DUBAI: An influential Bahraini Shiite preacher warned Friday that merely “cosmetic reform” would not satisfy people who joined a wave of protests quashed by security forces in March, as thousands of Shiites joined a demonstration outside Manama.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa has said a national dialogue will start on July 1. Officials say it will discuss democratic reforms in the country, which they describe as returning to stability after three months of emergency law, lifted two weeks ago.

Sheikh Issa Qasim, a spiritual leader of Bahrain’s majority Shiite population, told crowds packed into the small Diraz mosque they should remain peaceful in their calls for democratic reform but said they should not let go of their demands.

“It is not reasonable and one should not be deluded into thinking the people, after much fatigue, suffering, and the dearest of sacrifices, will accept coming up empty-handed,” he said. Dozens died in the unrest.
“The people did not mobilize in order to receive cosmetic reforms,” he added, as the audience shouted: “No more humiliation.”

Friday’s rally, organized by the opposition Al-Wefaq and held on the island of Sitra south of Manama, was the second since the crackdown on protests.
The Sunni rulers of Bahrain, where the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based, crushed weeks of pro-democracy protests mostly joined by Shiites, accusing them of a sectarian agenda with backing from Shiite power Iran.
The opposition says the charges are intended to distract Arab states and Bahrain’s U.S. allies from its political demands, which include calls for more representative elections.

Bahrain invited troops from neighboring Sunni Gulf countries to help crush the protests, and arrested hundreds. At least 100 people are on trial, and Human Rights Watch says 87 have been sentenced, with five acquitted.
The government says the accused are a small minority of protesters who committed crimes, with charges ranging from incitement to illegal gathering to killing a policeman, for which two have been sentenced to death.