Deel I:quote:Iran warns - keep out of Bahrain
AFP - Tehran - Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday officially told Manama, Riyadh and Washington that military intervention by Gulf troops in Bahrain was "unacceptable," state television's website reported.
Iran summoned the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, which represents US interests in the Islamic republic, as well as Bahrain's charge d'affaires, to convey the message, the report said.
"The entrance of Saudi forces in Bahrain will only further complicate the situation and transform an internal crisis into a regional one," Hossein Amir Abdolahian, head of the ministry's Persian Gulf and Middle East Affairs department, told Saudi envoy Mohammad al-Kalabi.
Riyadh on Monday sent troops to Bahrain to help the regime control Shi'ite-led pro-democracy opposition protesters, who have said any foreign force would be treated as an invading army.
Forces from the United Arab Emirates were also present, and Bahraini television showed convoys of unmarked, desert-brown armoured vehicles crossing from Saudi's Eastern Province into Bahrain, home of the US Fifth Fleet.
Iran also protested against the "illegal" US action in "supporting the intervention of foreign troops" in minority Sunni-ruled Bahrain, the state TV website quoted the ministry as saying in a separate report.
"The US support for military intervention is contrary to international laws... Thus the Islamic Republic of Iran considers America responsible for the dangerous consequences of this illegal action," an unidentified Iranian diplomat told Swiss ambassador Livia Leu Agosti, the report said.
Concern
The main Shi'ite opposition alliance says it wants a constitutional monarchy, but more radical Shi'ite groups have said they are protesting to topple the Sunni dynasty that has ruled Bahrain for more than 200 years.
Bahraini charge d'affaires Jafar Ahmad Ali Hubail was told of Iran's "serious concern" over the situation in the Gulf state.
"The action of foreign forces, no matter what their motives or form, is unacceptable and will only further complicate the situation in Bahrain," an unidentified Iranian diplomat told Hubail, the website said.
Protests erupted in Shi'ite-majority Bahrain on February 14 and several people have died in consequent crackdowns.
Complication
Earlier, foreign ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast said the military intervention will only complicate the already volatile situation in Bahrain.
"The presence of foreign forces cannot be acceptable and will make the situation more complicated and difficult," he said at his weekly news conference.
"Basically, we do not think it is right for forces of other countries, specially Persian Gulf countries, to be present or intervene in Bahrain's situation," he said.
"The people of Bahrain have demands, which are legitimate and are being expressed peacefully. Any violence in response to these legitimate demands should be stopped."
Parliament speaker Ali Larijani, who usually takes a tougher stance on foreign policy than the government, said Gulf states were acting under "American orders" and that the "roaring wrath" of the people awaited them, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi telephoned his Turkish and Qatari counterparts, as well as the Arab League secretary general, to discuss the situation in Bahrain, Mehr news agency reported.
"The intervention of foreign forces could lead to a regional crisis that would have serious consequences," it quoted Salehi as saying.
"It is necessary to respond to the demands of the population with common sense and perspective and without the intervention of foreign forces."
Demanding reform
Salehi on Monday asked the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to "use all means to prevent the use of violence" in Bahrain, IRNA said.
Protesters on Monday blocked access roads to the Financial Harbour business complex in Bahrain's capital Manama, a day after more than 200 people were wounded in clashes between riot police and demonstrators.
Many of the country's disenfranchised Shi'ites see the banking district as a symbol of corruption, wealth and privilege, and opposition protesters are demanding far-reaching democratic reform.
The king has offered dialogue and a new, empowered parliament and other reforms but the opposition has refused to sit down to talks until the government resigns.
quote:Bahrain showdown divides Iraqis on sectarian lines
Reuters - A regional showdown over Bahrain is exacerbating the split between Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis, who see the machinations of their neighbors through the lens of the sectarian divide that led to years of war in Iraq.
Iraqs own majority Shiites have adopted the cause of Bahrains majority Shiite demonstrators, who are protesting against the rule of a Sunni royal family that called in troops from Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia. The UAE is also sending police.
Iraqi Sunnis, for their part, worry about the prospect of interference by their nemesis, non-Arab Shiite Iran.
For now, it is the Shiite community that has been galvanized. An Iraqi Shiite TV station has been running a banner across the top of the screen reading "Save Bahrain." Its reports describe the arrival of Saudi troops as an "occupation."
Moqtada al-Sadr, the outspoken Shiite cleric who long fought against the U.S. presence in Iraq, said an intervention that opposed the will of the Bahraini majority was "unjust."
"The popular revolution of Bahrain is rightful, and repressing it is absolutely unacceptable," he said in a statement read to Reuters by a spokesman. "We ask God to give the people of Bahrain patience in the ordeal they are suffering and for this to be the beginning of their victory."
Khalid al-Asadi, a Shiite lawmaker from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Malikis ruling State of Law bloc, said intervention by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni neighbors on behalf of Bahrains rulers would only worsen sectarian strife.
"I think if the king wants the situation to move to normal in Bahrain, he has to ask these (Saudi) troops to leave. They could provoke tension and worry -- and sectarian tension as well -- in this beloved country," he said.
"Of course we dont want such a thing to happen to our brothers in Bahrain, but the Saudi and UAE intervention in Bahrain worries us."
"IRANS FINGERS"
Sunnis are concerned about what they see as the spreading influence of Iran, which has denounced the Saudi deployment in Bahrain as unacceptable.
"If we look at the critical situation in Bahrain, we would be too naive if we ignored the Iranian fingers. Having a Gulf country ruled by a Shiite majority would make Iran more proud than having the atomic bomb," said Ahmed Younis, a Sunni lawyer.
Iraq, like Bahrain, has a Shiite majority whose members complained for decades of being repressed by a ruling class of Sunni Muslims who dominate the rest of the Arab world.
When U.S. forces toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and replaced him with a largely Shiite government, militias from the two sects waged war that mainly targeted civilians, killing tens of thousands and driving millions from their homes.
Iraqs Sunnis blamed neighboring Shiite Iran for arming Shiite militia, while Shiites said nearby Arab states were aiding Sunni extremists to keep the majority from taking power.
Today, Iraqis blame the actors they say fomented their own war for taking sides in Bahrain.
Support for Bahrains Shiites resonates with ordinary Iraqi Shiites, who see it as a matter of winning democratic rights.
"One family runs a country for ages? Who would accept that? The Shiite majority should have their say in Bahrain," said Zainab Abdul-Kareem, a private bank worker taking time off to pick her daughter up from school. "Its a legitimate right and whoever ignores it, he must be either deaf or crazy."
De VS moet liever niemand daar steunen.quote:Op dinsdag 15 maart 2011 22:29 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
De VS moet SA gewoon steunen. Weg met die Ayatollahs.
VS zitten er middenin. Iran zal toch echt iets moeten gaan doen om te zorgen dat hun invloed toeneemt in de regio...quote:VS houdt zich er beter ook nog even buiten. Volgens mij is dit een strijd waar je je liever niet meer in mengt.
SA: vrouwen lopen rond in boerka's en mogen geen auto rijden.quote:Op dinsdag 15 maart 2011 22:29 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
De VS moet SA gewoon steunen. Weg met die Ayatollahs.
Mij maakt het niet uit. Alle extremistische geloven zijn gewoon kl*. Of dat nu moslim/joods/christelijk is maakt geen drol uit.quote:SA: vrouwen lopen rond in boerka's en mogen geen auto rijden.
Iran: hoofddoek is verplicht, maar vrouwen mogen auto rijden.
SA is extremistischer dan Iran, dat is een feit. Maar jij draait het om omdat je over een eigen anti-sjiitische agenda beschikt.
Voor de 100ste keer: ze mogen zelf bepalen hoe ze willen leven, dat is hun goed recht. Het is hun land. De meerderheid bepaalt. Jij hebt het recht niet om je met hun interne aangelegenheden te bemoeien.quote:Op dinsdag 15 maart 2011 23:36 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Wat ideen van de grootste oppositiepartij in Bahrein, die nu dus demonsteren:
a ban on the hanging of underwear on clothes lines
a ban on the display of lingerie mannequin
the right to legislate on issues relating to women and families is solely that of religious leaders.
more strict clothing guidelines at the University of Bahrain and other issues that it considers are against the teachings of Islam
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12751464quote:Two killed in Bahrain violence despite martial law
At least two people have been killed and as many as 200 injured in clashes between anti-government demonstrators and security forces in Bahrain.
A doctor told the BBC he was treating many people with head and gunshot wounds, and that soldiers and police were using ambulances to attack people.
The violence came as the government announced a state of emergency and called in Saudi troops to keep order.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has appealed for calm and restraint.
"The use of force and violence from any source will only worsen the situation," she told reporters during a visit to the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
"Our advice to all sides is that they must take steps now to negotiation towards a political resolution," she added.
Mrs Clinton also said she had told Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal that "they, along with everyone else, need to be promoting the dialogue".
A diplomatic row has also flared over the issue, with Bahrain recalling its ambassador in Tehran and complaining of "blatant interference" in its affair because Iran had condemned the arrival of foreign forces.
'Occupation'
Earlier, Bahrain's King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa decreed that there would be a three-month state of emergency to help restore order.
The head of the armed forces had been authorised to take all measures to "protect the safety of the country and its citizens", the announcement said.
On Monday, more than 1,000 troops from the Gulf Co-operation Council rolled into the country at the king's request, flashing victory signs.
Thousands of Bahrainis marched on the Saudi embassy in the capital, Manama, on Tuesday to protest against the intervention.
"People are angry. We want this occupation to end. We don't want anybody to help the Al Khalifa or us," a protester called Salman told the Reuters news agency, referring to the Sunni Muslim ruling family.
After the declaration of the state of emergency, many protesters set up barricades to protect themselves against the security forces. Young men, some wearing masks and carrying sticks, stood guard.
Later, there were violent clashes in several mainly Shia areas. In the village of Sitra, 15km (10 miles) south of Manama, police officers armed with shotguns fired on residents, a witness told the BBC.
Medics said more than 200 people had been injured in the clashes, and that two men - one Bahraini and the other Bangladeshi - had been killed.
State television said a Bahraini policeman was among the dead, denying media reports that a Saudi soldier had been shot and killed.
Bullet wounds
There were chaotic scenes at the Salmaniya medical centre, where many of the injured were brought.
A doctor at the medical centre's accident and emergency department said there were "many, many casualties".
"People are coming in with bullet wounds and injuries caused by rubber bullets. There are hundreds of people," he told the BBC. "We received one major case - a man whose skull had been split open by something."
Two other men were in a serious condition after being shot in the eyes, while a third had been shot in the back of the head, the doctor said.
"We were at the health centre in Sitra, and they shot at us. The doctors and nurses were all scared because the windows were being broken and we could hear the shooting. This is a disaster," he added.
He said police and soldiers - both Bahraini and foreign - had seized six ambulances, and then used them to attack protesters.
"The paramedics were kicked out, and they took the ambulances. They went everywhere in them and they were shooting people."
Other doctors appealed for international help to ensure access to the wounded. The BBC saw an ambulance that had been shot at.
The main Shia Muslim opposition group, al-Wefaq, condemned the state of emergency, and appealed for international help.
On Monday, it said the arrival of Gulf states troops - the first time that any Arab government has called for outside military help during the current wave of protests sweeping the region - was tantamount to a declaration of war.
Most members of Bahrain's majority Shia community majority community, which has long complained of discrimination and repression by the Sunni elite, say they want a constitutional monarchy and other democratic reforms. However, some have said they want a republic.
quote:Seif On Bahrain
As anyone would know, I am a devout believer in freedoms, revolution, and change in the Middle East. In the way I see it, I think we should change the Middle East, add new faces and really spice up the Middle Eastbut most importantly we need new ideas. Trust me, I believe in that like it is a religion. Why? Because maybe thats what we need to get on track again in this region. Anyways, with all the problems in Libya today, Bahrain seems to have fallen in the shadows. I have looked over the issue in Bahrain and this is what I think.
Really, I hope nobody gets offended with this but I am a fair man. I speak with all honesty in what I see as right, and what I see as wrong. So lets start. I have never lived in Bahrain in my life, so many people will say that my post is invalid and that I dont know anything, but bare with me. I did a quick comparison of Bahrain and Lebanon. Bahrain has high internet, one of the strongest economics in the Middle East, no taxes pretty muchwhat you make is literally what you keep (for all people), health care is free for all, education is virtually free compared to Beirut, and you do have the freedom to dress, act, and do as you please. Paying for water in Qatar equals 25 Bahraini Dinars, in Bahrian a water bill LITERALLY equals half a dinar. I think the problem arises when you mention the ruling party and like most monarchies that doesnt go too well. Comparing to Lebanon, Bahrainis live a pretty good life, or at least they do in the eyes of the outside world, because like I said I have never lived for an extended time in Bahrain. I know Shiites there have their own channel, but I cant remember its name for the life of me, they can participate in Ashura publicly, and mosques function just fine I mean it would be weird if they didnt have that freedom because most of Bahrain is in fact Shiite.
I thought I was over reacting when I read these stats of Bahrain, so I asked a Canadian friend for his opinion. His jaw dropped. To the floor. So what should be done? Initiative, Dialog, and an open mind! Reform, peace, and understanding should be on the mind of everyone in Bahrain. Removing the monarchy will harm instead of aid the nation, in MY eyes.
At first, I really did support this revolution, and I was excited for change there. But something turned me off. I tweeted the following: Bahrain, do not use terms Sunni or Shia as this will destroy your cause! Be united, do not follow Lebanons footsteps. I got a whole bunch of tweets, telling me they thanked me for that tweet and so on. Great. Then I got the following tweet: This is not a Sunni revolution, this is a Shiite revolution, Ya Husein! Umm what the hell? I have no problem with Shiites, in fact I could care less what anyones religion is. You could worship pickles and I would still like you for the person you are. So anywaysss, I got more and more of those tweets, and I sensed a serious problem inside Bahrain. It is not a united front. You can tell me it is until your blue in the face, but I do not think it is the case. Which poses a serious threat for the nation if the Royal Family is removed Lebanon all over again if you ask me. Civil strife, sectarian issues, and attacks. So what to do?
I think the best thing for Bahrain is a Constitutional Monarchy, something we have in England, Monaco, and Swaziland. I can see it now, I will get comments telling me that because I am a Sunni Muslim I support Bahrains Royal family WRONG! Like I said, I am obsessed with secular nations, so I dont care what religion the royal family is. I care about peace, and maintaining a healthy and prosperous Bahrain! I do agree, and I emphasize on this, that reform in the nation IS crucial, and I support it! But lets be fair, with all the bad that the world says the royal family is they did a lot for Bahrain. Just look at Manama! Anyways, I do wish the Bahraini people reform, and their needs and desires met but that doesnt change my mind that this revolution is strictly a sectarian one. I watched CBC yesterday, and of the 3 Bahrainis who were interviewed, only ONE used the word Bahrainis instead of Shiites. Just one. Iraq, Lebanon and their sectarian issues keep ringing in my ear.
I also tweeted today mentioning the Bahraini Queen Marwa. It wasnt an attack on her, as what is going on in Bahrain has nothing to do with her or Princess Thajba personally [who are both found on Twitter]. As a matter of fact, I am sure they support dialog and the opportunity for all to express their opinions just because they dont announce it out loud, doesnt mean they dont like it. Looking at the Queens tweets today, I found an interesting tweet from a while ago. She was proud of the unity in her nation. No matter where it was I am sure. She tweeted me back today, and I discovered a very classy and understanding woman educated to say the very least. So whatever the opinion is you may have on Bahrain, keep this in mind, the ones from this family who we find in Twitter, arent the ones to blame. So lets respect and acknowledge that.
P.S. As I wrote this blog, I looked up the main reasons the Bahrainis are protesting AND received a DM from an awesome Bahraini tweep who dissected it for me. She said Shiites in Bahrain live a very limited life, with not much opportunities as Sunnis in the nation. This must change for the betterment of the country. If that is the case, which like I said, I am unaware of because I have not lived in Bahrain, then yes ask for reforms, ask for dialog, and even ask for political bloggers to be released, but claiming Bahrain is an ultimate terrible place to live in is unfair. For heavens sake people, Lebanon is much worse than Bahrain! I encourage my Bahraini tweeps, my brothers and sisters inside the nation to sit back and look at the options, what Bahrain needs is a strong, united front with all sects, and dialog to gain reforms that they want. Removing a regime may not be the best thing for all nations. But reforms ARE.
I support all revolutions and causes from Lebanon to Zimbabwe, really. I support reform, but I really do not want to offend anyone, and if you think I am wrong, please be open and let me know! I am not out to defend or denounce anyone its just something I see. I love dialog, discussion, and opinions, so even if you disagree, I would love to hear it! My heart and prayers go out to those who have died, who suffered, and who faced brutality. God bless, and good luck to Bahrain all of the people inside it.
Regels voor de gehele bevolking zou al een behoorlijke vooruitgang zijn. Nu hebben ze er ook nog discriminatie bij.quote:Op dinsdag 15 maart 2011 23:36 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Wat ideen van de grootste oppositiepartij in Bahrein, die nu dus demonsteren:
a ban on the hanging of underwear on clothes lines
a ban on the display of lingerie mannequin
the right to legislate on issues relating to women and families is solely that of religious leaders.
more strict clothing guidelines at the University of Bahrain and other issues that it considers are against the teachings of Islam
quote:Iraq Shiite authority condemns Bahrain crackdown
AFP - BAGHDAD A leading Iraq-based Shiite Muslim authority on Wednesday condemned a deadly government crackdown on mainly Shiite protesters in Bahrain, saying the violence must stop immediately.
"We condemn this irresponsible act," Basheer al-Najafi, one of the world's four top Shiite authorities, said in a statement.
"We call on those responsible to immediately halt this injustice to citizens," Najafi said from his base in the Shrine city of Najaf in central Iraq.
Hundreds of Bahraini riot police early Wednesday launched an assault in Manama's Pearl Square, where protesters inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt have been camping for weeks demanding political reforms.
Bahrain's mainly Shiite opposition said at least two protesters were killed and dozens wounded in the violent assault.
The raid followed clashes in the kingdom between demonstrators and security forces in various Bahraini villages on Tuesday in which two people died and hundreds were hurt.
Najafi urged Bahrain's leadership to "avoid violence and sectarian strife, save lives, and take the wise path of negotiation as the best way to save the country."
Wednesday's clashes in Manama came a day after the Sunni King Hamad, boosted by the arrival in the Shiite-majority state of armed forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, declared a three-month state of emergency in a bid to quell the protests.
"We were surprised that the Bahraini government asked for forces from neighbouring countries, who targeted villages and people who had raised slogans of peace, and were targetted by gunfire and mortars," Najafi's statement said.
In Bahrain, five of the kingdom's top Shiite clerics had warned on Tuesday that a "horrible massacre is expected at Pearl Square against the people of this (Shiite) sect, only for peacefully demanding their rights."
Lul niet slap.quote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 11:37 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
@ stuk van yavanna
Zegt eigenlijk genoeg dat die mensen zichzelf zien als shia ipv bahraini. Religieus extremistische opstand gewoon
Zit je weer lekker die Bahreini's te demoniseren? Je denkt: als ik het maar blijf herhalen gelooft men het vanzelf. Beetje Wilders retoriek. In ieder geval maakt het niet uit aangezien Bahrein per definitie een probleem heeft als 70% van de bevolking zich tegen je keert. En daar zorgen ze zelf voor door woestijn-Arabieren uit dat geliefde Saoedische land over te laten komen om eigen volk af te knallen. Geest gaat niet meer terug in de flesquote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 11:37 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
@ stuk van yavanna
Zegt eigenlijk genoeg dat die mensen zichzelf zien als shia ipv bahraini. Religieus extremistische opstand gewoon
Dit stukje zegt alles:quote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 07:38 schreef yavanna het volgende:
Ook wel een intressant stuk om door te lezen en de reactie's.
[..]
quote:Iraqs Sadr calls for protest against Bahrain deaths
(Reuters) - Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for mass demonstrations in Baghdad and Basra on Wednesday in support of mainly-Shiite demonstrators in Bahrain.
The crackdown by Bahrains Saudi-backed Sunni royal family against demonstrators from the countrys Shiite majority has galvanized Iraqs own Shiite community, exacerbating the sectarian tension that led to years of war in Iraq.
"Moqtada al-Sadr is calling for demonstrations today in Baghdad and Basra to support the Bahraini people and to denounce and condemn the murdering of innocent revolutionaries," senior Sadr aide Hazem al-Araji told Reuters.
Het eiland ligt tussen SA en Iran. Jij denkt echt dat Iran niet in staat is om het van SA te winnen?quote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 12:17 schreef johnnylove het volgende:
@Charismatisch
Weet niet in welke wereld je leeft, maar die Tiran zal nooit weggaan daar. En indien hij weggaat zal zijn plaats meteen worden ingenomen door een gazel van SA.
De strategische ligging van het eilandje is van te groot belang om in handen te laten komen van de sjiieten.
Ik impliceer niet dat Iran niet kan winnen van SA en vice versa. Aan het eind zullen de Iraniers verliezen, doordat de rest van de wereld niet meer gegarandeerd is van de vrije stroom van olie.quote:Het eiland ligt tussen SA en Iran. Jij denkt echt dat Iran niet in staat is om het van SA te winnen?
Verder is de positie van de Saoedische dictator ook niet al te sterk op dit moment. Ik verwacht dat nadat Bahrein valt, het einde voor Al Saoed in zicht zal zijn.
Goede zaakquote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 12:14 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
Iraqs Sadr calls for protest against Bahrain deaths
(Reuters) - Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for mass demonstrations in Baghdad and Basra on Wednesday in support of mainly-Shiite demonstrators in Bahrain.
quote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 13:48 schreef johnnylove het volgende:
Aan het eind zullen de Iraniers verliezen, doordat de rest van de wereld niet meer gegarandeerd is van de vrije stroom van olie.
quote:Waarom denk je dat VS zicht afzijdig houdt in Libie? Als ze nu dat doen, hebben ze een probleem op de langere termijn met hun Islamitische "bondgenoten"
Ze zijn een regionale macht.quote:En ik denk ook dat je macht van Iran een beetje overdrijft.
quote:Fellow Shiites rally behind Bahrain protesters
(Agence France-Presse) - From Iran to Saudi Arabia and through the Iraqi city of Najaf, Shiites in the Middle East rallied Wednesday behind Shiite protesters in Bahrain against a violent crackdown by the ruling Sunni dynasty.
