By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
MANAMA, Bahrain – On Friday, members of Bahrain’s Shi’ite Muslim majority congregated in the capital for an anti-government demonstration but were suppressed by riot police. The protesters, organized by the opposition group al-Wefaq, planned to stage a march on Manama, but armored vehicles blocked the roads. Police also fired tear gas and stun grenades at the demonstrators.
The Bahraini government has dealt with these uprisings through the use of martial law, troops from Saudi Arabia, and police from the United Arab Emirates. Approximately fifty people have been killed, and hundreds have been arrested since the Shi’ite protest movement began in February 2011. These demonstrators gathered in Manama despite a ban on unauthorized demonstrations. Thousands of like-minded protesters participated in a government-approved march just a week prior, which passed without incident.
On Tuesday, the High Criminal Court of Appeal in Bahrain upheld the convictions and sentences of thirteen men who received jail sentences of between five and twenty-five years for their roles in setting up last year’s pro-democracy demonstrations. Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said that the “court decision [was] another blow to justice and it shows once more that the Bahraini authorities are not on the path of reform, but seem rather driven by vindictiveness.”
While the general purpose of the protests is to seek political and economic reform for the marginalized Shi’ites from their authoritarian Sunni monarch, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, it is clear that Tuesday’s court decision has been a major motivating factor in recent demonstrations.
At Friday’s protest, groups held banners that read sayings like “Freedom for the prisoners of conscience” and “We want an independent judiciary.”
Such demonstrators have encountered police intervention on a daily basis. If Friday’s march was any indication of the future, the Shi’ites are going to continue their protests and the government’s police are going to continue to put down those uprisings with force. As long as Bahrain’s Sunni government refuses to make any concessions to its Shi’ite opposition, it is likely that the number of protesters killed and arrested will continue to rise.
For further information, please see:
Al Jazeera — Police Fire Tear Gas at Bahrain Protesters — 8 September 2012
BBC — Bahrain Protesters Clash With Police in Manama — 7 September 2012
Reuters — Bahrain Police Fire Tear Gas at Banned Anti-Government Protest — 7 September 2012
Amnest International — Bahrain Must Free Prisoners of Conscience After Outrageous Verdict — 4 September 2012
Impunity Watch — Thousands Gather in Bahrain’s First Authorized Protest Since June — 3 September 2012
