By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The plans of an exiled Shiite leader to return home raised the stakes in a power struggle in Sunni-ruled Bahrain Monday, as protesters in Manama’s Pearl Square pressed demands for a new government.
Haq movement leader Hassan Mushaimaa, tried in absentia in Bahrain for attempting to topple the government, said he would fly back from London Tuesday, posing a fresh challenge to the ruling al-Khalifa family, whose legitimacy he has contested.

Mushaimaa’s Facebook page said he wanted to “see if this leadership is serious about dialogue and if it will arrest him or not.” An arrest warrant for Mushaimaa is outstanding.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa has asked his son, the crown prince, to conduct a dialogue with all parties, but after the bloodshed on the streets, in which seven people were killed and hundreds wounded, opposition parties are wary.

Crown Prince Salman, said: “At the present time the country’s entire attention is focused on building a new national dialogue for Bahrain.”
Haq is more radical than the Shiite Wefaq party, from which it split in 2006 when Wefaq contested a parliamentary election. Wefaq’s 17 MPs resigned last week in protest at the violence.
“They [Haq] are less likely to take a conciliatory position toward the regime,” Shadi Hamid of the Doha Brookings Center said. “They are not yet explicitly calling for its downfall, but they are not interested in being part of the system.”

Haq’s leaders have often been arrested in recent years, only to receive royal pardons. Some were re-arrested in a crackdown in August, when 25 Shiite activists, including 23 now on trial, were charged with trying to violently overthrow the government.
In a rare protest in nearby Kuwait, dozens of demonstrators waving Bahraini and Kuwaiti flags gathered in front of Parliament in support of Bahraini protesters, a resident said. One carried a picture of an injured protester, with the text: “Where is democracy?” They later dispersed peacefully.

Up to 10,000 people again packed Pearl Square, at the heart of weeklong protests led by majority Shiites demanding more say in the Gulf Arab country.

More than 1,500 striking teachers joined them to back demands for change. “No teaching until the government falls,” they chanted. “In the eyes of the people the government has already fallen,” said Amir Ahmad, 38, a government oil-sector employee.

The opposition is demanding a true constitutional monarchy that gives citizens a greater role in a directly elected government. It also wants the release of political prisoners.

The protesters have called a massive demonstration for Tuesday and expect tens of thousands of people to converge on Pearl Square. Those already there have vowed not to leave until their demands are met.

“We will stay here for as long as it takes and … will continue to offer food to all those here in the square,” said Qassem Hassan, a university student who was passing out fruit and water to protesters. “We are determined to see our demands met.”

Protesters appeared unimpressed by the crown prince’s calls for dialogue, calling instead for him to leave.
“Go away Salman, we don’t want you either,” read a banner carried by a young protester.
Last Thursday, police stormed the square very early in the morning as protesters lay sleeping, killing four people and wounding scores. A demonstrator shot during the crackdown died Monday of his wounds, an opposition official said.

Seated on the grass in Pearl Square one woman said the shock of Thursday’s killings has not yet subsided in the normally sleepy kingdom.
“What happened Thursday shocked us and broke our hearts,” said Um Alawi, clad in full niqab and flanked by her daughters. “No mother can keep her children from coming here,” she told AFP. “Sacrifice is today the duty of all Bahrainis.”
Their feelings were echoed by hundreds of women who have turned out to demand the resignation of the government. – Reuters, AFP