In Shiite-majority Iraq, a leading authority of the sect called for an immediate halt to the deadly crackdown in Bahrain.
"We condemn this irresponsible act," Basheer al-Najafi, one of Iraqs four top Shiite authorities, said in a statement from his base in the Shrine city of Najaf in central Iraq.
Early Wednesday, hundreds of Bahraini riot police backed by tanks and helicopters fired shotguns and tear gas at demonstrators in Manamas Pearl Square, clearing the symbolic heart of the uprising in the strategic Gulf kingdom.
Bahrains mainly Shiite opposition said at least three protesters were killed and dozens wounded in the violent assault.
"We were surprised that the Bahraini government asked for forces from neighbouring countries, who targetted villages and people who had raised slogans of peace, and were targetted by gunfire and mortars," Najafi said.
Armed forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates rolled into Bahrain on Monday at the invitation of the Sunni monarchy to help Manama deal with Shiite-led protesters.
The assault on protesters prompted radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to call for protests in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra Wednesday and nationwide demonstrations Friday, "in support of the people of Bahrain," his office said.
Only hours after the call, some 2,000 Sadr supporters staged a demonstration in central Basra, carrying Iraqi flags, portraits of Sadr and banners condemning the bloodshed in Bahrain.
"Stop shedding the blood of Bahrainis and Arabs," read one banner. "We demand a stop to Arab and foreign intervention in Bahrain," proclaimed another.
Sadr al-Deen al-Qubbanchi, another Shiite cleric in Najaf, said that the protests in Bahrain were not simply a Shiite uprising but a "popular movement," and condemned the military intervention there.
"It is an intervention to protect a weak political regime, instead of helping the people," he said.
Iran, which sees itself as the beacon of Islam and champion of the worlds Shiite Muslims, condemned the "mobilisation against the population in Bahrain," calling it "heinous, unjustifiable and incomprehensible."
"How can those who use weapons against their people want to govern them?" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, quoted by the state news agency.
Iran has been especially rattled by the military intervention in Bahrain by troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
"This expedition is a very foul and doomed experience and regional nations will hold the American government responsible for this," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
In Kuwait, where Shiites make up around 30 percent of the 1.15 million citizens, Shiite MPs strongly slammed the Gulf Cooperation Council for sending troops to crush the protests.
Shiite MP Saleh Ashur warned he would question the prime minister in parliament if Kuwaiti troops also were dispatched to help the Manama rulers.
Sunni MPs, however, praised the move and called on the Kuwaiti government to rush forces.
On Wednesday, about a dozen Shiite women gathered outside the Bahraini embassy in Kuwait City in protest at the crackdown.
Lebanons Shiite militant group Hezbollah, meanwhile, said the military intervention in Bahrain would hamper peaceful solutions.
"Military intervention and the use of force against a peaceful popular movement will not lead to a solution and will complicate matters while hampering chances of finding a solution," the party said in a statement late Tuesday.
Hezbollah said it was concerned about attacks against protesters and questioned Washingtons role in the latest developments.
In Saudi Arabia, a few hundred Shiite protesters on Tuesday took to the streets near Qateef in the oil-rich Eastern Province in solidarity with Bahraini Shiites, an activist told AFP.
Shiites make up around 10 percent of the 18 million native Saudis and are concentrated in the eastern province bordering Bahrain.
quote:Germany condemns occupation forces in Bahrain
(Monsters and Critics.com) German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Wednesday condemned the presence of foreign military forces in Bahrain, two days after troops from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) were sent to the country.
'We call upon the countries in the region to show restraint. The escalation of violence must end,' he said, calling for a national dialogue between government and opposition forces.
'A solution must be found within the country itself,' Westerwelle added.
German's Foreign Ministry recommended that the 250 German nationals living in Bahrain leave the country, and a ministry spokesman said that imposing a state of emergency was not conducive to finding a solution.
Ja, en op zo'n afstand gedraagt zelfs een rubberen kogel zich als lood.quote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 21:31 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Is gewoon een rubberen kogel.
en indd. brengt zat schade aan met zo'n afstand ...quote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 21:38 schreef Ulpianus het volgende:
[..]
Ja, en op zo'n afstand gedraagt zelfs een rubberen kogel zich als lood.
=dodelijkquote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 21:31 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Is gewoon een rubberen kogel.
Moet ie maar niet zo stoer doen en net zoals zijn mede-extremisten op een afstandje staan.quote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 21:38 schreef Ulpianus het volgende:
[..]
Ja, en op zo'n afstand gedraagt zelfs een rubberen kogel zich als lood.
Ik probeer me zo af en toe in jou te verplaatsen, maar ik kan me absoluut niet voorstellen dat dit soort dingen je niets doet. Je kunt toch niet een haat hebben tegen al die mensen?quote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 21:49 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
[..]
Moet ie maar niet zo stoer doen en net zoals zijn mede-extremisten op een afstandje staan.
Nee hoor. Ik gun de Khalifa familie alles.quote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 22:32 schreef KurdKasim het volgende:
Het is een christen Libanees. Die misgunnen iedereen alles omdat ze zelf gedecimeerd worden.
Onderschat het egoisme van een christen libanees niet..quote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 22:34 schreef Pannenkoekenmix het volgende:
Daar geloof ik niet zo in hoor, hij zal zijn redenen wel hebben.. Ik kan me alleen niet voorstellen dat je alle mensen van 1 groepering zo haat dat je zelfs hun dood terecht vind
Omdat je op hun loonlijst staat zeker.quote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 22:35 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
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Nee hoor. Ik gun de Khalifa familie alles.
quote:De Verenigde Staten en Iran hebben zich vanavond kritisch uitgelaten over het geweld dat de oproerpolitie gebruikt tegen anti-regeringsdemonstranten. Iran maakte vanavond bekend zijn ambassadeur terug te roepen voor overleg. Obama belde met koning Hamad van Bahrein.
Volgens het Witte Huis vroeg Obama de koning, een belangrijke bondgenoot van de VS in de regio, om maximale terughoudendheid te betrachten ten opzichte van de anti-regeringsbetogers. De Amerikaanse president belde ook met de Saoedische koning, die gisteren samen met andere Golfstaten zon duizend troepen naar Bahrein stuurde om het regime van koning Hamad te steunen.
Het terugroepen van de Iraanse ambassadeur komt in reactie op eenzelfde stap van Bahrein, dat gisteren zijn ambassadeur uit Teheran terughaalde uit protest tegen de kritiek die het Iraanse regime op Bahrein leverde. In Bahrein bestaat de meerderheid van de bevolking uit shiieten, terwijl een soennitische minderheid het land regeert. Kritiek uit het in eveneens in meerderheid shiitische Iran wordt door het soennitische regime niet op prijs gesteld.
De autoriteiten in Bahrein stelden vanmiddag een avondklok in, die sinds twee uur vanmiddag Nederlandse tijd van kracht is. De afgelopen uren was het rustig in Manama en de rest van het land.
De toenemende kritiek op Bahrein komt nadat het politie en leger vanochtend vroeg het Parelplein in hoofstad Manama met harde hand schoonveegden. Bij het ingrijpen, waarbij onder meer traangas werd ingezet, kwamen drie agenten en drie betogers om het leven.
http://www.rnw.nl/interna(...)er-bahrain-hospitalsquote:UN rights chief slams military takeover of Bahrain hospitals
UN rights chief Navi Pillay on Thursday slammed security forces' takeover of Bahrain hospitals and medical facilities as "a blatant violation of international law."
The top UN human rights official urged Bahrain on Thursday to rein in its security forces, citing allegations that they had killed, beaten and carried out arbitrary arrests of protesters, and attacked medical workers.
Pillay said in a statement she was "deeply alarmed by the escalation of violence by security forces in Bahrain, in particular the reported takeover of hospitals and medical centres" in the country, which she called a "shocking and a blatant violation of international law."
"There are reports of arbitrary arrests, killings, beatings of protesters and of medical personnel, and of the takeover of hospitals and medical centres by various security forces," Pillay, a former UN war crimes judge, said in a statement. "This is shocking and illegal conduct."
Rights activists have deplored a bloody crackdown mounted by Sunni rulers against Shiite-led protests, accusing security forces of preventing the injured from reaching hospitals and of beating medics trying to collect the wounded from the streets.
Manama's main hospital was sealed off by police armed with shotguns, and
Bahrain's Health Minister Nizar Baharna, a Shiite, announced his resignation after police allegedly burst into a Manama hospital.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/170284.htmlquote:Top Shia cleric slams Bahrain violence
Top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has called on Bahraini authorities to end a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters in the kingdom.
Expressing grave concerns about Manama's harsh measures against unarmed civilians over the past few days, the highly influential Ayatollah Sistani emphasized Wednesday on the necessity to resolve problems in the Shia-majority country through peaceful means, his spokesman Hamad al-Khaffaf, told AFP.
The statement came after hundreds of Bahraini riot police and Saudi forces, backed by tanks and helicopters, attacked demonstrators in Manama's Pearl Square, the epicenter of anti-government protests, where demonstrators have camped out for weeks, killing at least six people and injuring more than 1,000 others.
The city's main hospital, where the injured were being treated, was also attacked by Saudi forces and everyone inside the building, including doctors and nurses, were taken hostage.
Shias around the world have condemned the brutal crackdown by the ruling Sunni dynasty.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar have dispatched their armed forces to crisis-hit Bahrain to assist the rulers in Manama with their brutal crackdown on nationwide protests against the Sunni-led monarchy's persistent suppression of the majority Shia population.
Foreign military intervention in Bahrain has also concerned UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who has called for a meaningful and broad-based national dialogue.
The UN chief also urged Bahrain's regional neighbors and the international community to support a dialogue process and an environment conducive to credible reform in Bahrain.
Bahraini demonstrators maintain that they will hold their ground until their demands for freedom, constitutional monarchy and a voice in the government are met.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq and Kuwait have staged demonstrations in support of protesters in Bahrain.
HM/PKH/MB
quote:Shiites in Iraq's holy city of Karbala rally against Saudi-led Sunni troops sent to Bahrain
By The Associated Press (CP) 1 hour ago
BAGHDAD A local Iraqi official says thousands of Shiites are rallying in the holy city of Karbala against troops sent from Sunni Arab states to Bahrain to help the tiny island's Sunni monarchy deal with Shiite-led opposition protesters.
Karbala provincial councilman Hussein Shadhan al-Aboudi says about 3,000 people gathered Thursday on the clearing between the city's two Shiite holy shrines. He says larger demonstrations in Baghdad and Shiite-dominated cities in Iraq's south are planned for after Friday prayers.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said he fears that anti-riot Saudi and United Arab Emirates forces deployed in Bahrain will inflame sectarian violence in the Mideast.
Two prominent Iraqi Shiite clerics have criticized Bahrain's crackdown against protesters.
quote:Op donderdag 17 maart 2011 12:33 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Goed om te zien dat de Golfstaten elkaar te hulp schieten bij het stoppen van extremisten.
quote:Kuwait will not send forces to Bahrain
29 mins ago
(Reuters) - Kuwait will not send forces to Bahrain to help put down anti-government demonstrations but may try to mediate, an Arabic newspaper reported on Thursday.
On Monday, Bahrain asked for support under a Gulf defence pact after weeks of protests by pro-democracy activists, mainly majority Shi'ites who complain of discrimination in the country led by a Sunni monarchy. I will leave today (Wednesday) to Bahrain to hand over a
letter from His Highness the Emir to his brother King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, the daily al-Jarida quoted Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah as saying.
The newspaper said Kuwait would not send forces and is looking into playing a mediating role, but it did not name its sources.
Some 1,000 Saudi soldiers and 500 UAE police officers entered Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, this week.
On Wednesday Bahraini forces used tanks and helicopters to drive protesters off the streets and clear a camp that had become a symbol of their demand for more democratic rights.
The crackdown prompted sympathy protests from Shi'ites across the region. Kuwait has a large Shi'ite minority which could object to Kuwait sending troops.
http://www.dewereldmorgen(...)fleggen-eist-amnestyquote:Amnesty International heeft donderdag een kort rapport gepubliceerd over de wreedheden die de veiligheidstroepen van het kleine Golfstaatje Bahrein begingen tijdens de bloedige onderdrukking van de protesten in de hoofstad Manamah in februari 2011. Ze maakten daarbij systematisch gebruik van buitensporig geweld om demonstranten neer te slaan.
De internationale mensenrechtenbeweging Amnesty International roept de Bahreinse overheid op om het geweld onmiddellijk te stoppen en de verantwoordelijken voor het buitensporige politie-optreden gepast te vervolgen. Straffeloosheid kan niet, vindt Amnesty.
Het nieuwste AI-rapport 'Bloodied but Unbowed: Unwarranted State Violence against Bahraini protesters' beschrijft hoe veiligheidstroepen in februari zonder waarschuwing met scherp schoten op demonstranten en extreem geweld gebruikten. Ze belemmerden het medisch personeel die de gewonden probeerden te helpen en vielen ze zelfs aan.
Het rapport is het resultaat van een onderzoeksmissie die een team van Amnesty International in Bahrein uitvoerde tussen 20 tot 26 februari 2011. Het team sprak er met slachtoffers, getuigen van het geweld, medisch personeel, lokale mensenrechtenactivisten en de overheid.
De lancering van het rapport gaat gepaard met een nieuwe escalatie van geweld in het kleine koninkrijk aan de Perzische Golf. Troepen van Saoedi-Arabi en de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten (VAE) arriveerden begin deze week in het land en de koning kondigde de noodtoestand af.
Opnieuw toevlucht tot buitensporig geweld
"Het is verontrustend te zien hoe de Bahreinse autoriteiten opnieuw hun toevlucht nemen tot dezelfde tactieken om demonstranten aan te pakken als in februari, zelfs op en nog intensievere manier", zegt Amnesty International.
"De overheid moet de veiligheidstroepen onmiddellijk in bedwang houden en het recht op vrije meningsuiting respecteren en garanderen. Het doden van vreedzame demonstranten en ander geweld tegen demonstranten en medisch personeel mag niet onbestraft blijven. De misdaden van de veiligheidstroepen moeten grondig en onafhankelijk onderzocht worden. De daders en opdrachtgevers moeten worden gestraft."
Dokter Hani Mowafi, delegatielid van Amnestys onderzoeksmissie in februari, stelde telkens dezelfde ernstige en soms fatale verwondingen vast. Deze tonen aan dat de veiligheidsdiensten van op korte afstand met scherp op de demonstranten schoten en het daarbij vaak gemunt hadden op het hoofd, de borst en de buik van de betogers.
Amnesty International kon restanten van wapens en munitie identificeren die werden gevonden op het Parelplein na de aanval op 17 februari. De organisatie verzamelde onder meer traangasbussen en kogelhulzen van rubberkogels van Amerikaanse makelij en Franse traangasgranaten en cluster-rubbergranaten die in 18 stukken uit elkaar spatten.
Verschillende landen en regios keurden exportlicenties goed voor wapenleveringen aan Bahrein, ook Belgische wapens werden naar Bahrein uitgevoerd. De Vlaamse en Waalse gewestregeringen leverden uitvoerlicenties af.
Amnesty vraagt daarom met aandrang om alle export op te schorten van wapens, munitie en daaraan gerelateerd materieel aan de oproerpolitie en veiligheidsdiensten van Bahrein.
Als reactie op het extreme geweld van de veiligheidstroepen heeft het Verenigd Koninkrijk enkele licenties voor wapenhandel aan Bahrein ingetrokken. De Franse overheid schortte alle export van veiligheidsmaterieel aan Bahrein op.
quote:Bahrain's record on human rights during the 2000s has been praised as one of the most progressive in the Middle East by Western human rights groups and the UN. The government's ongoing commitment to women's rights, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and civil liberties has led to this distinction. Reform in recent years has seen a diversification of government, with six women, including one Christian, serving in the upper highest levels of Bahraini government.
lolquote:Op donderdag 17 maart 2011 13:36 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
'Ik ga absoluut niet weg. Bahrein is een prachtig eiland, de mensen zijn er liberaal en heel vriendelijk. Zelfs de mensen die protesteren zijn hartstikke gastvrij en expats hebben op zich niet zoveel met het probleem te maken.'
http://www.rnw.nl/nederlands/article/bahrein-ik-blijf
De enige extremist hier ben jij, christentrol.
Volgens CLF zijn degenen die deze man hebben neergeschoten geen extremistenquote:Op donderdag 17 maart 2011 13:59 schreef Drifter__ het volgende:
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lol![]()
CFL redenering: Sjiet = Iran = extremist.....
QFT!quote:Op donderdag 17 maart 2011 14:35 schreef Doler12 het volgende:
Het is maar een rubberen kogel en had hij niet zo achterlijk moeten doen
Maar het is de Koning die de boel sloopt..niet de extremisten. En het uitwissen van dit soort monumenten is op z'n minst erg vreemd te noemen. In welke context dan ook. Zelfs al houden we jou standpunt aan dat het extremisten zijn dan nog is het raar.quote:Op vrijdag 18 maart 2011 17:09 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Zo zag het eruit voordat die extremisten een opstand begonnen.
[ afbeelding ]
De koning en zijn thugs zijn de extremisten hier.quote:Op vrijdag 18 maart 2011 19:55 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Zo'n welvarend land binnekort naar de klote door die extremisten
Ze zitten daar dankzij onze voorgangers. En de VS niet te vergeten.quote:Op vrijdag 18 maart 2011 20:00 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
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De koning en zijn thugs zijn de extremisten hier.
En niet iedereen is bereid om zijn/haar ziel te verkopen voor een beetje geld.
De dictator discrimineert de meerderheid van zijn land. De Arabische dictators dachten dat ze voor altijd konden blijven regeren. Fout gegokt. Hun tijd is over.
Wat een duivels koningshuis!quote:Op vrijdag 18 maart 2011 20:00 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
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De koning en zijn thugs zijn de extremisten hier.
En niet iedereen is bereid om zijn/haar ziel te verkopen voor een beetje geld.
De dictator discrimineert de meerderheid van zijn land. De Arabische dictators dachten dat ze voor altijd konden blijven regeren. Fout gegokt. Hun tijd is over.
De grap is wanneer de betogers winnen het alleen maar zal verslechteren. Toch mooi, demonstreren voor het recht om te zorgen voor minder rechten. Allah Akhbar.quote:Op zaterdag 19 maart 2011 02:03 schreef Drifter__ het volgende:
Duidelijk te zien nu, hoe ze die human rights respecteren......
quote:Saudi role in Bahrain brings regional stakes
Op Royalblog is in de marge van het staatsbezoek van koningin Beatrix aan Qatar een aantal keer ook verslag gedaan van de gebeurtenissen in buurland Bahrein, een klein koninkrijk voor de kust van Saudi-Arabi. Die artikelen zijn te lezen op de speciale pagina die aan staatsbezoeken is gewijd. De situatie in Bahrein is sindsdien verslechterd. Brian Murphy van The Associated Pres, schreef zaterdag 19 maart de volgende analyse, die hier onvertaald wordt geplaatst als achtergrond bij het nieuws. Het overleven van de Golf-monarchien staat op het spel.
DUBAI (AP) - The battle for Bahrain is no longer just on its shores. It's now in Tehran, where the leader of Friday prayers cursed the "enemy" force that includes Saudi-led military reinforcements for Bahrain's embattled Sunni monarchy. It's in Iraq, with Shiites marching under banners pledging to join the fight in the Gulf kingdom. When Saudi troops and other Gulf forces moved into Bahrain this week, the conflict was suddenly pushed onto a larger stage with larger stakes - and, in the process, becoming perhaps the most complex showdown of the Arab world's season of upheaval.
Tiny Bahrain - just a speck off the Saudi coast on world maps - is now an arena for some of the Middle East's most pivotal tensions: the heavyweight rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the regional fallout from Shiite anger, and Washington's efforts to influence its strategic Gulf allies to counter Iran's growing Mideast ambitions. "Bahrain is several crises wrapped into one package," said Theodore Karasik, a regional affairs expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.
The rebellions in Yemen and Libya also have highly important issues in the balance, including the fate of Moammar Gadhafi's eccentric regime and the U.S.-led fight against an al-Qaida offshoot in Yemen's hinterlands. But Bahrain's unrest resonates even wider. It is both a bitter domestic duel - between Sunni rulers and the majority Shiites - and a crossroads for Gulf's big three: Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United States. The fast-moving events of the past week in Bahrain pushed each in different directions.
Saudi Arabia roared into action, leading a 1,500-strong Gulf force to aid Bahrain's reeling Sunni dynasty after more than a month of protests by Shiites seeking to break the royal family's 200-year-old grip on power. It was the Gulf version of a rescue mission: believing that any more advances by protesters could embolden threats to Sunni leaders around the region and allow Shiite power Iran to carve out a foothold on Saudi Arabia's doorstep. Iran strongly denounced the military intervention and pulled back its ambassador to Bahrain.
Iran's ally Hezbollah in Lebanon also lobbed insults at Saudi Arabia, and Shiites in Iraq have staged a series of protest marches. U.S. officials, meanwhile, are caught in a policy bind. Washington has opposed the introduction of the Gulf military force in Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. But the U.S. also is standing behind Bahrain's leaders, who say they invited the troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. "Whatever the U.S. says, the bottom line is that Washington still supports the Bahrain regime and cannot go too far in criticizing its key ally Saudi Arabia," said Shadi Hamid, director of research at The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.
"Bahrain is a bigger issue now than just Bahrain." Nicholas Burns, a former top State Department diplomat with long experience in the region, said the military deployment "opened up a clear division between the Saudi royal family and the U.S. government on how to respond most effectively to the demonstrations for greater openness and freedom in the Arab world." "This is a risk for the Saudis as their troop deployments could end up toughening the resolve of the protesters in Bahrain," he said.
