Massive anti-government protest in Bahrain
By Tom Eley
10 March 2012
Tens of thousands of Bahrainis demonstrated near the capital city of Manama against the country’s pro-US monarchist regime on Friday. The demonstration comes one year after a series of protests in the small Gulf sheikdom were ruthlessly crushed by the government, backed by forces from neighboring Saudi Arabia. [...]
Bahrain, a major oil and gas producer, is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. On the southwestern flank of the Persian Gulf, the base would be critical for any US military operation against Iran.
A Reuters photographer told Al Jazeera that the demonstration, which stretched for miles on a central road leading to Manama, “could be over 100,000.” If so, the protest would involve nearly 10 percent of the country’s population of 1.2 million. Organizers said they expected as many as 200,000 to participate. [...]
Friday’s demonstration was officially called by a leading Shiite cleric, Sheikh Isa Qass, and the Shiite group al Wefaq, which favors compromise with the regime and, according to one account, “wants to show that it still dominated the opposition.” However, a different mood among the masses was illustrated by the demonstration’s chants and banners, which included prominently the slogan “No dialogue with the killers!” [...]
