took power in 1963. Protests have demanded the lifting of emergency law and an end to government corruption, as well as freedom for political prisoners (including 15 children jailed for writing dissident graffiti).

Security forces have opened fire on some demonstrations, but seemed more cautious when thousands of protesters attended the funeral of Raed el-Kerad, a 23-year-old protester killed in Deraa.

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