It's unclear how much the Saudi-led forces have been actively engaged in enforcing Bahrain's martial law-style rule, which was imposed by Bahrain's king on Tuesday. Security forces flew Bahrain's red-and-white flag in the landmark Pearl Square in Manama after overrunning a protest camp.
Military vehicles with Saudi markings have not been seen at main checkpoints, where forces wear black ski masks. But Shiite protesters claim to have heard the distinctive Saudi accent among security forces during clashes this week - although Bahrain's police and military include many Sunni Arabs from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere given citizenship to try to offset the Shiite population advantage.
Shortly after Saudi forces entered Bahrain, a crowd of Shiite Muslims gathered outside the main state hospital in a ragtag resistance force. They carried what they could find: scraps of wood, pipes, a butter knife. "Who will decide your future?" cried one protester. "Them or us?" Now, the presence of the Saudi-led forces makes any incident in Bahrain a potential regional flashpoint that could drag in the U.S. Around the Middle East, Shiites and others are portraying Bahrain as under occupation by one of Washington's main Arab allies.
In Tehran, a senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, used his nationally broadcast Friday sermon to urge Bahrain's Shiites to "resist against the enemy until you die or win." Outside the prayers, protesters called Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa "a killer" and drew analogies to Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
One banner read: "death to the House of Saud." Bahrain on Thursday lashed out at Iran for "lobbying" on behalf of the Gulf kingdom's Shiites, who represent about 70 percent of Bahrain's population.
In Baghdad, followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr marched under banners pledging to join fellow Shiites in Bahrain to fight the Saudi-led forces. Meanwhile, the highest-ranking Shiite cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, suspended teachings at Shiite religious schools across Iraq to show solidarity with Bahrain's protesters. "There are real massacres that are taking place in Bahrain," Sheik Maitham al-Jamri, who said he was a Bahraini Shiite cleric, told protesters in Baghdad's Sadr City.
"But if they cut us to pieces and burn us 70 times, we won't stop our calls for change. If all communication means were blocked in Bahrain, the voices of the people in Iraq and Lebanon calling "No, no to injustice!' can be heard loudly." About 50 protesters gathered Thursday outside the Saudi Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, shouting "Get out of Bahrain" before a visit by the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal.
Saudi's King Abdullah gave no mention of the military force in Bahrain in a three-minute speech on Saudi television Friday before the announcement of a new bonanza of jobs, cash and housing in attempts to appease reformers calling for challenges of his autocratic regime. "What Saudi fears was a kind of contagion," said Toby Jones, an expert on Bahraini affairs at Rutgers University. "Bahrain is seen as simply too important not to intervene. They felt that the ruling Sunni fraternity around the Gulf was vulnerable and it was time to act." GPD AP
Geplaatst op 19 maart 2011 om 13:53
Dat dus. Je moet eens lezen wat de plannen zijn van de grootste oppositiepartij.quote:Op zaterdag 19 maart 2011 13:38 schreef nikk het volgende:
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De grap is wanneer de betogers winnen het alleen maar zal verslechteren. Toch mooi, demonstreren voor het recht om te zorgen voor minder rechten. Allah Akhbar.
De enige grap hier ben jij. De meerderheid van de Bahreini's worden onderdrukt door een tiran. Ze vechten voor hun vrijheid tegen sektarische klootzakken.quote:Op zaterdag 19 maart 2011 13:38 schreef nikk het volgende:
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De grap is wanneer de betogers winnen het alleen maar zal verslechteren. Toch mooi, demonstreren voor het recht om te zorgen voor minder rechten. Allah Akhbar.
De vrijheid om anderen hun vrijheid te ontnemen. En alsof de meerderheid per definitie gelijk heeft. Sowieso is het maar de vraag of er sprake is van een meerderheid.quote:Op zaterdag 19 maart 2011 14:20 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
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De enige grap hier ben jij. De meerderheid van de Bahreini's worden onderdrukt door een tiran. Ze vechten voor hun vrijheid tegen sektarische klootzakken.
Sinds fascist Wilders gedoogsteun geeft aan dit kabinet en andermans vrijheden wil beperken, zie ik niet in waarom jij anderen de les wilt lezen over vrijheid.quote:Op zaterdag 19 maart 2011 14:32 schreef nikk het volgende:
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De vrijheid om anderen hun vrijheid te ontnemen. En alsof de meerderheid per definitie gelijk heeft. Sowieso is het maar de vraag of er sprake is van een meerderheid.
Ik ben intolerant voor intolerantie. Net als ik tegen vrijheid ben voor groepen die de vrijheid willen beknotten.quote:Op zaterdag 19 maart 2011 14:37 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
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Sinds fascist Wilders gedoogsteun geeft aan dit kabinet en andermans vrijheden wil beperken, zie ik niet in waarom jij anderen de les wilt lezen over vrijheid.
M.a.w: je bent hypocriet, intolerant en tegen de vrijheid.quote:Op zaterdag 19 maart 2011 14:58 schreef nikk het volgende:
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Ik ben intolerant voor intolerantie. Net als ik tegen vrijheid ben voor groepen die de vrijheid willen beknotten.
Verdeel-en-heers.quote:Op zaterdag 19 maart 2011 14:32 schreef nikk het volgende:
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De vrijheid om anderen hun vrijheid te ontnemen. En alsof de meerderheid per definitie gelijk heeft. Sowieso is het maar de vraag of er sprake is van een meerderheid.
Dan begrijp je niet wat hypocrisie betekent. Vrijheid willen hebben betekent ook dat je deze beschermd.quote:Op zaterdag 19 maart 2011 16:10 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
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M.a.w: je bent hypocriet, intolerant en tegen de vrijheid.
Als ze dan gaan zeuren, dan kunnen we roepen: eigen schuld, dikke bult.quote:Op zaterdag 19 maart 2011 13:38 schreef nikk het volgende:
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De grap is wanneer de betogers winnen het alleen maar zal verslechteren. Toch mooi, demonstreren voor het recht om te zorgen voor minder rechten. Allah Akhbar.
Dit is toch al te gek, Men heeft maar enkele dagen nodig om Libi aan te vallen, maar in Bahrein komen andere landen de repressie steunen en daar wordt niks tegen gedaan.quote:The UN has condemned the use of "shocking" violence by security forces to clear hundreds of anti-government demonstrators from their camp in the capital's Pearl Roundabout.
Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that there had been reports of "arbitrary arrests, killings, beatings of protesters and of medical personnel, and of the takeover of hospitals and medical centres by various security forces".
The violence follows the arrival of some 1,500 Saudi and UAE troops in Bahrain, at the invitation of Bahrain's ruling al-Khalifah family to help restore order in the tiny Gulf kingdom.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifah has declared a three-month state of emergency, giving security forces sweeping powers to arrest citizens.
The protests have been going on for a month, despite an offer from the Sunni Muslim monarchy for talks with representatives of the country's disaffected Shia majority.
Lees Shiiten. En Arabie is een te grote bondgenoot voor het Westen.quote:Op zondag 20 maart 2011 01:44 schreef meth1745 het volgende:
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Dit is toch al te gek, Men heeft maar enkele dagen nodig om Libi aan te vallen, maar in Bahrein komen andere landen de repressie steunen en daar wordt niks tegen gedaan.
Enkele dagen, ja hoorquote:Op zondag 20 maart 2011 01:44 schreef meth1745 het volgende:
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Dit is toch al te gek, Men heeft maar enkele dagen nodig om Libi aan te vallen, maar in Bahrein komen andere landen de repressie steunen en daar wordt niks tegen gedaan.
Saudi-Arabi heeft er een regionaal conflict van gemaakt door in te grijpen. Dat heeft de problemen in Bahrain verergerd helaas.quote:
quote:http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)s-under-siege-manama
Bahrain's two main hospitals remain surrounded by masked soldiers despite demands from America that the kingdom must ease its violent crackdown on demonstrators and the medical workers treating them.
Soldiers also continue to patrol all main roads in the capital Manama and have cordoned off access to the former hub of the protest movement, Pearl Roundabout, which was destroyed under government orders on Friday, denying the restive demonstrators a focal point.
The tiny Gulf state has the feel of a nation under siege as it approaches a second week of martial law imposed for three months by its besieged rulers. In addition to the troop presence, neighbourhoods remain largely empty; large, glitzy shopping malls have been virtually abandoned and helicopters regularly buzz over the debris-strewn scenes of recent street clashes.
Hospitals, particularly the Salmaniya medical clinic near the centre of town, have received extra attention, largely because of the significance they have taken on since the protests began in January.
As well as being used to treat hundreds of casualties, nearly all of them unarmed protesters, the hospitals served as rallying points for protesters, who took refuge from riot police in the relative safety of their grounds.
Salmaniya was one of several hospitals attacked by security forces during the week. Their entrances clearly show scuffs from rubber bullets and teargas canisters, as well as sound grenades were found well inside hospital grounds.
Images of thousands of protesters, joined by doctors with bullhorns and outraged ambulance drivers, lionised the anti-government movement and contributed greatly to the regime's public relations woes outside Bahrain.
Several doctors have been arrested, among them a leading surgeon, Ali al-Ikri, who has been accused of having contact with foreign agents. Others claim to have been intimidated by security forces and prevented from leaving their homes.
"I live in a neighbourhood surrounded by colonels and senior officers," said one doctor, who did not want to give her name. "If I go out I will be followed. There is a real risk to my safety and those of my colleagues. I have been prevented from returning to work. When I left the hospital, it was in utter chaos."
Kuwait is to send a medical team of 40 specialists to be deployed inside the hospitals as the government looks for new ways to manage the vehement anti-regime movement.
"This is about us being sidelined and them getting in people who will stay on message," said another doctor. "I know for a fact that the wards will be tidied up and some of the patients moved. The Kuwaitis will report back in good faith that all is in order and that will be the official narrative."
The US state department demanded on Friday that attacks on hospitals stop. "We call on security forces to cease violence, particularly on medical facilities and personnel," it said.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said the solution to the country's crisis could only come through political dialogue. "We have made clear that security alone cannot resolve the challenges facing Bahrain," Clinton told reporters in Paris. "Violence is not the answer; a political process is."
In the face of sustained international criticism, the strategy of the ruling dynasty has been to make Bahrain's crisis a regional problem, by inviting Gulf forces into the kingdom. Hundreds of troops from the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council alliance were dispatched to Bahrain last week. Qatar said it had deployed troops and Kuwait has sent navy ships to patrol waters near Bahrain, where a maritime curfew has been ordered from 6pm-6am.
However, Saudi Arabia continues to take a regional lead in the crisis, insisting on a hard line against the predominantly Shia Muslim protesters who have defied the authority of the Riyadh-backed Sunni dynasty for two deeply destabilising months.
Regional repercussions continue, though, with new demonstrations in Iraq on Saturday against the Saudi role and strident criticism from Shia Islamic clerics, which have sharply raised the sectarian stakes in Bahrain, a majority Shia Muslim state.
At least 70% of Bahrainis are Shias. The establishment, however, is almost exclusively Sunni. The Shias have long complained that the status quo discriminates against them, denying them opportunities and access to decision-making.
"We are not waging war," said Bahrain's foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin-Ahmed al-Khalifa. "We are restoring law and order. It is a very volatile situation and in volatile situations you expect violence to happen."
A fourth Bahraini protester died on Saturday from wounds he suffered earlier in the week.
Relatives of another victim, IT technician Ahmed Farhan, said they saw him being executed as he lay prostrate on a street in the suburb of Sitra.
"They killed him in cold blood," said Ali Hassan Ali, a physical education teacher. "I was standing near him when he was shot. He fell, they chased us away and shot him in the head at point-blank rage with a bird-shot gun."
The victim's injuries were consistent with being shot in the head from close range.
quote:Oppositie Bahrein vraagt VN en VS om hulp
MANAMAH, 20 maart De oppositie in Bahrein heeft zondag tijdens een kortstondige demonstratie in de hoofdstad Manamah de Verenigde Naties en de Verenigde Staten om hulp gevraagd. De demonstranten gingen uiteen voordat de veiligheidstroepen konden ingrijpen.
De achttien parlementsleden die de oppositie vertegenwoordigen demonstreerden voor het gebouw van de VN in Manamah. De parlementsleden zijn vorige maand afgetreden uit protest tegen het geweld dat de koning van Bahrein heeft ingezet tegen de demonstranten in zijn land. De koning kondigde vorig week de staat van beleg af, en een troepenmacht van Golfstaten onder leiding van Saudi-Arabi is week het land binnengetrokken om het soennitische koningshuis te ondersteunen.
Bemiddelen
Tijdens de demonstratie, die slechts vijf minuten duurde, riepen de parlementarirs de VN op om het geweld tegen demonstranten te stoppen en te bemiddelen in gesprekken tussen de oppositie en de monarchie. Ze vroegen de VS druk uit te oefenen op de troepenmacht om hen te bewegen te vertrekken. 'Ze moeten naar huis gaan. Ze zijn hier niet nodig. Dit is een politiek probleem, geen militair probleem', aldus een van de parlementarirs.
De troepenmacht van de Golfstaten onderschrijft de zorgen die er in de andere Golfstaten leven over de demonstraties in Bahrein. De andere soennitische regimes in de regio zijn bang dat de onrust overslaat naar hun land, en zijn bang dat dit kan leiden tot een toenemende invloed van het sjiitische regime in Iran.
Gelijke rechtten
De oppositie eist gelijke rechten voor de sjiitische meerderheid in het land, die in haar ogen systematisch gediscrimineerd wordt door de soennitische minderheid die het land regeert.
De VS hebben het geweld in Bahrein veroordeeld. Algemeen stafchef admiraal Mike Mullen waarschuwt echter voor een eventueel Amerikaans ingrijpen. 'Ik denk dat we heel voorzichtig moeten zijn, en elk land in het Midden-Oosten apart beoordelen', aldus Mullen. 'De situaties in Libi en Bahrein zijn totaal verschillend. Bahrein is bijvoorbeeld al decennia een bondgenoot van de VS. We zijn hard aan het werk om een vreedzame resolutie van het conflict in Bahrein te bewerkstelligen.'
Druk
De autoriteiten in Bahrein voeren de druk op politieke activisten en andere tegenstanders van het regime op. Mensenrechtenactivisten worden verhoord, en artsen die tijdens de protesten demonstranten hebben geholpen zijn opgepakt.
Tot nu toe zijn er ten minste dertien mensen om het leven gekomen bij de protesten in Bahrein.
Muqtada al Sadr, Khamenei en Nasrallah. Leuke "vrienden" hebben ze.quote:Op zondag 20 maart 2011 02:47 schreef Baghdaddy het volgende:
Bemoeit Moqtada zich nou echt hier mee? Rot toch op.
Dus Bahreini's mogen wel massaal vermoord worden?quote:Op zondag 20 maart 2011 23:47 schreef Baghdaddy het volgende:
Bahrain is net te goede vrieden met het Westen, ik denk dat de Bahreini's dit zelf moeten oplossen.
Daarnaast is er het verschil dat Bahrein een interne aangelegenheid is terwijl Libi z'n interne revolutie door extreem geweld direct om wist te vormen in een intern conflict met externe gevolgen (vluchtelingen, piloten die met gevechtsvliegtuig en al deserteerden).quote:Op zondag 20 maart 2011 02:20 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:
[..]
Enkele dagen, ja hoorHet heeft WEKEN geduurd voordat men eindelijk vandaag actie is gaan ondernemen tegen Khadaffi. De situatie in Bahrein is pas een paar dagen geleden zo verslechterd.
Nee natuurlijk niet, maar zoals het er na uitziet zal er op internationaal niveau niet hetzelfde gebeuren als Libi.quote:Op zondag 20 maart 2011 23:49 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
[..]
Dus Bahreini's mogen wel massaal vermoord worden?
Het geeft een wat ongemakkelijk gevoel dat Bahrein zo anders wordt behandeld natuurlijk, maar politie-kogels en hardhandig orde handhaven is wat anders dan je volk met genocide bedreigen en beginnen met de uitvoering.quote:Op zondag 20 maart 2011 23:49 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
[..]
Dus Bahreini's mogen wel massaal vermoord worden?
Terrorist na terrorist (if u ask me).quote:Op zondag 20 maart 2011 23:48 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
[..]
Muqtada al Sadr, Khamenei en Nasrallah. Leuke "vrienden" hebben ze.
Overdrijven is ook een vak.quote:Op zondag 20 maart 2011 23:49 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
[..]
Dus Bahreini's mogen wel massaal vermoord worden?
Het gaat gewoon om de bevolking die om vrijheid vraagt, net als Egypte en Libi. Alleen de dictators zien het anders. Je laat je meeslepen in het verdeel-0en-heers spel van de machthebbers.quote:Op zondag 20 maart 2011 23:51 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
[..]
Overdrijven is ook een vak.
Niet anders dan Tunesi of Egypte.quote:Op zondag 20 maart 2011 23:50 schreef HiZ het volgende:
[..]
Het geeft een wat ongemakkelijk gevoel dat Bahrein zo anders wordt behandeld natuurlijk, maar politie-kogels en hardhandig orde handhaven is wat anders dan je volk met genocide bedreigen en beginnen met de uitvoering.
quote:Bahrain on the Edge
The rulers of Bahrain are having to become used to greater scrutiny of the way they govern their tiny Persian Gulf kingdom. The approach of a parliamentary election on 23 October 2010 is one reason for a flurry of reports and articles about the countrys political life. But what this closer look has uncovered - including hundreds of dissenters behind bars, and widespread accounts of torture - should be of interest to far more than political analysts.
The Al-Khalifa monarchs, whose fiefdom the island state of Bahrain is, present themselves as the guardians of a nascent democracy. This is strictly a facade. True, the embattled sheikhs have in recent years had little choice but to allow a limited political opening. What lies behind this concession, however, are difficult economic conditions (declining oil reserves, a growing inability to placate citizens via handouts and public-sector employment, a widening gap between rich and poor). Moreover, the state's tactical shift is combined with some of the pathologies associated with an authoritarian regime (including minimal transparency, pervasive corruption, and the instinct to suppress an increasingly organised and vocal opposition). In these circumstances, any illusion of Bahraini democracy is rapidly being dispelled.
[..]
There are indeed serious tensions between Bahrains Shia and the ruling Sunni minority. But what is happening in Bahrain can no longer be plausibly presented as what the Al-Khalifa - and the extensive international media campaign now underway - seek to make you believe it is: a sectarian clash.In fact, neither a great Sunni-Shia conflict nor an Iranian conspiracy is responsible for Bahrains unrest. Its core is rather a genuine popular movement against the injustices and abuses perpetrated by an outdated regime. And this movement has support from across Bahraini society, with the poorer Shia community understandably forming much of its backbone.
[..]
Bahrains problems are not unique in the region, and residents of neighbouring Gulf monarchies also need to pay close attention to what is happening there. All six of these states share similar political structures and political cultures, and in many ways Bahrain could be a portent for their collective future.
A regime that is unable to keep distributing wealth and maintain its population in a depoliticised condition, and sees repression as its only recourse, represents a model that the other sheikh-dominated regimes will have to face in the coming post-oil decades.
But the future could come sooner than that. Kuwaits rulers are already entrenching themselves against political opposition and reversing many of the political openings of the last decade; discontent is spreading in the poorer, largely disenfranchised parts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that live in the shadow of Abu Dhabi and Dubai; and the exploding youthful demographic in Saudi Arabia is demonstrating an unwillingness to live by the old rules.
In such a highly charged environment an implosion in Bahrain might not be contained within the islands shores, and could provide a catalyst for a much greater wave of regional unrest.
Nou, en dat laatste hebben we.quote:
quote:John Winsell Davies, fondsbeheerder bij Wermuth Asset Management, merkt op dat er een gevaarlijke situatie is ontstaan in het Midden-Oosten. Hij weigert echter om de protestacties in de verschillende landen over dezelfde kam te scheren.
In Jemen heeft het westen alle redenen om de zittende regering te verdedigen, want die vormt een belangrijke bondgenoot van de Verenigde Staten in de strijd tegen al-Qaeda.
Maar vooral de rol van Iran in de regio mag niet onderschat worden. In een aantal landen dreigt een strijd tussen soennieten en sjiieten, de twee overheersende strekkingen binnen, de Islam te ontstaan.
Iran kan de sjiitische jeugd in Bahrein verder radicaliseren. Mogelijk wordt een opstand nu neergeslagen, maar een tweede of een derde poging in een verdere toekomst zou wel eens succes worden. De tegenstelling tussen soennieten en sjiieten maakt van het Midden-Oosten een explosieve brandhaard.
quote:http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)n-role-uprising-shia
Bahrain's king has blamed a foreign plot for the nation's unrest, using veiled language to accuse Iran of fomenting an uprising by the Shia majority, in the Sunni-ruled island kingdom.
The Bahrain opposition's main demand is for a constitutional monarchy that would keep the royal family in power but would let people elect a government.
Inspired by mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt that toppled the two countries' presidents, it rejects accusations of influence by the Shia powerhouse across the Gulf.
"We don't want Iranians to come. We don't want a big problem in this small country," the senior opposition leader, Ali Salman, said on Sunday, adding that the solution to the country's crisis had to come from its people.
The king declared a three-month emergency rule and invited armies from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Sunni-ruled Gulf states to help quell unrest in Bahrain, the home of the US navy's 5th fleet.
King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa praised the Saudi-led force and said: "Bahrain is bigger and stronger today than ever."
"I here announce the failure of the fomented subversive plot against security and stability," the king was quoted as saying by the state-run Bahrain news agency.
The king spoke to the commander of the Saudi-led force and said its troops gave Bahrain strength and confidence.
Iran has condemned the presence of the Gulf force in Bahrain and Shias across the Middle East have been outraged by the deadly crackdown of the protests, which have killed at least 13 people.
Wat een Daffy gelul is dit weer, iets te vaak naar de speeches van de grote kolonel in Noord-Afrika gekeken waarschijnlijk. "Koning" Hamad mag blij zijn dat hij er nog zit dankzij Saoedische interventie want anders had hij nu ook al gevlucht naar een bevriende natie omdat men hem anders zou lynchen.quote:Op maandag 21 maart 2011 13:56 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa praised the Saudi-led force and said: "Bahrain is bigger and stronger today than ever."
