Monday, February 28, 2011

A Bahraini Shiite dissident said Sunday he would accept a Western-style constitutional monarchy in the Persian Gulf kingdom if protesters supported the measure while thousands of Bahrainis marched in Manama calling for the fall of the ruling Sunni dynasty.

In another development, 18 opposition MPs submitted their letter of resignation in protest against the killing of demonstrators.

Shiite dissident Hassan Mushaimaa was allowed to return to Bahrain as one of the concessions by the ruling Al-Khalifa family to Bahrain’s majority Shiites who have been at the forefront of nearly two weeks of protests demanding more say in government.

Mushaimaa, leader of the mostly Shiite Haq movement, also did not rule out the Sunni royal family’s removal.
“If it is a real monarchy as we know it in England, the royal family are honorary but do not control government, OK,” he told a news conference, adding that no member of the Al-Khalifa family should be in government.
“If all the people, and especially the people on Pearl Square agree on this [then that is good] … that’s why the Haq movement and me did not fix demands, we are talking about the demands of the people.”

He was referring to the young demonstrators occupying Pearl Square in the capital Manama who are demanding the removal of the Al-Khalifa family. More broadly, the Shiites say the government excludes them from jobs, health care and other opportunities, a charge the government has denied.

The protesters were becoming increasingly vocal in their demands and trying to put more pressure on the government by marching into Manama’s commercial districts.
They marched to a court building in Manama’s commercial district Sunday, their deepest foray into the city so far.
The large flag-waving crowd wound its way down the highway to the Diplomatic Area, marching past the Kuwaiti and Saudi embassies and the Bahraini central bank.

The crowd stopped in front of the Ministry of Justice, roaring “Down, down Hamad!” – a reference to the Persian Gulf state’s king.
The demonstrators then marched on past the public prosecution office and the compound where the Foreign Ministry is located.

They then continued down the street, back toward Pearl Square, as employees from banks and other businesses along the route, many of them filming with cell phones, looked on.
The youth movement is also discussing whether to take further steps, such as boycotting companies owned by the state.

“They don’t want any dialogue, they want to see their demand [fulfilled] first, the fall of the Al-Khalifas and to sue them for the crimes they committed,” a member of the youth movement, who did not wish to be identified, told Reuters.
Seven people were killed and hundreds wounded before Bahrain’s rulers pledged to allow peaceful protests and offered dialogue with opponents.

The government has released more than 300 people detained since a crackdown on Shiite unrest in August and the king reshuffled his Cabinet Saturday, appointing four new ministers.
The reshuffle fell flat with the mainstream opposition, such as the moderate Shiite Al-Wifaq, which is calling for a new Cabinet and an elected government under a constitutional monarchy.

“Al-Wifaq is not pleased with the process, with the idea of the king appointing ministers,” said Jasim Husain, a member of Parliament for Al-Wifaq. “Al-Wifaq believes that the way forward is an elected government.”
Eighteen MPs from Al-Wifaq officially submitted their letter of resignation Sunday in protest against the protesters’ deaths.

“Officially, we submitted the resignation letter today,” Khalil al-Marzouk, one of the 18 MPs, told AFP. Two other Al-Wifaq MPs, Ali al-Aswad and Mattar Mattar confirmed the announcement.
Mattar said that the head of Parliament would now compile a report on the resignations and submit it to Parliament, which must accept them or reject them.

If Parliament accepts the resignations, after two months “there will be partial elections, just for the constituencies which became empty,” said Mattar.
If it does not, “the Parliament continues its work with those numbers, with the 22 [remaining] members,” he said. – Agencies