Friday, March 18, 2011

The leader of Bahrain’s largest opposition group has urged Saudi Arabia to withdraw its forces and called for a U.N. inquiry into a crackdown on mainly Shiite protesters that raised tensions in the region and prompted a flurry of regional diplomatic activity to contain the situation.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem arrived in Tehran Thursday to relay a message from the President Bashar Assad, while Turkish Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal visited Turkey to discuss the situation in Bahrain.

Earlier Thursday, Bahrain arrested seven opposition leaders, a day after its forces moved in to end weeks of pro-democracy protests that have sucked in troops from Saudi Arabia and prompted the king to declare martial law.
“The military should withdraw from Bahrain, the military of Saudi Arabia, and this is a call to the Saudi king,” Sheikh Ali Salman, head of Al-Wefaq, told Al-Jazeera television.

“We call for an investigation by the United Nations into what has happened from Feb. 14 up to now. If protesters were in the wrong, then they should be held to account.”

Salman and other opposition leaders also vowed to press on with “peaceful” pro-democracy demonstrations. He urged demonstrators not to endanger their lives and also called on them to protect public and private property.
Three protesters died in the crackdown. Three policemen were also killed, when they were hit by demonstrators in fast-moving cars.

The military, which is now in charge of Bahrain, banned all protests from Wednesday and imposed an open-ended curfew from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. across a large swathe of Manama. The curfew was cut back by four hours in some areas Thursday.

As the curfew went into effect, people shouted “God Is Great” from across Manama’s rooftops. Opposition leaders sent texts earlier, asking people to shout twice every night “to tell the army your tanks cannot silence us.”
The crackdown has drawn sympathy protests from Shiites across the region, including Saudi Arabia, and Iran has complained to the United Nations.

Bahrain said Iranian complaints to the U.N. “does not serve security and stability in the Gulf region nor does it help in building friendly relations between neighboring countries.”
In a possible sign of detente, Assad dispatched Foreign Minister Moallem to Tehran Thursday to deliver a message to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the situation in the Gulf state, SANA reported.

Earlier, Iran’s official news agency IRNA said Saudi King Abdullah had sent a message to Assad Wednesday about the crisis and the same message would be delivered by Moallem, who held talks with Ahmadinejad and Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi.

In a joint statement both sides called for “constructive dialogue as a safe path to meet the aspirations of the Bahraini people and consolidate their national unity, stressing the importance of communication with the Kingdom of Bahrain to get over the current stage,” SANA reported.

In Ankara, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, as well as President Adullah Gul, to discuss regional developments, mainly Libya and Bahrain, NTV reported.

Turkey is trying to ease tension after Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations sent troops to Bahrain. Davutoglu was scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia for further talks Friday, his office said.

Bahraini state TV called the detainees leaders of “civil strife” and said they had been communicating with foreign countries and inciting murder and destruction of properties. It did not name the countries.
Among those detained overnight were Haq leader Hassan Mushaima and Wafa leader Abdel Wahhab Hussein, who had led calls for the overthrow of the royal family, Al-Wefaq officials said.

More moderate Al-Wefaq had limited its demands to wide-ranging political and constitutional reform. Also arrested was Ibrahim Sharif, head of the secular leftist party Waad that signed up to the same demands as Al-Wefaq.
“Two of the thugs climbed over the fence to get in our yard, one went over and pointed a gun in Ibrahim’s face and the other went to our garage to let everyone else in,” Farida Ismail, Sharif’s wife, told Reuters by telephone. “They were going around, wrecking things in the house.”

In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged Bahrain to rein in its security forces, citing allegations that they had killed, beaten and carried out arbitrary arrests of protesters, and attacked medical workers.

The European Union and NATO echoed U.S. calls for Bahrain to refrain from violence and try to settle the crisis through dialogue.
More than a dozen casualties who had been taken to Bahrain International Hospital during the crackdown were gone Thursday. Nurses said they had mostly been suffering from teargas inhalation and cuts and bruises. The wards were empty.

Tanks were still guarding the entrances to Salmaniya hospital Thursday, after raiding the compound during the crackdown to clear tents that had been set up in the car park by opposition activists.
Pearl Square, focal point of weeks of protests, was a scene of devastation Thursday. Some tattered tents remained as diggers uprooted palm trees that surrounded the statue where activists had been celebrating into the night only days before.

As the nighttime curfew approached, clashes broke out in villages outside the capital Manama with police trying to establish control over Shiite areas.

Riot police fired tear gas on several dozen protesters trying to march in the mostly Shiite Manama suburb of Jidhafs, less than (one kilometer from Pearl Square. As the clash unfolded, residents tried to block police vehicles with makeshift barricades including metal tables, pieces of wood and even gym weights.