Dont shoot the messenger man. Het andere kamp is natuurlijk omgekocht door Iran......quote:Op maandag 21 maart 2011 13:52 schreef Doler12 het volgende:
Altijd leuk die zelfbenoemde experts zal wel omgekocht zijn door Saudi Arabi
http://moneytalk.rnews.be(...)e-1194971127113.htm#
[..]
Dit bewijst maar weer eens de Iraanse bemoeienis in Bahrain.quote:Op maandag 21 maart 2011 13:52 schreef Doler12 het volgende:
Altijd leuk die zelfbenoemde experts zal wel omgekocht zijn door Saudi Arabi
http://moneytalk.rnews.be(...)e-1194971127113.htm#
[..]
Het bewijst alleen maar de verdeel-en-heers politiek.quote:Op maandag 21 maart 2011 14:39 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
[..]
Dit bewijst maar weer eens de Iraanse bemoeienis in Bahrain.
Saoedi-Arabi heeft een leger gestuurd mongool. Dat is pas bemoeienis en niet wat Iran doet.quote:Op maandag 21 maart 2011 14:39 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
[..]
Dit bewijst maar weer eens de Iraanse bemoeienis in Bahrain.
De Golfstaten beschermen elkaar. Is een goed teken, het Iraanse Ayatollah gevaar moet gestopt worden.quote:Op maandag 21 maart 2011 18:28 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
Saoedi-Arabi heeft een leger gestuurd mongool. Dat is pas bemoeienis en niet wat Iran doet.
Op aanvraag.quote:Op maandag 21 maart 2011 18:28 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
[..]
Saoedi-Arabi heeft een leger gestuurd mongool. Dat is pas bemoeienis en niet wat Iran doet.
Dan heb jij dus geen problemen met de Amerikaanse bezetters in Afghanistan en Irak.quote:
Dat zeg ik, verdeel en heers politiek.quote:Op maandag 21 maart 2011 18:28 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
[..]
Saoedi-Arabi heeft een leger gestuurd mongool. Dat is pas bemoeienis en niet wat Iran doet.
Mwa, niet vergelijkbaar als je het mij vraagt. Of zien we de Saudi's met nog tienduizenden soldaten in Bahrein over 7 jaar. Laat staan wat voor poppenkast regering het is trouwens.quote:Op maandag 21 maart 2011 20:30 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
[..]
Dan heb jij dus geen problemen met de Amerikaanse bezetters in Afghanistan en Irak.
Die zijn ook op aanvraag van de Afghaanse/Iraakse regering in die landen.
Die vraag om aanwezigheid van Amerikaanse militairen kwam na de invasie he.quote:Op maandag 21 maart 2011 20:30 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
[..]
Dan heb jij dus geen problemen met de Amerikaanse bezetters in Afghanistan en Irak.
Die zijn ook op aanvraag van de Afghaanse/Iraakse regering in die landen.
Het is gebruikelijk dat vrienden en bondgenoten elkaar steunen.quote:Op maandag 21 maart 2011 18:28 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
[..]
Saoedi-Arabi heeft een leger gestuurd mongool. Dat is pas bemoeienis en niet wat Iran doet.
LOL! Duidelijk in scene gezetquote:Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 01:15 schreef Hans_van_Baalen het volgende:
Deze blijft een van de ziekste
samen met die face shot :x
Rubberen kogelquote:Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 17:44 schreef Athlon_2o0o het volgende:
http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/1398921/4b746565/boem.html
Makkelijk hequote:Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 17:06 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
[..]
LOL! Duidelijk in scene gezet
Ze liggen daar op met handen in de lucht op grond en de rest loopt een beetje schreeuwend rond. Als ze echt gewond waren werden ze wel geholpen door de rest.quote:Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 19:46 schreef finsdefis het volgende:
[..]
Makkelijk he
Alles wat niet in je straatje past aanduiden als onbetrouwbaa, nep of irrelevant.
Niet iedereen zal weten wat te doen in zo'n situatie, en in eerste instantie denk je aan jezelf. Dan ren je dus weg om het wapenvuur te ontwijken.quote:Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 20:19 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
[..]
Ze liggen daar op met handen in de lucht op grond en de rest loopt een beetje schreeuwend rond. Als ze echt gewond waren werden ze wel geholpen door de rest.
Ze rennen niet weg, ontwijken niets. Ze staan te filmen.quote:Op dinsdag 22 maart 2011 20:21 schreef finsdefis het volgende:
[..]
Niet iedereen zal weten wat te doen in zo'n situatie, en in eerste instantie denk je aan jezelf. Dan ren je dus weg om het wapenvuur te ontwijken.
http://www.nytimes.com/20(...)lls+a+qaddafi&st=csequote:Bahrain Pulls a Qaddafi
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
It is heartbreaking to see a renegade country like Libya shoot pro-democracy protesters. But its even more wrenching to watch Americas ally, Bahrain, pull a Qaddafi and use American tanks, guns and tear gas as well as foreign mercenaries to crush a pro-democracy movement as we stay mostly silent.
In Bahrain in recent weeks, Ive seen corpses of protesters who were shot at close range, seen a teenage girl writhing in pain after being clubbed, seen ambulance workers beaten for trying to rescue protesters and in the last few days it has gotten much worse. Saudi Arabia, in a slap at American efforts to defuse the crisis, dispatched troops to Bahrain to help crush the protesters. The result is five more deaths, by the count of The Associated Press.
One video from Bahrain appears to show security forces shooting an unarmed middle-aged man in the chest with a tear gas canister at a range of a few feet. The man collapses and struggles to get up. And then they shoot him with a canister in the head. Amazingly, he survived.
Today the United States is in a vise caught between our allies and our values. And the problem with our pal Bahrain is not just that it is shooting protesters but also that it is something like an apartheid state. Sunni Muslims rule the country, and now they are systematically trying to crush an overwhelmingly Shiite protest movement.
My New York Times colleague Michael Slackman was caught by Bahrain security forces a few weeks ago. He said that they pointed shotguns at him and that he was afraid they were about to shoot when he pulled out his passport and shouted that he was an American journalist. Then, he says, the mood changed abruptly and the leader of the group came over and took Mr. Slackmans hand, saying warmly: Dont worry! We love Americans!
Were not after you. Were after Shia, the policeman added. Mr. Slackman recalls: It sounded like they were hunting rats.
All this is tragic because the ruling al-Khalifa family can be justly proud of what it has built in Bahrain, including a prosperous and dynamic society, a highly educated work force and a society in which women are far better off than next door in Saudi Arabia. On a good day, Bahrain feels like an oasis of moderation in a tough region.
Yet you can parachute blindfolded into almost any neighborhood in Bahrain and tell immediately whether it is Sunni or Shiite. The former enjoy better roads and public services. And its almost impossible for Shiites to be hired by the army or police. Doesnt that sound like an echo of apartheid?
It is true that Bahrains protesters have behaved in ways that have undermined their cause. They frequently chant Death to al-Khalifa a toxic slogan that should offend everyone. And some protesters have targeted Pakistanis and other South Asians who often work for security services.
This slide toward radicalization and violence was unnecessary. The king could have met some of the protesters demands such as fire the prime minister and move to a Jordanian- or Moroccan-style constitutional monarchy. Most protesters would have accepted such a compromise. Instead, the royal family talked about dialogue but didnt make meaningful concessions, and the security forces remain almost as brutal as any in the region.
I wrote a few weeks ago about a distinguished plastic surgeon, Sadiq al-Ekri, who had been bludgeoned by security forces. At the time, I couldnt interview Dr. Ekri because he was unconscious. But I later returned and was able to talk to him, and his story offers a glimpse into Bahrains tragedy.
Dr. Ekri is a moderate Shiite who said his best friend is a Sunni. Indeed, Dr. Ekri recently took several weeks off work to escort this friend to Houston for medical treatment. When Bahrains security forces attacked protesters, Dr. Ekri tried to help the injured. He said he was trying to rescue a baby abandoned in the melee when police handcuffed him. Even after they knew his identity, he said they clubbed him so hard that they broke his nose. Then, he said, they pulled down his pants and threatened to rape him all while cursing Shiites.
The Arab democracy spring that begun with such exhilaration in Tunisia and Egypt is now enduring a brutal winter in Libya, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The United States bases the Navys Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, and we have close relations with the Bahraini government. Were not going to pull out our naval base.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rightly deplored the violence in Bahrain, and the administration as a whole should speak out forcefully. If the brave women and men demanding democracy in Bahrain have the courage to speak out, we should do so as well.
En ondertussen andere buitenlandse interventie veroordelen als kruistochten veroordelen hequote:Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 12:23 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Iranezen voor Jihad naar Bahrain
Iranian authorities have licensed a website calling for war, including the use of volunteer suicide militants, against what its founders see as the invasion of Bahrain by troops from countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/24/142817.html
Vreedzame demonstraties my ass
Al-Arabiya word in elk topic gebruikt als bron.quote:Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 13:11 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
Vergeet niet dat de bron van CLF "al-Arabiya" een Saoedische zender is.
In all fairness, niet elk topic gaat over een sjiitisch land.quote:Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 13:59 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
[..]
Al-Arabiya word in elk topic gebruikt als bron.
Waarom steun je Iraanse Jihadisten?
Iran kaapt de Bahreinse revolutie zoals Hamas dat doet in Gaza.quote:Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 12:23 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Iranezen voor Jihad naar Bahrain
Iranian authorities have licensed a website calling for war, including the use of volunteer suicide militants, against what its founders see as the invasion of Bahrain by troops from countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/24/142817.html
Vreedzame demonstraties my ass
Zegt meneer-ik-steun-dictator-Assad-tot-de-dood.quote:Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 13:59 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
[..]
Al-Arabiya word in elk topic gebruikt als bron.
Waarom steun je Iraanse Jihadisten?
Dus tegenwoordig mag je mensen niet meer op de feiten wijzen, anders steun je Iraanse jihadisten volgens CLF. En in een ander topic zit CLF doodleuk Bashr al-Assad te verdedigen, de grootste bondgenoot van de Iraanse jihadisten in die regio. De ironie.quote:Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 13:59 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
[..]
Al-Arabiya word in elk topic gebruikt als bron.
Waarom steun je Iraanse Jihadisten?
quote:Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 13:59 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
[..]
Al-Arabiya word in elk topic gebruikt als bron.
Waarom steun je Iraanse Jihadisten?
CLF is ook een enorme trol en is niet serieus te nemenquote:Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 21:28 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
[..]
Dus tegenwoordig mag je mensen niet meer op de feiten wijzen, anders steun je Iraanse jihadisten volgens CLF. En in een ander topic zit CLF doodleuk Bashr al-Assad te verdedigen, de grootste bondgenoot van de Iraanse jihadisten in die regio. De ironie.
quote:Hezbollah denies involvement in Bahrain unrest
AFP - Lebanon's Hezbollah on Thursday vehemently rejected accusations that it was involved in training members of the Shiite opposition engaged in anti-regime protests in Bahrain.
"We cannot remain silent as concerns accusations about training (regime opponents)," the Shiite militant group said in a statement. "The accusations are aimed at undermining the peaceful demonstrations of the oppressed people."
The statement was in reaction to charges by Bahrain's foreign minister that Hezbollah was helping train regime opponents.
"None of our Bahraini brothers have ever asked for military training and we have provided no such training to anyone in Bahrain," Hezbollah said. "Any statements to the contrary are a lie and slanderous."
It added that there were no Hezbollah officials or sleeper cells in the Sunni-ruled kingdom where the majority of the population is Shiite.
"All we are proudly offering (Bahrain) is political and moral backing as we did for the Arab revolutions in Tunis, Egypt, Libya and Yemen which is legal and part of our duty," Hezbollah said.
Hezbollah earlier this month denounced Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Bahrain to help quell the unrest.
quote:http://www.volkskrant.nl/(...)rellen-Bahrein.dhtml
De directie van de onafhankelijke krant Al Wasat in Bahrein heeft hoofdredacteur Mansur al Yamri en twee journalisten ontslagen, nadat de autoriteiten zaterdag hadden besloten de krant te sluiten wegens zijn berichtgeving over de rellen van de laatste tijd.
Daarop kreeg de krant toestemming maandag weer te verschijnen. Dat heeft het staatspersbureau BNA zondag bericht.
De televisie in Bahrein had de krant ervan beschuldigd leugens te hebben verspreid, waardoor het Arabische land in het binnen- en buitenland in een kwaad daglicht was gesteld. De protesten van de sjiitische meerderheid tegen het soennitische bewind op het eiland begonnen op 14 februari. De demonstranten eisen onder meer dat de koning een deel van zijn bevoegdheden opgeeft en dat er een nieuwe grondwet komt die de bevolking in staat stelt het parlement te kiezen.
quote:GCC bekritiseert Iran over Bahrein
maandag 04 april 2011 | 09:28 | Laatst bijgewerkt op: maandag 04 april 2011 | 14:05
Tekstgrootte tekst verkleinentekst vergroten
De ministers van Buitenlandse Zaken van de Golf Samenwerkingsraad in beraad in Riyad. Foto: AP
De ministers van Buitenlandse Zaken van de Golf Samenwerkingsraad in beraad in Riyad. Foto: AP
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RIYAD - De Golf Samenwerkingsraad (GCC), een van de belangrijkste politieke samenwerkingsverbanden in de Perzische Golf, heeft forse kritiek geleverd op Iran. Volgens de GCC probeert Iran de sektarische verschillen in Bahrein te verergeren.
(Novum/AP) - De Golf Samenwerkingsraad (GCC), een van de belangrijkste politieke samenwerkingsverbanden in de Perzische Golf, heeft forse kritiek geleverd op Iran. Volgens de GCC probeert Iran de sektarische verschillen in Bahrein te verergeren.
Volgens het Bahreinse staatspersbureau is de GCC diep bezorgd 'over de voortdurende Iraanse bemoeienis met de binnenlandse aangelegenheden van GCC-landen door samen te zweren tegen de nationale veiligheid'.
De GCC was zondag voor spoedberaad bijeen in de Saudische hoofdstad Riyad. De lidstaten van de raad bespraken de gespannen situatie in Bahrein, waar sjiitische betogers uit zijn op de val van de soennitische monarchie. Daarnaast werd gesproken over een Iraans spionnennetwerk in Koeweit. De overwegend soennitische GCC heeft zich altijd al wantrouwend opgesteld tegenover het sjiitische Iran.
De Iraanse parlementariër Kazem Jalali zei in antwoord op de kritiek van de GCC dat Saudi-Arabië zijn verontschuldigingen moet aanbieden aan het Bahreinse volk, omdat de Saudiërs het regime in Bahrein hebben geholpen bij de onderdrukking van de sjiitische oppositie in het land. Jalali verwijst naar de door Saudi-Arabië geleide troepenmacht die een aantal weken geleden Bahrein binnentrok op verzoek van de Bahreinse koning Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. De troepenmacht moet voorkomen dat de demonstraties van de oppositie uit de hand lopen.
Volgens Jalali is de inzet van de troepenmacht de oorzaak van problemen en niet de Iraanse steun voor de sjiieten in Bahrein.
http://www.nu.nl/onrust-m(...)ompleet-verlamd.htmlquote:Ziekenhuizen Bahrein 'compleet verlamd'
AMSTERDAM - Het geweld waarmee de regering van Bahrein de betogingen van tegenstanders neerslaat, heeft ervoor gezorgd dat de ziekenhuizen in het land compleet zijn "verlamd". Dat stelt Artsen Zonder Grenzen (AZG) donderdag in een rapport, meldt nieuwszender Al-Jazeera.
Volgens de hulpverleningsorganisatie zijn medische instellingen overspoeld met gewonden sinds half februari de protesten in de Bahreinse hoofdstad Manama losbarsten.
Het medisch apparaat in het land is niet berekend op de duizenden slachtoffers, onder wie velen met ernstige verwondingen.
Koning Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa kondigde na weken van onrust in zijn land half maart voor drie maanden de noodtoestand af en liet weten dat het leger en veiligheidstroepen zullen worden ingezet om de situatie in Bahrein “te stabiliseren”.
De betogingen in Bahrein hebben net als de onlusten elders in de Arabische wereld al levens gekost. De precieze situatie is niet duidelijk, media worden streng gecontroleerd.
quote:Police brutality turns Bahrain into island of fear
By Bill Law - BBC News
The BBC has obtained images of alleged police brutality against peaceful protesters in the Bahraini capital Manama, where fears of a systematic crackdown on pro-democracy activists are growing.
Pictures sent by a human rights activist show police from Bahrains Interior Ministry, and others in plainclothes, their faces hidden by balaclavas.
The police are seen beating and kicking men who are handcuffed and hooded.
The attack occurred on the outskirts of the capital Manama last Wednesday, 30 March, on a busy stretch of road opposite a popular shopping mall.
Eyewitnesses, some of them crying, described a scene that one said "was like watching a horror film."
But the attack is not isolated.
In recent weeks, the government has cracked down on doctors, bloggers and opposition activists - some of whom have simply "disappeared", according to reports from family, friends and rights groups.
It is difficult to verify the reports, as journalists are not being allowed to report freely from the tiny Gulf kingdom that has been shaken by a wave of pro-democracy protests since mid-February.
Extremely disturbing
At least 27 people have been killed in clashes with security forces, and the protesters makeshift camp at Pearl Roundabout has been razed to the ground. The Ministry of Interior says that four police officers have also died in the disturbances.
Joe Stork of the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the apparent police beatings featured in the latest pictures as "extremely disturbing".
"Bahrain is now a state where the police are acting with complete impunity. There is no accountability, not even an effort to cover up what is going on," said Mr Stork, HRWs Middle East and Bahraini expert.
After the BBC sent the pictures to the Bahraini government, the Interior Minister promised "to fully investigate the matter and promptly take legal action against those found guilty, in accordance with the law".
Continue reading the main story
Start Quote
People are being mistreated on the basis of their last name, what they wear, their dialect
End Quote
Jasim Husain
Opposition member
Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah al-Khalifa went on to state: "The Ministry of Interior has a policy of zero tolerance with regard to any abuse of human rights or misuse of powers."
Bahrain is a country with a majority Shia Muslim population ruled by the Sunni Muslim al-Khalifa family.
Activists say that for years, the government has discriminated against Shia. In this wealthy kingdom, Shia villages are impoverished. Housing is inadequate, schools are often dilapidated, unemployment is rampant. Shia are prevented from working in defence and security police jobs.
Sectarian abyss
As a Sunni lawyer close to the royal family told me "These people (Shia) are not to be trusted. Why would you arm your enemies?"
Many Sunni in Bahrain, fearful of Iran - their Shia neighbour just across the Gulf - believe that what the government calls its law and order campaign is a necessary step.
And the government claims that its actions are designed to prevent the kingdom sliding into what it calls a "sectarian abyss".
But Jasim Husain of the opposition Wefaq Society says the harsh treatment of Shia is having the opposite effect.
"People are being mistreated on the basis of their last name, what they wear, their dialect - that is wrong and dangerous for the country as a whole."
"It is not enough to talk about zero tolerance on police abuse. The government must show zero tolerance," he added.
Activists who describe themselves as "neither Sunni nor Shia but pro-democracy" say the regime is identifying and punishing people along religious lines.
"Shia are being sacked from the education and health ministries, people are being arrested in the hundreds, homes are being raided and ransacked. The number of dead keeps rising. To me this is the beginning of ethnic cleaning," one said.
Nearly 400 protesters - virtually all of them Shia - are said to be in jail,
Bizarre twist
Activists who had been released by royal decree in the early days of the protest have either been re-arrested or gone into hiding. Six doctors who treated injured protesters are among the imprisoned.
And in a bizarre twist, photos of popular athletes - showing them at Pearl Roundabout supporting the call for democracy in February - were carried on state television.
The athletes were then called live to recant. "They grovel and say they are ready to die for the king," said one journalist who cannot be named. "It is excruciating to watch."
Local journalists who attempt to report the alleged rights abuses say have received anonymous death threats.
The only Bahraini newspaper which consistently covered the story was accused by state television of spreading falsehoods. Its editor has been replaced.
Foreign journalists have been detained then released after a few hours.
Increasingly, people are terrified to speak to foreign journalists, and with good reason. Many of those who talked openly to foreign reporters just a few weeks ago have been arrested or have gone missing.
Bahrain - once seen in the West as one of the most safe and stable of the Gulf states - has now become an island of fear for many of its Shia citizens.
Bahrein heeft amper oliereserves. Die worden geschat op 125 miljoen vaten. Ongeveer evenveel als de NAM verwacht te winnen in Schoonebeek. Tevens is SA een semi-vriend van Amerika, Irak was dat niet. Dus nee, niet hetzelfde.quote:Op maandag 4 april 2011 16:29 schreef Chooselife het volgende:
Wat het staatsnieuws niet gehaald heeft:
Ik heb vernomen dat Bahrein inmiddels stilzwijgend als 14e provincie is toegevoegd aan Saoedi-Arabi. En inmiddels maar liefst 11.000 militairen van de Saoedi's en de Emiraten zijn "gestationeerd" (!).
Is dit niet feitelijk wat Saddam Hoessein bij Koeweit deed begin jaren '90?
Ik ben benieuwd hoe de internationale coalitie dit beschouwt. Ik denk niet dat ze er berhaupt op reageren. Verrassend vind ik ook dat premier El-Maliki van Irak nogal hard uithaalt naar de VS en ze inconsequent durft te noemen.
Jawel.quote:Op donderdag 7 april 2011 21:58 schreef Mr_Memory het volgende:
Tja, en dat krijg je dan niet mee via AJE
Bahrein heeft iets belangrijkers, namelijk:quote:Op donderdag 7 april 2011 22:00 schreef waht het volgende:
[..]
Bahrein heeft amper oliereserves. Die worden geschat op 125 miljoen vaten. Ongeveer evenveel als de NAM verwacht te winnen in Schoonebeek. Tevens is SA een semi-vriend van Amerika, Irak was dat niet. Dus nee, niet hetzelfde.
Verloofden is zwaar overdreven. SA blijft een ernstig gehandicapt land, geleid door een corrupte, fundamentalistische elite. De VS werken noodgedwongen samen met SA, niet omdat ze zo van elkaar houden, maar omdat ze elkaar nodig hebben. Als Amerikaanse belangen in die regio weg zouden vallen moet je eens kijken hoe snel die samenwerking ophoudt.quote:Op vrijdag 8 april 2011 12:21 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
Verder zeg je dat SA een semi-vriend van de VS is en Irak was dat niet. Fout. SA is niet een semi-vriend van de VS, maar ze zijn meer verloofdes van elkaar. En Irak was dat wel, voor de invasie van Koeweit waren Saddam en de VS dikke maatjes. Saddam Insane is er ingetrapt en in de rug gestoken door de VS.
De VS zijn totaal niet genteresseerd in Islamitische stromingen of nationaliteiten an sich, naast dan het willen behouden van een balans qua macht. Inwoners van Bahrein hebben het ongeluk aan de verkeerde kant van de golf te wonen.quote:Iran is een doelwit van de VS. Vandaar dat de demonstranten in Bahrein niet op de steun van de VS kunnen rekenen, ook al zijn de eisen van de demonstranten in Bahrein voor meer vrijheid terecht. Hun enige misdaad is dat ze dezelfde islamitische stroming van Iran aanhangen, waardoor ze niet meer als mensen worden behandeld maar als beesten.
De V.S rekent erop dat Iran iets doet! gelijk een reden om ook Iran binnen te vallen, dit was al gepland!!..quote:Op dinsdag 15 maart 2011 22:43 schreef Pannenkoekenmix het volgende:
VS houdt zich er beter ook nog even buiten. Volgens mij is dit een strijd waar je je liever niet meer in mengt.
quote:Bahrain regime accused of harassing UK-based students
Students who attended Manchester protest say they had grants revoked and fear violent reprisals against families
The government of Bahrain is putting intense pressure on the families of students in Britain who were photographed attending a peaceful protest in Manchester in solidarity with the country's pro-democracy movement.
The gulf kingdom has stripped government-funded scholarships from those who attended the event outside the BBC building last month, the students say, and told parents to order their children home.
Students involved have told the Guardian they have "strong and well-founded" fears that they and their families could suffer beatings and torture as a result of the Bahrain government's crackdown on the protest 3,000 miles away and that they are likely to be arrested on their return.
"My mother was crying when she called me," said Rashad, whose attendance at the protest was his first such political action. "She said they are going to arrest you and that scared me. I told her I didn't do anything wrong but she said she was worried about my safety. They said I should come back to Bahrain, but we can't go back home. We will be arrested and disappeared. It has happened to others and I fear we are going to be tortured. We want the British government to protect us."
The students, who used pseudonyms to protect their families, said at least nine people studying in Manchester, Huddersfield, Newcastle, Reading and London had seen their 850 a month subsistence grants removed and had been told their tuition payments would be axed. Some said they had been made homeless as a result of the cuts and were considering requesting asylum in the UK when their student visas expire.
Sulieman, another student who said his scholarship had been revoked, said the ministry of education in Bahrain called his father to order him home a couple of days after the protest, in a pattern repeated for many of the protesters. "My father asked how they knew I was there and they said they had video footage and pictures," he said. "They told him I must come back, but I am not going back."
The students believe some of the images were taken by Bahraini or Saudi "spies" alerted to the event on Facebook. The demonstration was disrupted by interventions from supporters of the regime and some people whom protesters identified as being from Saudi Arabia.
Some of the families have also received visits from the Bahraini authorities, according to Amin Elwassila, an Arab activist in Manchester who is supporting the group.
"It seems very strange that every time something happens here in Britain there is a repercussion there," he said. "Some of them started receiving phone calls from their families telling them that the Bahrain government had contacted them telling them they will be removing their scholarships and that on their return to Bahrain the students will be questioned by the authorities. They were all very frightened. Some of the families were receiving regular visits. Not all families of Bahraini students were contacted, just those who had been on the demonstration."
The Bahraini embassy in London declined to comment on the claims of government's sanctions against students and forwarded inquiries about the withdrawal of scholarships to the cultural attache, who did not return calls.
On Friday night a further solidarity protest was scheduled at the same location, but all of the Bahraini students the Guardian spoke to said they were too afraid to go.
The sanctions against the students come amid increasing international concern at Bahrain's treatment of dissenters. The British government has raised with Bahrain's interior minister the deaths of four dissidents in the last week, three of whom were in police custody.
Next Thursday, Catherine Ashton, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, will travel to Bahrain after calling for the immediate release of all those detained for expressing themselves.
Zainab al-Khawaja, a 27-year-old mother, will on Saturday enter the sixth day of a hunger strike in protest at the arrest and beating of her father, the human rights activist, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, and her husband and brother-in-law. Her US-based sister, Maryam al-Khawaja, said she was now very weak and dizzy and her family want her to go to hospital. She is resisting partly because the hospitals are said to be in the control of Bahrain's military
Niet wat het sjiisme betreft. Alle sjiieten worden over n kam geschoren door de Amerikaanse regering omdat de Amerikanen problemen hebben met Iran. Dit was ook de reden waarom Bush senior de Irakezen niet te hulp schoot in 1991, uit angst voor een tweede Iran.quote:Op vrijdag 8 april 2011 12:51 schreef waht het volgende:
De VS zijn totaal niet genteresseerd in Islamitische stromingen
http://www.gelderlander.n(...)cht-voor-Iran%27.ecequote:Troepenmacht GCC blijft als tegenwicht voor Iran'
DUBAI - De troepenmacht van de Golf Samenwerkingsraad (GCC) blijft in Bahrein totdat de machthebbers van mening zijn dat de dreiging vanuit Iran is afgenomen. Dat heeft de Bahreinse minister van buitenlandse zaken maandag gezegd.
Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa meent dat de troepenmacht nodig is als tegenwicht voor de 'aanhoudende campagne' van Iran in het land.
De soennitische monarchie in Bahrein heeft de hulp ingeschakeld van de GCC-troepenmacht onder leiding van Saudi-Arabi. De troepenmacht, bestaande uit ongeveer vijftienhonderd militairen, moet het regime helpen de opstand van sjiieten in het land te onderdrukken. De opstand zou de weg vrijmaken voor meer invloed van het sjiitische Iran in de Golfstaat.
http://buitenland.nieuws.nl/638397/bahrein_straft_ook_sportersquote:Bahrein straft ook sporters
(Novum/AP) - DUBAI - De autoriteiten in Bahrein pakken ook sportlieden aan die sinds half februari hebben deelgenomen aan protesten tegen het bewind. Ongeveer 150 sporters, coaches en scheidsrechters zijn geschorst, in afwachting van verdere stappen.
Een comit onder leiding van de secretaris-generaal van de Bahreinse voetbalbond, sjeik Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, probeert aan de hand van foto's en ander bewijsmateriaal vast te stellen wie er zoal aan de protesten hebben deelgenomen. Dat zegt een sportofficial, die anonimiteit bedong.
Tot dusver zijn voornamelijk basketballers, handbalspelers en voetbalspelers geschorst. Vier speelden in het nationale voetbalelftal: de broers Alaa en Mohammed Hubail, Abbas Ayaad en Mohamad Sayed Adnan - allen sjiieten.
Dergelijke overheidsbemoeienis met sport kan tot sancties van overkoepelende organen leiden. Zo schorste het Internationale Olympische Comit in 2008 Irak omdat de regering in Bagdad het nationale olympische comit had vervangen door leden die niet door het IOC werden erkend. In 2000 mocht het toen nog door de Taliban bestuurde Afghanistan niet naar de Spelen van Sydney.
Ook de wereldvoetbalbond FIFA sluit regelmatig landen vanwege ongeoorloofde overheidsbemoeienis van internationale evenementen uit.
De autoriteiten in Bahrein hebben protesten tegen de regering die 14 februari begonnen hardhandig de kop ingedrukt. Er vielen dertig doden. Vanwege de onrust werd de openingswedstrijd van de Formule-1 in Bahrein afgeblazen.
Nabeel Rajab van het Centrum voor Mensenrechten in Bahrein zegt dat de schorsingen van de sporters onderdeel zijn van een omvangrijker campagne tegen sjiitische dissidenten. Ook artsen, leerkrachten, studenten, vakbondsvertegenwoordigers en ambtenaren worden aangepakt. "Iedereen is mikpunt geworden", zegt Rajab. "Alle overheidsinstellingen en bedrijven die tot de staat behoren hebben onderzoekscomits gevormd, die ondervragingscentra worden. Je bent schuldig totdat je onschuld is aangetoond."
http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/(...)pannen-klimaat.dhtmlquote:Arabische Liga stelt top uit door gespannen klimaat
De Arabische Liga heeft haar jaarlijkse top uitgesteld die normaal gezien op 11 mei in de Iraakse hoofdstad Bagdad had moeten plaatsvinden. Op een volgende vergadering zal een nieuwe datum worden gezocht.
Uittredend secretaris-generaal had eerder al verklaard dat de top niet op de voorziene datum zou kunnen doorgaan, omwille van het "gespannen klimaat" in de regio en de interne verdeeldheid.
De Arabische Golfstaten (Saoedi-Arabi, Qatar, Bahrein, de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten, Oman en Koeweit) hebben gevraagd dat de top geannuleerd zou worden, zonder meer uitleg te verschaffen over het waarom van dat verzoek.
Ze waren denk ik niet bang voor een tweede Iran maar voor een Iran dat Irak in zou lijven (en daarna wellicht ook Koeweit). Zo'n land zou een sterke positie kunnen verwerven.quote:Op maandag 18 april 2011 15:54 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
[..]
Niet wat het sjiisme betreft. Alle sjiieten worden over n kam geschoren door de Amerikaanse regering omdat de Amerikanen problemen hebben met Iran. Dit was ook de reden waarom Bush senior de Irakezen niet te hulp schoot in 1991, uit angst voor een tweede Iran.
Hoe komen ze erbij dat Irak een tweede Iran zal worden? Zij denken, de meerderheid van Irak is sjiitisch dus als zij aan de macht komen wordt dat land een tweede Iran. Deze houding van de VS heeft voor heel wat leed gezorgd voor sjiieten wereldwijd die niks met Iran te maken hebben behalve het feit dat ze toevallig dezelfde islamitische stroming aanhangen.
Ja, na 911 mochten de sjiieten wel weer aan de macht komen in Irak omdat de VS problemen had met aanhangers van andere islamitische stromingen. Maar de situatie in Bahrein laat goed zien dat de VS niets geleerd heeft van de geschiedenis en nog altijd dezelfde fouten maakt. De VS wordt sterk benvloedt door de Soedische anti-sjiitische lobby.
Het komt er gewoon op neer, dat de VS voorkeur geeft aan degene die zich het meest laat onderwerpen en als schoothondje gedraagt. Wat betreft VS-politiek, ben je een zo goed als terroristische staat of corrupt regime, als je al simpelweg niet naar de pijpen danst van de VS en zijn belangen.quote:Op maandag 18 april 2011 15:54 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
[..]
Niet wat het sjiisme betreft. Alle sjiieten worden over n kam geschoren door de Amerikaanse regering omdat de Amerikanen problemen hebben met Iran. Dit was ook de reden waarom Bush senior de Irakezen niet te hulp schoot in 1991, uit angst voor een tweede Iran.
Hoe komen ze erbij dat Irak een tweede Iran zal worden? Zij denken, de meerderheid van Irak is sjiitisch dus als zij aan de macht komen wordt dat land een tweede Iran. Deze houding van de VS heeft voor heel wat leed gezorgd voor sjiieten wereldwijd die niks met Iran te maken hebben behalve het feit dat ze toevallig dezelfde islamitische stroming aanhangen.
Ja, na 911 mochten de sjiieten wel weer aan de macht komen in Irak omdat de VS problemen had met aanhangers van andere islamitische stromingen. Maar de situatie in Bahrein laat goed zien dat de VS niets geleerd heeft van de geschiedenis en nog altijd dezelfde fouten maakt. De VS wordt sterk benvloedt door de Soedische anti-sjiitische lobby.
Voor 'VS' kunnen we in dit geval ook een willekeurig ander land invullen.quote:Op woensdag 20 april 2011 21:42 schreef Hans_van_Baalen het volgende:
[..]
Het komt er gewoon op neer, dat de VS voorkeur geeft aan degene die zich het meest laat onderwerpen en als schoothondje gedraagt.
De meeste landen doen het op kleine schaal en subtieler dan de VS. Maar dat verandert niets aan de morele kwestie die daaraan ten grondslag ligt.quote:Op woensdag 20 april 2011 21:46 schreef Hans_van_Baalen het volgende:
Dat klopt ja, maar niet elk land heeft de middelen om de daad bij het woord te voegen
Satellietstaat van de VSquote:Op vrijdag 22 april 2011 15:45 schreef waht het volgende:
Die kans is m.i. erg klein en daardoor is 'het kruidvat in de wereld' wat overdreven. Ik bedoel, als Iran Bahrein binnenvalt vallen ze sowieso Saoedi-Arabie aan, een land met een van de beter uitgeruste legers in het Midden Oosten. Bovendien zit de Amerikaanse marine in Bahrein en ik kan me moeilijk een scenario voorstellen waar een door Iran ingenomen Bahrein een Amerikaanse marinehaven kan hebben (dus moet die daar weg). Het is derhalve ook een aanval op Amerika. Dat soort problemen gaat Iran zich niet op de hals halen puur om het volk in Bahrein te redden.
Ben het wel eens met Chooselife dat het regime van Saoedi-Arabie in vele opzichten walgelijk is. Naast fossiele brandstoffen is het land dan ook totaal waardeloos.
Dat is wel waar ja, de training is in SA ver benedenmaats. Een direct gevolg van de cultuur en hirarchie die daar heerst: men doet liever iets fout dan dat ze tegen hun superieuren in moeten gaan. Maar dat is in zekere mate ook zo voor Iran, en daar komt bij dat Iran verouderd materiaal heeft.quote:Op vrijdag 22 april 2011 16:03 schreef KurdKasim het volgende:
Saudi Arabie is een achterlijk land. Zelfs voor de VS vind ik het ongelofelijk dat ze die regering steunen (en niet een gematigdere), maar als Iran SA aanvalt en de VS houdt zich erbuiten wint Iran makkelijk. Behalve wat spullen van de VS heeft SA helemaal geen kennis.
quote:Bahrain accused of systematic attacks on doctors
Medical workers targeted because they have evidence of security force atrocities, claims US-based human rights group
Bahraini authorities have conducted a systematic campaign of attacks and arrests against medical workers who treated injured protesters during months of unrest in the Gulf kingdom, according to a US-based medical group.
Physicians for Human Rights claims doctors and nurses have been targeted because they have "evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces and riot police" in the crackdown on Shia dissent in the Sunni-ruled island nation, which has been placed under martial law.
The report by the group is the second to accuse Bahrain's authorities of abuses in the medical system. Earlier this month, the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders called Bahrain's hospitals "places to be feared" and claimed officials were arresting protesters who sought treatment.
The military took over the main Salmaniya medical centre in Manama last month, and doctors and patients said soldiers and police had conducted interrogations and detentions inside the complex.
Physicians for Human Rights said at least 32 healthcare professionals had been detained since Bahrain declared martial law last month to quell anti-government demonstrations by the country's Shia majority demanding greater freedoms and equal rights.
The report details attacks on physicians, medical staff and patients "with weapons, beatings and teargas".
"These attacks violate the principle of medical neutrality and are grave breaches of international law," it says, adding that "high-velocity weapons and shotguns" have been used to fire birdshot, rubber bullets and teargas at unarmed civilians.
About 1,500 troops from Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states are in Bahrain to help the ruling monarchy. Sunni leaders around the Gulf fear gains by Bahrain's Shias could open the way for greater influence by Shi'ite powerhouse Iran in the strategic nation, which is home to the US navy's 5th Fleet.
At least 30 people have died and hundreds of demonstrators, opposition leaders, activists and Shia professionals such as doctors and lawyers have been detained since anti-government protests started 14 February.
quote:Iran eyes mediation role in Bahrain
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
"America is trying to sow discord among Shi'ites and Sunnis... they want to create tension between Iran and Arabs... but their plan will fail." Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in a speech on Monday to mark national Army Day.
After weeks of rising tensions with Saudi Arabia over its military intervention in Bahrain, Iran plans to reposition itself as a mediator rather than a suspected interloper in the political impasse gripping the tiny island.
Behind Tehran's plan is a firm conviction, reflected in Ahmadinejad's speech on Army Day, that the United States and Israel plan to isolate Iran in the region and poison its relations with the Arab world. This would deprive Iran of benefiting politically from the upheavals that have undermined the pro-West status quo in the Middle East.
Chief among these benefits is a new era in Iran-Egypt relations, with Iran's foreign policy machinery working overtime to accelerate the process of normalization ties with Cairo. Iran-Egypt relations were severely damaged following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and fell apart following Egypt's recognition of Israel in the same year.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi recently welcomed a proposal by Egypt's newly appointed Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi for the promotion of bilateral ties. Salehi said that Tehran was ready to resume relations with Cairo.
"Iran is an Islamic country and is not an enemy of Egypt," Field Marshal Tantawi, the head of Egypt's military council, said on April 9.
Iran's blossoming rapprochement with Egypt is an unwanted development for the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, particularly for Riyadh. Saudi Arabia's leadership is currently committing huge resources to whipping up Iran-phobia not only in the Arab world but also in Washington and other Western capitals.
Tantawi's sentiments are shared by a number of prominent Egyptians, including Amr Musa, the head of Arab League. He recently called for "improvement not only in Iran-Egypt relations but also Iran's relations with the entire Arab world."
Another proponent of Iran taking a new role in the Middle East is Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the current head of the (Saudi-led) Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). He said recently that Egypt under Hosni Mubarak maintained the tensions with Iran in order to maintain the flames of sectarian conflicts in the Abode of Islam.
Seyed Hossein Mousavi, a Tehran foreign policy expert, said in an interview with the www.IRDiplomacy.com that Tehran should deprive its enemies of any excuses to isolate it by trying "to calm the regional environment". This includes reaching out to the Bahraini rulers and assuring them that Iran has had no role in the recent mass disturbances as well as offering to mediate between the Bahraini government and the opposition.
Mousavi's otherwise sound advice has the weakness of overlooking the protean value of keeping up heat on Saudi Arabia over its military transgression in Bahrain. Riyadh could interpret Tehran's conciliatory gesture as a sign of weakness and therefore a green light to lengthen its stay in Bahrain, a Shi'ite-dominated country with strong historical connections to Iran.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has threatened to recall its diplomats from Tehran "unless Tehran can protect them", after a number of anti-Saudi student rallies in front of the Saudi Arabian Embassy.
A more prudent Iranian response would have been the immediate recall of its ambassador to Saudi Arabia and a stern message that until Saudi Arabia departs from Bahrain there would be no normal relations with Tehran. A historical precedent for this response is US's reaction to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
After their aggression in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia should not be allowed to hold the card of diplomatic brinksmanship, no matter how rattled it is by current setbacks - losing close allies in Egypt, Lebanon, and failing to manipulate Iraq's political system.
However, much depends on the present Iran-Saudi competition over the hearts and minds of other Arab leaders, including the Egyptians, in light of a recent Cairo visit by Iran's envoy to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee. This was widely interpreted by the Egyptian media as a clear sign of improvement in bilateral relations, dreaded by the Saudis, whose ambassador to Egypt, Ahmed Alghatan, has gone as far as to threaten Iran with military action.
Fortunately, not everyone in Saudi Arabia is on the same page with Ahmed's sabre-rattling against Iran. A Saudi deputy defense minister, Khaeld Bin Soltan Bin Abdelaziz, has counseled against any rash judgments and on "the necessity of reason in dealing with Iran". His remarks came after a virulent Iran-bashing communique from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
Since then, despite a high-profile visit to the region by the US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, during which he gave explicit support for the Saudi-Bahraini strategy of scapegoating Iran for the internal political problems in Bahrain, the diplomatic wheel is slowly turning in Iran's favor. This is partly due to Iran's decision to play the democracy card and appeal to the international community to condemn the Saudi-backed suppression of Bahrain's pro-democracy Shiites.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi wrote to UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon in April questioning how the body can justify its inaction on Bahrain considering its resolution on Libya. In a clear sign that Iran's diplomatic discourse on Bahrain is paying off, Ban during his recent trip to Doha, Qatar, put the Bahraini leaders on the defensive by calling on them to show restraint vis-a-vis the protesters and to modernize their political system.
However, with the "big brother" Saudis muscling their clout over Bahrain, undermining Bahrain's margin of independent action within the realm of GCC politics, Ban's suggestions should be targeted at the power brokers in the House of Saud.
Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press)
Bron
Daarentegen is de krijgsmacht van Iran niet opgesteld om een invasie of aanvallen uit te voeren, maar juist om een invasie in eigen land te vertragen. Aanvallen doet Iran door militanten en groeperingen financieel en materieel te steunen, niet door zijn eigen soldaten in te zetten.quote:Op vrijdag 22 april 2011 16:03 schreef KurdKasim het volgende:
Saudi Arabie is een achterlijk land. Zelfs voor de VS vind ik het ongelofelijk dat ze die regering steunen (en niet een gematigdere), maar als Iran SA aanvalt en de VS houdt zich erbuiten wint Iran makkelijk. Behalve wat spullen van de VS heeft SA helemaal geen kennis.
Er was wel aandacht in het nieuws hoor, totdat die golfarabieren er mee gingen bemoeien. Maar het is wel hilarisch dat de VS boos word op Iran, omdat ze Syri zogenaamd zouden steunen met het onderdrukken van de opstanden. Over hypocriet gesproken.quote:Op zondag 24 april 2011 01:27 schreef Chooselife het volgende:
Is Bahrein ooit wel eens in het NOS-journaal geweest?
Nee h.
We weten allemaal hoe het met de invasie van Koeweit afliep.quote:Op zondag 24 april 2011 02:45 schreef Athlon_2o0o het volgende:
Iran zal Bahrein echt niet binnenvallen, dan ontploft het kruidvat in het MO. Bovendien is het Bahrein maar, een ministaatje. Dit is de reden dat het NOS Journaal er ook amper over bericht.
http://knack.rnews.be/nl/(...)le-1194998411950.htmquote:Bahreinse demonstranten ter dood veroordeeld
Een rechtbank in Bahrein heeft vier sjiitische betogers ter dood veroordeeld. Ze werden schuldig bevonden aan het doden van twee politieagenten tijdens protesten voor meer democratie.
Dat melden verschillende internationale media. Drie andere sjiitische manifestanten kregen levenslang.
Repressie
Het volksprotest in Bahrein, dat al decennia wordt geregeerd door een soennitische minderheid, is enkele weken geleden in de kiem gesmoord door troepen van Saudi-Arabi. Honderden mensen werden opgepakt. Het geweld eiste minstens 30 doden, onder wie zeker twee politieagenten die volgens de autoriteiten om het leven kwamen nadat ze tijdens de volksprotesten door auto's werden overreden.
De zeven beklaagden pleitten onschuldig. Volgens sommige berichten werden ze achter gesloten deuren berecht wegens moord met voorbedachten rade. Mensenrechtenorganisaties stellen dat de zeven geen contact mochten hebben met familie of vrienden. (KVDA)
Tja, dan verdien je ook de doodstraf.quote:Ze werden schuldig bevonden aan het doden van twee politieagenten
http://www.express.be/bus(...)s-bahrein/145082.htmquote:Politieke onrust maakt einde aan financile status Bahrein
Het koninkrijk Bahrein is zijn status als een financieel centrum van het Midden-Oosten aan het verliezen en zal dat wellicht ook niet snel weer kunnen herwinnen. Dat zeggen een aantal financieel analisten tegenover Arabian Business. Door de politieke onrust in het koninkrijk zijn volgens hen vele investeerders gevlucht naar Dubai, dat sinds de economische crisis met zijn gedaalde vastgoedprijzen een veel aantrekkelijker bestemming zou zijn geworden.
"Dubai, dat twee jaar geleden nog met een bijzonder zware schuldencrisis werd bedreigd, is een echte magneet geworden voor investeerders die de onrustige gebieden in het Midden-Oosten ontvluchten," merkt Arabian Business op. "Bahrein, dat n van de oudste financile centra van de regio bezit, zou volgens de analisten al een groot gedeelte van zijn relevantie hebben verloren. De politieke onrust in het land heeft investeerders op de vlucht gejaagd."
"Er moet ook gevreesd worden dat Bahrein zich niet snel herstellen van deze klap," merkt Brad Bourland, hoofdeconoom bij Jadwa Investment, op tegenover Arabian Business. "Dubai haalt daarentegen duidelijk zijn voordeel uit de politieke onlusten. Vele investeerders zijn naar Dubai verhuisd en zullen daar wellicht ook blijven." Farouk Soussa, hoofdeconoom Midden-Oosten bij Citibank, voert aan dat het vertrouwen in het emiraat Dubai duidelijk is teruggekeerd, dankzij de politieke onrust in de rest van de regio en de verbeterde vooruitzichten voor de wereldwijde economie. (MH)
http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)udi-arabia-iran-westquote:The west's silence over Bahrain smacks of double standards
By Hooshang Amirahmadi and Kaveh Afrasiabi
The European Union and the Obama administration have made a splendid art of double standards by imposing sanctions on Tehran's rulers for their human rights violations and taking military action against the Libyan dictator while failing to address the appalling repression of the pro-democracy movement in Bahrain.
For the US and the EU, which claim to uphold principles over interests, this contradictory policy and their silence over the Saudi intervention in Bahrain is particularly harmful.
Indeed, it is hypocrisy for the history books to be interpreted by future historians as a reflection of the dominance of western realpolitik over values. How else can one interpret the fact that so far EU-US officials have paid minimal attention to the brutal crackdown in Bahrain, which according to various human rights organisations has resulted in dozens of deaths and incarceration of several hundred protesters?
Instead of condemning the Bahraini government's oppression of its citizens and backing the protesters' legitimate demand for a constitutional monarchy, the EU and the US have confined themselves to vacuous statements without taking any action proportionate to the gravity of the political crisis in Bahrain. The only exception is the rare show of bravado by Zsolt Nemeth, the Hungarian deputy foreign minister (also an EU official) who has advocated a Libya-style Nato intervention in Bahrain.
No other EU official has seconded Nemeth, who came under attack for making "empty threats" in light of the fact that Bahrain is home to the American Fifth Fleet and therefore a crucial piece of "American turf". Nemeth's heroic statement coincided with the EU's latest move to freeze the assets and place travel bans on 32 Iranian officials for human rights violations. Earlier, the US and Sweden had jointly sponsored a UN resolution appointing a human rights observer for Iran.
To their credit, the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, and her foreign policy team have wisely insulated themselves from the Saudi-Bahraini PR campaign to rationalise Bahrain's repressive behaviour by scapegoating Iran. In comparison, the Obama administration has flip-flopped as reflected in the changing position of defence secretary Robert Gates who, in his latest trip to the region, reversed himself on his admission in March that there was no evidence of Iranian meddling in Bahrain.
Aside from principles, the EU and the US have geostrategic interests that demand a more prudent and long-term policy toward the Bahraini crisis, one diametrically different from the current short-sighted approach. The EU and the US must understand that their obliviousness to the pile-up of popular resentment in Bahrain and elsewhere in the changing Middle East is bound to backfire against their long-term and strategic interests in the region.
A more politically and strategically correct approach counsels a course of action along the following lines: strong and sustained condemnation of the Bahraini government for its human rights abuses; threat of diplomatic reprisals; warning to freeze Bahraini assets and impose travel bans on various Bahraini officials implicated in rights violations; calling on Saudi Arabia to respect the democratic aspirations of Bahraini people and to withdraw its military forces from Bahrain; offering to mediate in the Bahrain political crisis; and to facilitate the process toward free elections.
Only through concrete and proactive measures such as these can the EU and the US recuperate from their damaged standing in the Middle East due to the double standards infecting their policies. Given that the Shia leaders in Iran care so much about their disfranchised Shia brethren in Bahrain, a more principled EU-US approach is bound to improve the rocky Iran-EU relations and mitigate tension with the US, positively impacting the deadlocked negotiations on their nuclear standoff.
On the other hand, the absence of real pressure applied on Saudi Arabia and Bahrain by the EU and the US, compared with their heroics on Iran, will only deepen the present gulf of distrust between Iran and the west, thus making it less likely that Tehran will take EU's recent offer of improving relations seriously.
Under a EU-US double-standards scenario, Tehran will also remain intransigent regarding its tension with the US, nuclear programmes and human rights violations.
Dubbele moraal? Wellicht. Afweging waarbij meerdere factoren dan alleen normen en waarden worden meegenomen? Zeker.quote:Op vrijdag 29 april 2011 20:35 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]
[..]
http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)udi-arabia-iran-west
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD21Ak01.htmlquote:Fear and loathing in the House of Saud
By Pepe Escobar
Early last week, US President Barack Obama sent a letter to Saudi King Abdullah, delivered in person in Riyadh by US National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon. This happened less than a week after Pentagon head Robert Gates spent a full 90 minutes face to face with the king.
These two moves represented the final seal of approval of a deal struck between Washington and Riyadh even before the voting of UN Security Council resolution 1973 (see Exposed: the Saudi-US Libya deal, Apr 1, Asia Times Online). Essentially, the Obama administration will not say a word about how the House of Saud conducts its ruthless repression of pro-democracy protests in Bahrain and across the Persian Gulf. No ''humanitarian'' operations. No R2P (''responsibility to protect''). No no-fly or no-drive zones.
Progressives of the world take note: the US-Saudi counter-revolution against the Great 2011 Arab Revolt is now official.
Those 'pretty influential guys'
The wealthy, truculent clan posing as a perpetual absolute monarchy that goes by the name House of Saud wins on all fronts.
Last month's ''Day of Rage'' inside the kingdom was ruthlessly preempted - with the (literal) threat that protesters would have their fingers cut off.
With the price of crude reaching stratospheric levels, and with Saudi refusal to increase production, it's a no brainer for Riyadh to dispense with a few billion dollars in pocket change to appease its subjects with some extra 60,000 ''security'' jobs and 500,000 low-rent apartments.
King Abdullah also recently ''received a verbal message'' from the emir of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, on the thriving ''bilateral issues'' - as in Saudi Arabia ruthlessly repressing the pro-democracy protests in Bahrain by invading their neighbor and deploying their ''security'' advisers.
The House of Saud's violent reaction to the peaceful protests in Bahrain may have been a message to Washington - as in ''we are in charge of the Persian Gulf''. But most of all it was dictated by an absolute fear of Bahrain becoming a constitutional monarchy that would reduce the king to a figurehead; a nefarious example to the Saudi neighbors.
Yet as much as real tensions between Iranian Shi'ites and Arab Shi'ites may persist, the Saudi reaction will end up uniting all Shi'ites, and turning Iran into Bahrain's only savior.
As for Washington's reaction, it was despicable to start with. When Sunnis in Iraq oppressed the Shi'ite majority, the result was Iraq shocked and awed to destruction by the neo-cons. When the same happens in Bahrain, liberal hawks have the Sunnis get away with it. (As much as there's been plenty of spinning to the contrary, the Pentagon's Gates knew Saudi Arabia would invade Bahrain on the spot, on a Saturday (the invasion started on Sunday night).
Not that Washington cares that much any way or another. Last week, in a Chicago restaurant, President Obama qualified the emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa, as a ''pretty influential guy''. He praised him as ''a big booster, big promoter of democracy all throughout the Middle East'.' But Obama didn't notice there was an open mike, and CBS News was listening; so he added, ''he himself is not reforming significantly. There's no big move towards democracy in Qatar. But you know part of the reason is that the per capita income of Qatar is $145,000 a year. That will dampen a lot of conflict.''
Translation; who cares whether these ''pretty influential guys'' in the Gulf reform or not as long as they remain our allies?
The Saudi war of terror
Way back in 1965, the opposition in Bahrain was accused (by the colonial British press) of Arab nationalism (the nightmare of assorted colonialists and also US imperial designs). Now, it is accused (by the al-Khalifas and House of Saud) of sectarianism.
The House of Saud has predictably terrorized the majority-Shi'ite democracy movement in Bahrain with fear, loathing and - what else - sectarianism, the ultimate pillar of its medieval Wahhabi ideology. For intolerant Wahhabis, Shi'ites are as heretical as Christians. Shi'ite holy sites in Bahrain are being demolished under the supervision of Saudi troops. Bahrainis via twitter are stressing Saudis are using ''Israeli tactics'', demolishing ''unauthorized'' mosques.
Once again, this may only lead to a total radicalization of the Sunni-Shi'ite divide across the Arab world. Everyone who followed the Bush administration-provoked Iraq tragedy remembers that when al-Qaeda blew up the revered Shi'ite shrine of al-Askari in Samarra, in 2006, that was the start of a horrible sectarian war that killed tens of thousands of people and sent hundreds of thousands into exile.
The House of Saud (as well as the US and Israel) backed Mubarak in Egypt until the 11th hour. They all knew if that ''pillar of stability'' fell, the other (Saudi) would also be in danger. For all its bluster, the House of Saud's actions are essentially moved by fear. In recent years it has lost power in Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and now Egypt. Its ''foreign policy'' consists in supporting ultra-reactionary regimes. The people? Let them eat kebab - if that. Their last bastion of power is the Gulf - crammed with political midgets such as Bahrain or Kuwait. With a little thrust, The House of Saud could reduce all these to the status of mere provinces.
Not yet. As the House of Saud developed its counter-revolutionary strategy, the Saudi-Israeli alliance morphed into a Saudi-Qatari alliance. Qatar could be destabilized via the tribal factor - the Saudis had attempted it before - but now they needed a close ally. And that, unfortunately, explains Qatar-based al-Jazeera's meek coverage of the repression in Bahrain.
It took only a few days for the House of Saud to force the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to toe the new hard line: we are the top dog; there's no room for democracy in the Gulf; sectarianism is the way to go; our relationship with Israel is now strategic; and Iran is to blame for everything. The ''Persian conspiracy'' is the key theme being deployed by the hefty Saudi propaganda machine especially in Bahrain and Kuwait.
Israeli hawks, not surprisingly, love it. There's plenty of flower power - or downright lunatic - rhetoric in the Israeli press about a ''strategic alliance'' between Tel Aviv and Riyadh, ''similar to the one between the Soviet Union and the US against the Nazis''.
And guess what - Obama is to blame for it. Without this strategic alliance, according to the Israeli narrative, the whole Gulf will fall ''victim of a nuclear Iran'', and the Obama administration won't lift a finger to save anybody. Obama is vilified as someone who ''only confronts and abandons allies'', while emboldening ''evil'' Syria and Iran. It's a narrative straight out of the Loony Tunes.
Shallow grave or bust
Trying to understand the stakes, Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal got it all backwards, blaring there's a new Cold War between Saudi Arabia and Iran. That's what you get when you regurgitate PR by ''Saudi officials''.
It's the House of Saud incendiary manipulation of sectarianism which is angering Shi'ites everywhere - not only Iranians; that may turn the Islamic Republic into the only substantial defender of all Shi'ites against Wahhabi medievalism.
It's the House of Saud counter-revolution against the Great 2011 Arab Revolt - condoned by the US - that has shattered America's ''credibility on democracy and reform''.
All this while the ''traditional security arrangement'' with Washington is not even working anymore. The House of Saud is not stabilizing global oil prices; by refusing to increase production, it will let it reach $160 a barrel-levels quite soon. And meanwhile the White House/Pentagon keeps protecting that medieval bunch that were the first to recognize the Taliban in the mid-1990s, and whose billionaires finance jihadis all across the world.
The Gulf political midgets are now in the process of being homogenized - and kept under a leash - by House of Saud force. Those Gulf kings and emirs may preserve their golden thrones - for now. But expect plenty of cultural and religious violence ahead; plenty of nasty tribalism and sectarian wars, with no possible political evolution and no possible development of a modern civil society. No surprise; fear and loathing are embedded in this reactionary House - an axis of multiple evils in itself that should only deserve a shallow grave in the desert sands.
Goed nieuws voor jou dat de pro-wahabi koning thugs gewonnen hebben terwijl jij maar 7 riyal waard bent in hun ogen?quote:Op vrijdag 6 mei 2011 12:42 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Opstanden in Bahrein lijken beteugeld.
http://www.nu.nl/buitenla(...)ijken-beteugeld.html
De pro-Ayatollah rebellen hebben verloren. Zeer goed nieuws dit!
quote:UK training Saudi forces used to crush Arab spring
• British military personnel run courses for snipers
• Human rights groups furious over Riyadh link
Britain is training Saudi Arabia's national guard – the elite security force deployed during the recent protests in Bahrain – in public order enforcement measures and the use of sniper rifles. The revelation has outraged human rights groups, which point out that the Foreign Office recognises that the kingdom's human rights record is "a major concern".
In response to questions made under the Freedom of Information Act, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that British personnel regularly run courses for the national guard in "weapons, fieldcraft and general military skills training, as well as incident handling, bomb disposal, search, public order and sniper training". The courses are organised through the British Military Mission to the Saudi Arabian National Guard, an obscure unit that consists of 11 British army personnel under the command of a brigadier.
The MoD response, obtained yesterday by the Observer, reveals that Britain sends up to 20 training teams to the kingdom a year. Saudi Arabia pays for "all BMM personnel, as well as support costs such as accommodation and transport".
Bahrain's royal family used 1,200 Saudi troops to help put down demonstrations in March. At the time the British government said it was "deeply concerned" about reports of human rights abuses being perpetrated by the troops.
"Britain's important role in training the Saudi Arabian national guard in internal security over many years has enabled them to develop tactics to help suppress the popular uprising in Bahrain," said Nicholas Gilby of the Campaign Against Arms Trade.
Analysts believe the Saudi royal family is desperate to shore up its position in the region by preserving existing regimes in the Gulf that will help check the increasing power of Iran.
"Last year we raised concerns that the Saudis had been using UK-supplied and UK-maintained arms in secret attacks in Yemen that left scores of Yemeni civilians dead," said Oliver Sprague, director of Amnesty International's UK Arms Programme.
Defence minister Nick Harvey confirmed to parliament last week that the UK's armed forces provided training to the Saudi national guard. "It is possible that some members of the Saudi Arabian national guard which were deployed in Bahrain may have undertaken some training provided by the British military mission," he said.
The confirmation that this training is focused on maintaining public order in the kingdom is potentially embarrassing for the government. Coming at the end of a week in which the G8 summit in France approved funding for countries embracing democracy in the wake of the Arab spring, it has led to accusations that the government's foreign policy is at conflict with itself.
Jonathan Edwards, a Plaid Cymru MP who has tabled parliamentary questions to the MoD about its links to Saudi Arabia, said he found it difficult to understand why Britain was training troops for "repressive undemocratic regimes". "This is the shocking face of our democracy to many people in the world, as we prop up regimes of this sort," Edwards said. "It is intensely hypocritical of our leadership in the UK – Labour or Conservative – to talk of supporting freedoms in the Middle East and elsewhere while at the same time training crack troops of dictatorships."
The MoD's response was made in 2006, but when questioned this week it confirmed Britain has been providing training for the Saudi national guard to improve their "internal security and counter-terrorism" capabilities since 1964 and continues to do so. Members of the guard, which was established by the kingdom's royal family because it feared its regular army would not support it in the event of a popular uprising, are also provided places on flagship UK military courses at Sandhurst and Dartmouth. In Saudi Arabia, Britain continues to train the guard in "urban sharpshooter" programmes, the MoD confirmed.
Last year, Britain approved 163 export licences for military equipment to Saudi Arabia, worth 110m. Exports included armoured personnel carriers, sniper rifles, small arms ammunition and weapon sights. In 2009, the UK supplied Saudi Arabia with CS hand grenades, teargas and riot control agents.
Sprague said a shake-up of the system licensing the supply of military expertise and weapons to foreign governments was overdue. "We need a far more rigorous case-by-case examination of the human rights records of those who want to buy our equipment or receive training."
An MoD spokesman described the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, as "key partners" in the fight against terrorism. "By providing training for countries to the same high standards used by UK armed forces we help to save lives and raise awareness of human rights," said the spokesman.
Labour MP Mike Gapes, the former chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said British military support for Saudi Arabia was about achieving a "difficult balance".
"On the one hand Saudi Arabia faces the threat of al-Qaida but on the other its human rights record is dreadful. This is the constant dilemma you have when dealing with autocratic regimes: do you ignore them or try to improve them?"
quote:F1-coureur Webber: GP Bahrein boycotten
Mark Webber wil niet dat het circuit van de Formule 1 dit seizoen Bahrein nog aandoet. De Australische coureur van Red Bull vindt het moreel onjuist. 'Het gaat om mensenrechten. We hadden al veel eerder een duidelijk standpunt moeten innemen en duidelijk moeten maken dat we in deze jaargang niet komen.'
De wedstrijd zou aanvankelijk in maart worden gehouden, maar werd geschrapt vanwege de politieke onrust in het land. De internationale autosportfederatie FIA maakte gisteren bekend dat de race nu op 30 oktober wordt verreden.
Het nog steeds onrustig is in het land. Een petitie waarin de teams wordt opgeroepen om de F1-race in Bahrein te boycotten is al 300.000 keer ondertekend.
quote:http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/(...)-de-been-in-bahrein/
Meer dan tienduizend demonstranten gingen vandaag de straat op voor de eerste gesanctioneerde betoging in maanden. Met de demonstratie laat de shi’itische oppositie zien dat ze blijft vasthouden aan de eis voor meer politieke rechten, ondanks het harde optreden van de Bahreinse autoriteiten.
De veiligheidstroepen bleven tijdens de demonstratie op de achtergrond en grepen niet in. Politiehelikopters cirkelden boven de menigte die zich in het noordwesten van de Bahreinse hoofdstad Manamah had verzameld. Er zijn berichten van ongeregeldheden.
De sunnitische leiders van Bahrein gaven toestemming voor de demonstratie van vandaag, nadat twee weken geleden de staat van beleg in het land werd opgeheven. De staat van beleg was afgekondigd om de protestacties van de shi’ieten de kop in te drukken. In totaal kwamen bij de onrust in Bahrein sinds februari 31 mensen om het leven.
Wat een baasquote:Op maandag 9 mei 2011 22:50 schreef Rambolin het volgende:
[..]
Goed nieuws voor jou dat de pro-wahabi koning thugs gewonnen hebben terwijl jij maar 7 riyal waard bent in hun ogen?
quote:Bahrain to sue Independent newspaper over articles
Official accuses newspaper of 'defamatory and premeditated media campaign' against Gulf state and Saudi Arabia
Bahrain is to sue the Independent newspaper, accusing it of "orchestrating a defamatory and premeditated media campaign" against the Gulf state and neighbouring Saudi Arabia. It singled out for criticism the newspaper's award-winning Middle East correspondent, Robert Fisk.
A UK-based legal firm has been hired, according to a report by the state news agency in Bahrain, where the ruling regime has been suppressing popular uprisings for months. Last week the Bahrain grand prix was cancelled following complaints by Formula One teams.
"The Independent has deliberately published a series of unrealistic and provocative articles targeting Bahrain and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia", Bahrain's state news agency (BNA) was told by Nawaf Mohammed Al-Maawda of the country's information affairs authority.
The BNA said he had cited Fisk in particular and accused the newspaper of "orchestrating a defamatory and premeditated media campaign against both countries, failing to abide by professional impartiality and credibility in its one-sided news-coverage and reports".
The Independent issued no immediate comment in response to the report.
"Has the Khalifa family gone mad?" Fisk wrote in an article on Tuesday, in which he accused the Bahraini royal family of allegedly starting "an utterly fraudulent trial" of surgeons, doctors, paramedics and nurses who had tended the injured four months ago after security forces opened fire on protesters.
He concluded: "Bahrain is no longer the kingdom of the Khalifas. It has become a Saudi palatinate, a confederated province of Saudi Arabia, a pocket-size weasel state from which all journalists should in future use the dateline: Manama, Occupied Bahrain."
Bahrain has defied international criticism by continuing military trials against dozens of medical personnel. Twenty doctors pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges ranging from stealing medicines to stockpiling weapons during the unprecedented unrest that erupted in the small Gulf island state in February, between the uprisings that overthrew the presidents of Tunisia and then Egypt.
Bahrain's Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty, which rules over a restive Shia majority, has been attempting to restore calm and repair the government's battered reputation after facing widespread condemnation of its suppression of unrest.
A state of emergency imposed when the trouble erupted was lifted this month.
The BNA also reported that Al-Maawda had "called upon all media to observe accuracy and objectivity and project the true image", adding that all doors remain open to visit Bahrain and gauge the real situation on the ground as the Kingdom is steadily regaining normality and stability.
De Saoedische dictatuur heeft het dus nu voor het zeggen in Bahreinquote:
http://www.independent.co(...)of-lies-2297100.htmlquote:I saw these brave doctors trying to save lives – these charges are a pack of lies
Robert Fisk
Eyewitness: Bahrain didn't invite the Saudis to send their troops; the Saudis invaded and received a post-dated invitation
Has the Khalifa family gone mad? Yesterday, the Bahraini royal family started an utterly fraudulent trial of 48 surgeons, doctors, paramedics and nurses, accusing them of trying to topple the tin-pot monarchy of this Sunni minority emirate. The defendants in this flagrantly unfair military court are, of course, members of the majority Shia people of Bahrain. And since I was a witness to their heroic efforts to save lives in February, I can say – let us speak with a frankness that the Bahraini rulers would normally demand – that the charges are a pack of lies.
Doctors I saw, drenched in their patients' blood, desperately trying to staunch the bullet wounds of pro-democracy demonstrators shot in cold blood by Bahraini soldiers and police, are now on trial. I watched armed policemen refusing to allow ambulances to collect the wounded from the roads where they had been cut down.
These are the very same doctors and nurses I stood beside four months ago in the Sulaimaniya emergency room, some of them weeping as they tried to deal with gunshot wounds the like of which they had never seen before.
"How could they do this to these people?" one of them asked me. "We have never dealt with trauma wounds like these before." Next to us lay a man with bullet wounds in the chest and thigh, coughing blood on to the floor.
The surgeons were frightened that they did not have the skills to save these victims of police violence. Now the police have accused the doctors and staff of killing the patients whom the police themselves shot.
How could these fine medical men and women have been trying to "topple" the monarchy?
The idea that these 48 defendants are guilty of such a vicious charge is not just preposterous. It is insane, a total perversion – no, the total opposite – of the truth. The police were firing at demonstrators from helicopters.
The idea that a woman and child died because they were rejected by doctors and refused medical treatment is a fantasy. The only problems medical staff encountered at the Sulaimaniya hospital – and again, I was a witness and, unlike the Bahraini security authorities, I do not tell lies – was from the cruel policemen who blocked patients from reaching the medical facility.
In truth, of course, the Khalifa family is not mad. Nor are the Sunni minority of Bahrain intrinsically bad or sectarian. The reality is clear for anyone to see in Bahrain. The Saudis are now running the country. They never received an invitation to send their own soldiers to support the Bahraini "security forces" from the Bahraini Crown Prince, who is a decent man. They simply invaded and received a post-dated invitation.
The subsequent destruction of ancient Shia mosques in Bahrain was a Saudi project, entirely in line with the kingdom's Taliban-style hatred of all things Shia. Could the Bahraini prime minister be elected, I asked a member of the royal court last February? "The Saudis would not permit this," he replied. Of course not. Because they now control Bahrain. Hence the Saudi-style doctors' trial.
Bahrain is no longer the kingdom of the Khalifas. It has become a Saudi palatinate, a confederated province of Saudi Arabia, a pocket-size weasel state from which all journalists should in future use the dateline: Manama, Occupied Bahrain.
Nog even wachten. Nadat hun olie op is (plusminus 40 jaar) is het einde verhaal met Saoedi-Arabi, en met een groot deel van de rest van het MO.quote:Op zondag 29 mei 2011 01:38 schreef rakotto het volgende:
Tja, Saudie Arabie mag niet vallen h.
Ik hoop serieus dat zij het snelste vallen.
quote:The Saudi Arabian Protectorate of Bahrain
Location of Bahrain relative to Saudi Arabian Oil Infrastructure. The orange outline shows the relevant maritime borders.
Quite obviously, Bahrain sits within throwing distance (as few as 25 miles) from critical Saudi oil infrastructure. Shown on the map are nearby Saudi oil fields (Ghawar, Abqaiq, Abu Safah, Qatif, and Berri), the oil export terminals (Ras Tanura, Al Juaymah), the critical oil processing facilities at Abqaiq, and the equally critical water treatment facilities of Qurayyah which enable water injection of many fields including Ghawar, Abqaiq, Berri, and Khurais. The even slight possibility that Iran could gain control over land so close to these facilities has motivated a surprising amount of largess towards Bahrain. This largess begins with the deal giving Bahrain half of the Abu Safah output (albeit under treaty), but there is more to the story. And while there are other factors besides security of the oil infrastructure which likely contribute to the largesse, it is probably true that Bahrain would not exist as an independent nation if not for it.
quote:Bahrain riot police fire tear gas at protesters
Associated Press= DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Riot police in Bahrain fired tear gas at anti-government protesters denouncing reconciliation talks between the Gulf kingdom's rulers and the Shiite-led opposition on Saturday just hours after the dialogue began.
The renewed unrest — described by witnesses — underlines the deep tensions on the island nation after more than four months of harsh security crackdowns by the Western-allied monarchy.
It also points to the political risks for Bahrain's biggest Shiite party, Al Wefaq, which decided to join the U.S.-encouraged talks despite widespread anger among the majority Shiites — who claim they suffer systematic discrimination at the hands of the Sunni dynasty ruling Bahrain.
The protesters gathered near a landmark square in Manama, which was the epicenter of the Shiite uprising for greater rights that began in February. The witnesses said several hundred marchers chanted "No dialogue" just hours after a ceremony to open the talks in the strategic nation, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.
The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of harassment by authorities.
There were no immediate reports of injuries during the demonstrations that started after a funeral for a protester, who died on Thursday in a military hospital from injuries sustained during the unrest in March.
The death of 30-year-old protester, Majid Ahmed Mohammed, brings to 32 the number of those killed since February. Bahrain's Shiites account for 70 percent of the population, but say they face second-class status such as being effectively frozen out of top political and military posts.
Hundreds of opposition supporters, activists and others have been taken into custody and many other perceived protest backers have been purged from jobs and universities.
Washington has strongly pushed for dialogue in Bahrain. The Sunni monarchy has made token concessions ahead of the so-called "national dialogue," including sanctioning an international investigation that will include probes into the conduct of security forces during the revolt.
The White House said Saturday that it welcomes the formation of a commission of inquiry into the events and the launch of the political dialogue. "We urge all Bahrainis to seize this opportunity to forge a more just future together," said the statement.
But the government has not relented on opposition demands to free all detainees and clear others convicted of protest-linked charges, including eight activists sentenced to life in prison last month.
Parliament Speaker Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Dhahrani opened the forum Saturday by hailing the gathering as "a historic opportunity for all of us to overcome this critical stage of the nation's history through dialogue."
He said the goal is to bring "together different points of view to develop common visions" and added that the Sunni rulers are at the talks "without preconditions."
After a 45-minute ceremonial session, the approximately 300 participants adjourned. The talks are to last until the end of July, with delegates meeting three times a week.
Al Wefaq's participation "adds an important voice of Bahrain's political opposition to a process that has the potential to serve as a vehicle for reform and reconciliation," Toner added.
Al Wefaq's three delegates who attended Saturday's session, were not optimistic the dialogue will lead to meaningful reforms.
"It started as a monologue," said one of the three, Bushra al-Hindi. "The agenda has been previously set by the government in order to exclude talks about critical issues, such as moving along with a process that will reshape the country into a constitutional monarchy."
Al Wefaq's leader, Sheik Ali Salman, had told supporters on Friday that his group will stick to its calls for the Sunni monarchy to loosen the grip on power and allow people to elect a government.
Delegates from Bahrain's secular opposition party, Al Waad, also attended the talks. They held a picture of their leader, Ibrahim Sharif — the most prominent Sunni politician who has been imprisoned along with 20 other opposition leaders for plotting to overthrow Bahrain's 200-year-old monarchy.
Amid the crackdowns, Al Wefaq staged a mass resignation of its 18 lawmakers in the 40-member lower house of parliament. Two former lawmakers are in custody and on trial on anti-state crimes. Al Wefaq said one of them, Jawad Firooz, was listed on the party's five-member delegation to the talks although he didn't attend Saturday's opening session because he remains in detention.
Bron: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/198268.htmlquote:Bahrainis hold mass anti-regime rally
Thousands of anti-government protesters have poured into the streets in Bahraini to demand an end to the rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty.
The protest rally near the capital was organized by the country's largest opposition bloc, al-Wefaq, and was intended to show that protesters would not back down from their demands.
Reports say protesters traveled from all over the Persian Gulf sheikhdom to join the "Friday of determination" rally.
Protesters also condemned Manama's violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators and called for an end to the suppression of dissidents.
The massive protest rally came shortly after top Bahraini cleric, Sheikh Isa Qassim, said that the government's harsh crackdown on anti-regime protesters has strengthened their resolve to fight for their rights and that use of ''politics of fear'' by authorities has failed to silence Bahrainis.
Thousands of anti-government protesters have been staging demonstrations in Bahrain since mid-February, demanding political reforms and a constitutional monarchy -- a demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following its brutal crackdown on popular protests.
Scores of people have also been killed and many others have been injured in the Saudi-backed crackdown on peaceful protesters in Bahrain.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/200387.htmlquote:Bahraini protesters cause traffic jam
Anti-government protesters in Bahrain have created massive traffic jams in the capital, Manama, to send a message of defiance to Bahraini authorities.
Despite the Manama regime threatening to confiscate the driving licenses of protesters and to bar them from driving for up to four years, hundreds of Bahrainis flooded the roads with their cars during the morning commute on Wednesday in a show of strength ahead of the parliamentary elections.
The Bahraini opposition had organized the gathering, which was named the "Dignity Blockade".
The call to bring the traffic in central Manama to a standstill by parking cars in major streets came after the government warned of a harsh response to any attempt at disrupting the elections later this week.
Some reports, however, suggest that the gathering was planned to protest against the daily suppression of anti-regime demonstrations and to demand the reinstatement of employees sacked for joining the protest movement.
Manama is planning to hold parliamentary elections to replace the opposition lawmakers who resigned in protest to Manama's crackdown on anti-government protesters later this week.
Eighteen Bahraini lawmakers from the main Shia opposition party, al-Wefaq, walked out of the parliament in February after security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters, killing and wounding scores of them.
Al-Wefaq has boycotted the by-elections, saying that the 40-member parliament has lost its legitimacy and that it does not represent the will of the Bahraini people.
Bahrainis have been holding anti-government rallies since mid-February, demanding an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty, which has ruled the country for over 40 years.
Scores of people have been killed and hundreds more arrested in a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters in Bahrain, home to a huge American military installation for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/200645.htmlquote:New video shows Bahraini police cruelty
Bahraini riot police chase and beat protesters in Manama. (File photo)
A newly surfaced video shows another instance of police brutality in Bahrain as Saudi-backed security forces continue their violent crackdown on anti-regime protests.
Activists in Bahrain released new footage on Thursday, showing several policemen beating up a young man in the street.
The policemen then left the scene without arresting the youngster, who is rushed to a nearby home by some neighbors who witnessed the incident.
Activists said that the unidentified man was severely injured.
Bahraini forces continue their brutal suppression of anti-regime protesters despite the lifting of martial law back in June.
On Thursday, anti-regime protesters once again poured into the streets of the city of Sitra, chanting slogans against the country's Saudi-backed Al Khalifa monarchy.
Bahrainis have been demanding an end to the four-decade rule of Al Khalifa dynasty since mid-February when massive demonstrations erupted in the Persian Gulf sheikhdom.
Manama plans to hold parliamentary elections later this week to replace opposition lawmakers that resigned to protest the regime's brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.
Scores of people have been killed and hundreds more arrested in a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters in Bahrain, home to a huge military installation for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf.
quote:‘Marteling en excessief geweld gebruikt tijdens neerslaan protesten Bahrein’
De autoriteiten in Bahrein hebben marteling en excessief geweld gebruikt tegen gedetineerden die gevangen zijn gezet tijdens de opstand in het land. Dat zegt het hoofd van een speciaal ingestelde commissie die onderzoek deed naar de onrust in Bahrein.
De opmerkingen van Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni zijn de eerste details van een langverwacht rapport dat vandaag is vrijgegeven.
Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat de Golftroepen, die half maart het land binnenvielen, geen mensenrechten hebben geschonden. De militairen werden ingezet om de koning van Bahrein bij te staan omdat de protesten tegen zijn regime aanhielden. De sji’itische inwoners van het kleine oliestaatje kwamen in opstand tegen het regime van de heersende soennitische minderheid.
Bij gevechten tussen veiligheidsdiensten en betogers zijn in Bahrein 35 doden gevallen, van wie vijf door marteling, zo blijkt uit het onderzoeksrapport. Er is geen bewijs gevonden dat de onrust in Bahrein iets te maken heeft met Iran, zoals vaker is beweerd.
Het onderzoek, gefinancierd en gefaciliteerd door het Bahreinse regime, is gebaseerd op meer dan 5.000 interviews.
Koning Bahrein: misbruik moet bestraft worden
Volgens de koning van Bahrein, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, moeten de betrokkenen bij de misstanden tijdens het hardhandige optreden tegen de anti-regeringsprotesten verantwoordelijk worden gehouden en worden vervangen.
“We moeten onze wetten hervormen om ze in overeenstemming te brengen met internationale normen”, voegde hij eraan toe.
quote:In pictures: Violence follows Bahrain funeral
After Abdulnabi Kadhem's body was laid to rest, mourners' impromptu protest ended with clashes with police.
Early on Wednesday morning, witnesses say that Abdulnabi Kadhem was killed in his car when it was struck by a police Land Cruiser in A'ali village in Bahrain. His family told Al Jazeera that Kadhem, a 44-year-old farmer who was working in his fields that morning, usually wrapped his head in a traditional scarf to stay warm in the early morning hours and was likely mistaken for a protester by riot police.
He died only hours before the release of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry. People in his home village told Al Jazeera that they were not optimistic that it would lead to major democratic reforms in the country, and, during Kadhem's funeral, they continued their calls for the toppling of the al-Khalifa monarchy.
Kadhem is the second person to be recently killed in a collision with a police vehicle. On Saturday morning, 16-year-old protester Ali al-Badah died after being struck in Juffair village.
Al Jazeera's Gregg Carlstrom and Mohamed Vall also reported from the funeral in A'ali on Thursday.
quote:Former Metropolitan police assistant commissioner John Yates, who resigned from his post in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, has been appointed by Bahrain to oversee reform of its police force after reports of human rights abuse.
Die gaat zich wel vermaken in die contreien.quote:
quote:Duizenden betogers Bahrein door politie bestookt met traangas
Duizenden demonstranten in Bahrein zijn vandaag met traangas aangevallen door de politie. Ze riepen slogans tegen de regering bij een begrafenis in de hoofdstad Manama.
De uitvaart van een 73-jarige man, die zou zijn gestorven na het inademen van traangas bij een demonstratie gisteren, was de veertigste aan regeringsgeweld gelieerde sinds de opstand in februari begon. Zeker veertig mensen zijn omgekomen sinds de sjiitische meerderheid meer democratie eist van de sunnitische leiders.
De regering beweert dat de 73-jarige man een natuurlijke dood stierf. Sinds donderdag wordt in Manama langs de strategisch belangrijke autoweg Budaiya gedemonstreerd.Deze leidt naar een kruispunt die ongeveer 500 meter van het parelplein ligt.
Dat plein was in de eerste periode van demonstraties het epicentrum van demonstraties, maar werd door ordetroepen in maart platgewalst. Sindsdien wordt het constant bewaakt omdat betogers het symbolische plein weer proberen te claimen.
quote:Opposition supporters rally in Bahrain despite ban
Associated Press= MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Anti-government protesters converged on the headquarters of Bahrain's main opposition party Saturday, defying a government ban on the gathering and pressing ahead with their campaign for greater political and civil rights for the nation's Shiite Muslims.
The protest in front of Al Wefaq's offices in the capital of Manama was a show of defiance by the party that has been the main backer of the Shiite majority's 10-month-old protest movement, which is aimed at breaking the Sunni dynasty's monopoly on power in the strategically important Arab kingdom in the Persian Gulf.
The government rejected the party's permit request for the demonstration, but thousands of protesters came anyway. They waved Bahraini flags and chanted anti-government slogans despite a massive security presence across the capital.
Opposition supporters poured into Manama from the predominantly Shiite villages that ring the capital. The villages have been the site of almost daily clashes between demonstrators and security forces since the government intensified a punishing crackdown on dissent in March.
Shiites represent about 70 percent of Bahrain's population but are denied top political and security jobs.
In the past decade, Al Wefaq has led a campaign for greater rights for the Shiite majority, but with inspiration from the Arab Spring uprisings, Shiite protesters took to the streets in February in numbers never seen before in the island nation.
A month later, the party's 18 lawmakers resigned from parliament to protest the crackdown.
The party also walked out of government-designed reconciliation talks in July, claiming authorities had no intention of compromising with the opposition. The party also boycotted September elections for the vacated seats because of the detention of several of its officials.
Al Wefaq has been staging weekly public gatherings in the past months, but it has usually refrained from doing so without a permit from authorities. In return, Al Wefaq's applications are usually granted, but the request for Saturday's gathering was rejected.
Bahrain's Interior Ministry said Al Wefaq's request to stage a gathering on one of Manama's vital roads was not approved for security reasons.
"If the event were to be held on such a vital road ... it could hinder traffic, disturb security and affect the interests of the public," the ministry said in a statement that was posted on its website late Friday.
Riot police encircled the party's headquarters and prevented protesters from marching to the highway, just east of the building. But the protest ended peacefully.
At least 40 people have died since the unrest began in February.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement Saturday that embassy officials in Manama met with human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, who was injured during a demonstration on Friday, and Bahraini government officials.
"We strongly urge the Government of Bahrain to undertake a full investigation to determine if excessive force was employed by police," the statement said.
Bahrain is a critical U.S. ally and is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Washington has taken a cautious line with authorities, urging Bahrain's leaders to open more dialogue with the opposition, but avoiding too much public pressure.
quote:Tienduizenden betogers protesteren in Bahrein
Tienduizenden demonstranten hebben zich vandaag in Bahrein aangesloten bij een protestmars van de oppositie. Die hoopt met de mars nieuw leven te blazen in de sjiitische opstand tegen de soennitische monarchie van het Golfstaatje.
Ordetroepen versperden enkele betogers met wolken traangas de weg naar het zwaarbewaakte Parelplein, dat het kloppende hart van de opstand vormde tot de politie het vorig jaar met harde hand schoonveegde. Het merendeel van de mensenmenigte trok echter in alle rust over een belangrijke hoofdweg door de hoofdstad Manamah.
Formule 1-race
De oppositie schreef de protestmars uit om de regering te tonen dat zij aan vastberadenheid en kracht niets heeft ingeboet. De regering beweerde, met een schuin oog naar de Formule 1-race die volgende maand in het oliestaatje plaatsvindt, dat de protestbeweging was geluwd. Zo hoopt zij te voorkomen dat de lucratieve race net als volgend jaar wordt geschrapt.
De regering hoopte met een mengeling van welwillendheid en brute kracht de oppositie de wind uit de zeilen te nemen. Maar de betogers nemen geen genoegen met kleine concessies als de uitbreiding van de bevoegdheden van het parlement. Zij eisen dat de soennitische bestuurselite het recht wordt ontnomen de premier en andere bestuurders aan te stellen.
Iraakse geloofsgenoten
De sjiieten, die in Bahrein zo'n zeventig procent van de bevolking uitmaken, klagen dat ze worden benadeeld en dat hoge ambten voor hen gesloten blijven. Zij kregen vandaag morele steun van Iraakse geloofsgenoten. Ongeveer tweeduizend Iraakse sjiieten riepen in de hoofdstad Bagdad op de koning van Bahrein de toegang te ontzeggen tot de top van de Arabische Liga die daar later deze maand plaatsvindt.
Sommige oppositieleiders telden vrijdag tot honderdduizend deelnemers aan de kilometerslange proteststoet in Manamah. Klopt dat getal, dan is de mars een van de grootste betogingen sinds ontevreden burgers in februari vorig jaar de straat opgingen. Sinds de opstand tegen het bewind in het oliestaatje uitbrak zijn zeker 45 mensen omgekomen.
quote:Op zondag 20 maart 2011 23:48 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
[..]
Muqtada al Sadr, Khamenei en Nasrallah. Leuke "vrienden" hebben ze.
ohhh mag ik er een paar op jou afschieten mag ut ? ahhh toe zeg ja zul je zien hoe hard je gaat gillenquote:Op woensdag 16 maart 2011 21:31 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Is gewoon een rubberen kogel.
http://www.rtl.nl/%28/spo(...)t_aan_in_bahrein.xmlquote:Massale demonstratie tegen bewind Bahrein
Optocht
De demonstranten liepen op een snelweg net buiten de hoofdstad Manama. In een kilometerslange tocht eisten de demonstranten het einde van de dictatuur en de vrijlating van politieke gevangenen.
Grootste betoging in een jaar
De hoogste sjiitische geestelijke in Bahrein, Sjeik Isa Qassim, had opgeroepen tot de demonstratie. Volgens persbureau AP is het een van de grootste betogingen sinds februari vorig jaar.
Rellen bij herdenking opstand
Bahrein is al een tijd onrustig. Vorige maand waren er rellen in Manama tijdens een herdenking van de opstand, een jaar geleden. Het afgelopen jaar zijn er bij demonstraties tientallen doden gevallen.
Grand Prix
Ondanks de onrust in het land gaat de Grand Prix in Bahrein definitief door. Dat heeft Formule 1-baas Bernie Ecclestone al eerder gezegd. De race staat voor 22 april op de kalender.
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/(...)leid=DMF20120312_126quote:Vijanden van het internet
Bahrein is een nieuwkomer, omdat ze in de strijd tegen de sjiitische opstandelingen bloggers heeft lastiggevallen en de nieuwsvoorziening heeft geblokkeerd. ‘Bahrein gebruikte veel indrukwekkende maatregelen tegen de opstand’, aldus VzG. ‘Het land sloot buitenlandse media uit, viel mensenrechtenactivisten lastig, arresteerde bloggers en internetters en verstoorde de communicatie.’
De organisatie voegt er ook aan toe dat het belang van het internet extra duidelijk geworden is door de Arabische Lente. ‘Internet en sociale media zijn nu definitief gevestigd als hulpmiddelen voor protesten, het voeren van campagnes en het rondsturen van informatie. Het is een vehikel voor vrijheid geworden.’
quote:http://www.enduringameric(...)her-90-die.html#2036
2200 GMT: We're closing yet another crazy Friday. Here's a summary.
In Bahrain, there were 9 very large protests, most or all of which were attacked by police who used teargas to disperse the crowds. Though protests were planned, they were larger and more energetic today upon hearing the news that a man died last night from teargas inhalation.
Some protesters destroyed closed-circuit TV cameras and threw rocks at police. Apparently, there was at least one occurrence of youth throwing molotov cocktails at police.
However, this anger was sparked by what the activists consider widespread police brutality. Large parts of the island nation were covered in teargas again today, and riot vehicles reportedly chased down protesters in an attempt to run them over. There are also more unconfirmed reports of injured children, and another unconfirmed report that police sexually molested a young girl. Earlier in the week activists say that the police molested and tortured a 16 year old boy, Ali.
At the end of the day, resolution to this conflict seems further away than it has ever been.
quote:Radio Times poll provokes online battle for Baftas
Fierce opposition to al-Jazeera's Bahrain documentary generates a million votes
This year's Bafta award for the best current affairs television programme, to be awarded later this month, has provoked an international struggle to undermine the content of at least one of the four powerful documentaries on the shortlist – a film about the uprising in Bahrain last spring.
A fortnight ago the Radio Times magazine launched an online poll to allow readers to vote for their favourite Bafta nominees. There are no prizes on offer, but the current affairs category has now registered an incredible one million votes, even though participants will not decide the final outcome. While fans of Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes or of Dominic West's role as Fred West have together clocked up only 4,000 votes in the best leading actor poll, more than half a million voters across the world have backed the film Shouting in the Dark, made in Bahrain by journalist May Ying Welsh for al-Jazeera. Another half a million have voted for Channel 4's film Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, fronted by Jon Snow.
Welsh's film, which was shot undercover over three months, went out on al-Jazeera's English-speaking channel last summer and provoked outrage among officials in Bahrain. They claimed it painted an unfair picture of police brutality during the uprising and played down the involvement of Iranian-backed subversives among the crowds. But since then the controversial film has won a Royal Television Society nomination, a UK Foreign Press Association award and a series of prestigious US prizes.
The fight for the top spot in an innocuous British magazine poll first became part of an international public relations war last weekend, soon after Khalid al-Khalifa, Bahrain's foreign minister and a member of the ruling family, tweeted a call for his 80,000 Twitter followers to cast a vote for any one of the other nominees in the Radio Times poll.
"I invite everyone to stand with Bahrain and vote against the harmful al-Jazeera film," he wrote. The tweet caused a Twitter storm of support from the Middle East for the Sri Lankan film. One user called Jaguar wrote: "Oh noble people of the Gulf, vote for Sri Lanka and prevent the Shia infidels from defaming Bahrain." Another typical tweet came from Ahmed, who wrote: "Everyone vote more than once for the film Sri Lanka in order to make al-Jazeera's film which harms Bahrain fail to win."
In response, others began to urge support for Welsh's documentary. A tweet from Nuwaidrat read: "Urgent – by the time you finish reading this line the thugs will have turned the tables on us – vote for the film Shouting in the Dark." Another, from a user called Allah Gifted us with Martyrdom, wrote: "Please intensify voting efforts for al-Jazeera's film Bahrain Shouting in the Dark which uncovers part of the truth about the situation in Bahrain."
RadioTimes.com acting editor Tim Glanfield said: "For a British entertainment website to become a battleground between Bahrain government loyalists and its opponents has been an unexpected and extraordinary turn of events."
Al-Jazeera staff commented on the voting patterns in an article for the Radio Times site and drew attention to the abusive nature of some tweets, many of which urged supporters of the Baharaini authorities to vote more than once.
"For several days, thousands of Arabic language tweets – at peak hours several tweets a second – have been pouring out of Bahrain and the Gulf in a steady stream, many of them filled with religious epithets and hate speech," said the article.
After the al-Jazeera response went up on the site there was a brief hiatus in the flow of votes for the Sri Lankan film, which the commissioning team on the Arabic channel agree is a brilliant and worthy competitor.
Because of its "distressing images", Sri Lanka's Killing Fields went out in a late night slot and showed what Channel 4 said appeared to be "extrajudicial executions filmed by Sri Lankan soldiers as war trophies on their phones; the aftermath of shelling in civilian camps and hospitals alleged to have been deliberately targeted by Sri Lankan government forces; dead female Tamil fighters who appear to have been systematically raped; and pictures which document Tamil fighters alive in the custody of Sri Lankan government forces and then later dead, apparently having been executed."
The film, directed by Callum Macrae, also recognised atrocities alleged to have been carried out by the Tamil Tigers.
quote:
quote:3 weeks ago, a British PR and Strategic Communication firm called Dragon Associates forced the Guardian to take down an article from their Comment is Free section. Today the Guardian have put it back up. The article in question stated that the head of security at the BIC (Bahrain International Circuit) had been involved in torturing employees on the racetrack premises. Dragon Associates claimed that the article contained ‘considerable inaccuracies’. Despite this, the article has gone back up exactly the same as before, albeit with a footnote tacked on at the end. This footnote reads
. In its letter of complaint, the BIC makes the following points: while the BIC accepts that in April 2012 the police took some of its employees to the police station for interrogation, it denies the allegation that its security staff were involved in any repressive activities, or that its staff tortured, beat or mistreated BIC employees on BIC premises. The BIC says that if any of its employees were beaten or otherwise badly treated by BIC security staff – which it denies – it would have been without BIC’s knowledge, instructions or orders.
It is interesting to note that the Guardian were so quick to take down a piece that ended going back up unchanged. John Lubbock, the article’s co-author, also informed me that the piece was taken down prior to the Guardian actually receiving a formal complaint. Despite all these interesting oddities, Dragon Associates were obviously successful in stalling the incendiary article until Bahrain had more or less secured the hosting of the Grand Prix (tickets go on sale today). Furthermore, they also managed to get a footnote added to the article, which seems a bit unusual on ‘Comment is Free’. The footnote is also odd because it basically says that while the BIC deny that its security were involved in the mistreatment, it accepts that it could have happened without their knowledge. Essentially, this added paragraph does nothing to disprove the veracity of the preceding article, it merely serves to add an element of doubt to the story. Not quite sure how Dragon Associates managed to pull this off, maybe they used ‘Right of Reply’. All I know is, when these guys breathe fire, people get scared.
quote:Bahrain police battle biggest protests in weeks
Tens of thousands take to streets after opposition calls for major rallies in support of prominent rights activist Nabeel Rajab
Riot police in Bahrain fired teargas and stun grenades on Friday as tens of thousands of protesters staged the biggest anti-government demonstrations in weeks in the divided Gulf nation.
Opposition groups called for major rallies after a prominent rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, was placed back in detention earlier this week on fresh charges linked to his posts on social media such as Twitter.
Bahrain has experienced near daily protests for 16 months caused by an uprising by the kingdom's Shia majority seeking greater political rights from the western-backed Sunni monarchy. At least 50 people have died in the unrest since February 2011.
There were no immediate reports of injuries from Friday's street battles, which left piles of burning rubbish and clouds of stinging tear gas in the western outskirts of the capital, Manama.
Bahrain's rulers have crucial support from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, but are under pressure from their US allies to reopen dialogue with Shia opposition factions. A new government initiative for talks is expected to be announced next week. But main Shia groups have already signalled that negotiations are futile unless the ruling dynasty agrees to give up its near total control of government affairs in the strategic island, which is home to the US navy's 5th Fleet.
Earlier on Friday, a defence lawyer said a court hearing is planned next week for an 11-year-old boy detained for allegedly taking part in the anti-government protests.
The lawyer, Mohsen al-Alawi, said the sixth-grade student is scheduled to appear in court on Monday on charges of joining an illegal gathering and other claims related to the ongoing unrest.
Al-Alawi said the boy was arrested last month and took his school exams behind bars. He is among the youngest suspects detained in Bahrain.
quote:John Timoney: A tough cop with a tougher job
Special adviser to Bahrain police talks about life in the troubled island kingdom
Manama: Few go voluntarily behind the high white walls and new razor wire of the Ministry of Interior compound that occupies many city blocks here.
The compound is so large that a minibus picks visitors up at a fortified gatehouse and drives them past car parks filled with rows of large white 4x4s, each vehicle with protective wire grills over windows and front and back lights. Those brought involuntarily here are usually handcuffed and in the rear of one of those 4x4s.
Past the rows of white offices, practise rooms for the police band rooms and beyond a telecommunications centre, the blades of a police helicopter are slowly drooping and whirring to a stop where the aircraft has landed on one of the parade and marching grounds.
In an inner fort behind more walls in the heart of the compound, greying armed guards in green combat fatigues salute crisply as dark German cars with official number plates and stern drivers deliver sterner senior officers.
Those armed guards don’t ask for identification. If you have no business in being here, you won’t be here.
Through two sets of frosted and quietly sliding double doors, non-commissioned officers in white and blue uniforms sit at desks, answer telephones, fetch refreshments for the senior officers.
Upstairs, at the end of a end of a carpeted corridor, two double office doors are permanently open. There, working on a computer screen, beside two small, framed family photographs, sits John Timoney, special advisor on policing to the Bahrain Ministry of Interior.
For 45 years, Timoney has helped police New York, Philadelphia and Miami — though it’s difficult to know whether his career has taken him to such a military-like environment, parade grounds and sets of frosted doors.
His business in being here is to change the culture of policing, turn it from a police force into a police service, move it from a fortress mentality to take back the streets of this troubled island kingdom. He’s been here seven months.
“This,” Timoney says, sitting back in a soft leather armchair, “is more of a legacy of the Brits.”
“The colonial order of the Brits was to keep them under control and do what you have to do to keep them under control,” he says, slapping the armchair’s arm to hammer the point. “Don’t get too involved in the day-to-day lives of people. Not just here, but in Hong Kong, Burma — that’s how the British controlled their empire. Law and order policing ... The experiences here are a colonial one. And a lot of the police forces in the region are like this.”
There was little time for the British in getting to know and understand the community, develop a police service . It was all about being a force to police and to use force to do it.
For 17 months, the kingdom has been torn apart by political and sectarian divides. After six weeks of protests and violence at the site of the Pearl Roundabout — Bahrain’s equivalent of Cairo’s Tahrir Square — and in Shiite villages, 34 people died.
The violence and protests and resulted in the Gulf Cooperation Council members activating the Peninsula Shield security agreement. Troops and police reinforcements were moved in the kingdom to protect vital Bahraini installations, domestic security forces quelled the violence and Pearl Roundabout was demolished.
But all of this happened at a cost — not just to human life but also to the reputation of the kingdom’s police.
During the height of the violence, four police officers and one member of the Bahrain Defence Force died.
“I can understand police officers dying in what I would call the heat of battle,” Timoney says. “But what I cannot accept are the deaths of four civilians at some stage along the arrest continuum — either on the streets, being arrested in their homes, or in detention. The allegations of beatings, torture and alleged rape while people were in detention is most troubling.”
After the worst of the violence, the Bahrain government instigated an independent commission of inquiry, led by Egyptian jurist Mahmoud Sharif Bassiouni, to investigate the events of February and March 2011. His investigation into the violence that polarised Bahrain society was far reaching and brutally honest. But Bassiouni’s report was stingingly critical of Bahrain’s police, security and judicial processes — and the kingdom is determined to change for the better.
And that determination to change is why Timoney and former Scotland Yard counter-terrorism chief John Yates are advising Bahrain on police reform. But Timoney’s reputation is that of being a straight shooter used to difficult policing challenges and for cleaning up messes.
“When any police force comes under the type of scrutiny this one is under, they will generally begin to behave themselves,” he says. “Their actions won’t be as flagrant.”
Het artikel gaat verder...quote:Timoney believes that the western media and human-rights activists are doing a terrible disservice to Bahrain in failing to distinguish between peaceful, lawful protests and the violence that occurs nightly.
Thats riotous behaviour, illegal and violent conduct and violence which Ive seen in the press described as reaction to police. He says by simply looking at the videos posted nightly by rioters, its possible to see a huge escalation of violence with Molotov cocktails, stone throwing and rioting by protesters. These are unprovoked attacks on police officers, he says. Police officers who are simply going about their daily duties and face Molotov cocktails and now, in the past month, bombings. To include these people as protesters is disingenuous and misleading and the overall coverage by the western press is nothing short of bias in a certain direction.
quote:Bahrain puts boy aged 11 on trial for alleged role in roadblock protest
Ali Hasan says he was just playing in the street when he was arrested. He was 'forced' to confess and was detained in jail
At a time when most 11-year-old boys are looking forward to the school holidays, Ali Hasan is preparing for his trial.
On Wednesday morning the primary school pupil from suburban Manama will stand in a Bahrain court and listen as the case against him is spelt out. The prosecution case: that Ali helped protesters block a street with rubbish containers and wood during demonstrations last month. Ali's defence: that he's a child who was just playing with friends in the street.
"On the day before I was arrested there was some fighting in the streets near my house between the demonstrators and the police," Ali told the Guardian by phone from his home in the Bilad al-Qadeem suburb. "The demonstrators had blocked the street by setting fire to tyres and using containers in which people dispose of their rubbish.
"The day after this I went to the street with two of my friends to play. It was around 3pm. While we were playing there, some police forces came towards us which made us panic. My friends managed to run away … but I was so scared by the guns they were carrying that I couldn't move … and I was arrested."
Bahrain's rulers have proved ruthless in the cases they have pursued against those accused of involvement in 15 months of protests against the Khalifa dynasty, with prosecutions against doctors, nurses and rights activists. Ali Hasan's case marks a new precedent in the legal crackdown against civil society. He is believed to be the youngest Bahraini to stand trial in connection with the uprising.
Ali has already spent weeks in jail before he was bailed last week, and even sat his exams in prison. After his arrest he was taken to various police stations where he said he was forced to confess to taking part in anti-government demonstrations. "I was crying all the time. I told them I'd confess to anything to go back home," he said.
Ali's father, Jasem Hasan, a car parts dealer, said his son was taken back to the detention centre the day after his arrest.
"I was abroad at the time and when I called Ali's mother was only crying. She was crying for all the time Ali was in prison," he said.
In jail Ali spent a month in a room with three other children and was made to clean the centre. "We would wake up early in the morning for breakfast, usually around 6.30, and then I had to do some job," he said. "The first day in jail was horrible. I cried all the time but I became friends with the other boys there and we could play for four hours every day – but had to spend all our other time in a locked room." Describing the centre, he said: "It's like putting a bear in a box, I felt just like that. I never want to go back to that place again."
Bahrain's chief prosecutor for those under 18, Noura Al-Khalifa, has said that Ali was detained while blocking the street and Bahraini information officials have alleged that Ali was participating in an "illegal gathering" along with other protesters. Ali's father said the allegations were lies. "They claimed that my son had accepted money in exchange for setting fire to tyres and blocking the road," he said. "I don't say I'm a rich person but I make enough money and my son doesn't need to go in streets looking for money. I always give enough money to him."
Ali's lawyer, Mohsen al-Alawi, said the boy was nothing to do with the demonstrations. "Ali was not a political activist or a demonstrator. He was only playing games like all other children of his age."
Human Rights Watch has expressed concerns about Ali's case. "He was not accompanied by a lawyer during his questioning," said HRW's Mariwan Hama-Saeed. "It seems the only evidence used against him is his own confession and the testimony of a police officer."
The UK and US governments have been criticised for maintaining close relations with the Bahraini leadership, and failing to address human rights abuses in an uprising that has left scores dead. The Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, who visited Bahrain last week, encouraged further reform in the country, saying that it was "clear there is much more to do".
Burt said: "While the Bahraini government has made some good progress on the recommendations of the Bahrain independent commission of inquiry (BICI), we are clear there is much more to do. Bringing about sustained, comprehensive reform will take time, but the government should build on the steps they have taken and ensure that BICI recommendations are implemented quickly and in full, including where they relate to human rights.
"We stand ready to assist Bahrain as it tackles the challenges ahead, including help with reform of the judicial system, promoting human rights training in the police and other government services, and reducing sectarian tension through reconciliation."
The Foreign Office did not respond to the Guardian's request for comments on Ali Hasan's case at the time of publication.
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa programme at Amnesty International, said: "Arresting an 11-year-old boy, interrogating him for hours without a lawyer before trying him on spurious charges shows a jaw-dropping lack of respect for his rights."
She added that such treatment was completely out of step with international standards, or even Bahrain's own penal code. "This case shows the excessive means the Bahraini authorities have resorted to in order to crush protest. I hope they will see sense and drop all the charges against Ali Hassan."
quote:New Bahrain crackdown: Opposition leaders wounded (VIDEO, PHOTOS)
Riot police in Bahrain dispersed protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets as disorder in the country’s capital Manana continued. The opposition claims its leaders have been wounded in the clashes.
The Opposition Al Wefaq organization claims its secretary-general Sheik Ali Salman was shot in the shoulder and back with rubber bullets during demonstrations in Manama. Another opposition leader, Hassan al-Marzooq, was shot and wounded in the chest.
The Bahraini Interior Ministry has yet to comment on the incident, but promised to prevent the Al Wefaq from organizing a protest in the Sehla suburb district of the capital Manana.
The ministry claims the rallies are obstructing traffic. The ministry further says Al Wefaq has already been licensed to conduct a number of protests this year.
“Security forces have been careful in dealing professionally with political leaders but this time was different. It seems a gradual crackdown is going on," senior Al Wefaq party member Matar Matar told Reuters. "They are closing the small margin for freedom of expression.”
There have been reports of a heavy police presence in the suburb. Protesters were reportedly throwing Molotov cocktails at police, who responded with teargas grenades and rubber bullets.
The uprising in the Kingdom of Bahrain, which hosts America’s Fifth Fleet, has been ongoing for 16 months. The country’s Shia majority is rallying against the Western-backed Sunni monarchy to get broader political rights and participate more actively in the governing of their country.
The ruling Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa family has made some concessions to the Shia protesters. The parliament's powers of scrutiny over ministers and budgets have been extended, although the key demands for full legislative powers and elected governments was turned down.
The government accuses Al Wefaq supporters of following a sectarian Shiite agenda. The opposition party insists the Bahraini leadership is making excuses to avoid giving up its privileges.
quote:• The Bahraini government is lobbying for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council's advisory committee. Raza Kazim of the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission urged other countries to block the bid because of Bahrain's "appalling human rights record". (see 9.25am).
Op Russia Today (inderdaad, die Engelstalige Russische zender) wordt op de dubbelzinnigheid van het westen tegenover regimes als dat in Bahrein vaak de nadruk gelegd.quote:Op dinsdag 19 juni 2012 20:20 schreef Chooselife het volgende:
Gek. Hoor er nooit wat over in onze media.
En tegelijkertijd is de dubbelzinnigheid van RT en Rusland daar duidelijk, ik kijk er graag naar.quote:Op woensdag 4 juli 2012 21:55 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:
[..]
Op Russia Today (inderdaad, die Engelstalige Russische zender) wordt op de dubbelzinnigheid van het westen tegenover regimes als dat in Bahrein vaak de nadruk gelegd.
Hilarisch vaak inderdaad. Mooie zender.quote:Op woensdag 4 juli 2012 21:55 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:
[..]
Op Russia Today (inderdaad, die Engelstalige Russische zender) wordt op de dubbelzinnigheid van het westen tegenover regimes als dat in Bahrein vaak de nadruk gelegd.
quote:Opnieuw rellen in Bahrein – duizenden betogers de straat op
Duizenden anti-regeringsdemonstranten zijn tijdens betogingen in Bahrein slaags geraakt met de oproerpolitie. De straatgevechten vonden op diverse plekken plaats, zeggen journalisten van persbureau AP. De politie zette traangas in.
De betogers voerden actie tegen plannen van de regering om geen vergunningen meer uit te geven voor straatdemonstraties. Demonstraties zouden daarmee illegaal worden. Protesten verstoren het verkeer en het alledaagse leven te veel, aldus de Bahreinse overheid.
Het kleine koninkrijk in het Midden-Oosten is al zeventien maanden in de greep van de strijd tussen de regerende sunnitische minderheid en de shi’itische meerderheid die meer rechten eist en zegt te worden gediscrimineerd. Al sinds de jaren negentig eist de shi’itische meerderheid (ruwweg zeventig procent van de bevolking) meer rechten.
Regering Bahrein schildert opstand af als Iraans opzetje
Sinds het begin van de opstand zijn er zeker vijftig doden gevallen. Een aantal van de slachtoffers zou door marteling om het leven zij gekomen. NRC-redacteur Carolien Roelants schreef een maand geleden over de aanhoudende opstand in Bahrein:
. De shi’itische meerderheid in het Arabische Golfstaatje Bahrein liftte vorig jaar mee op de opstanden in Tunesi en Egypte. Het shi’itische protest was in Bahrein immers al tientallen jaren aan de gang. Maar de sunnitische elite omschreef de shi’itische demonstraties als een Iraanse poging om de Bahreinse monarchie omver te werpen. Zij vaardigden Saoedische troepen af om koning Hamad te helpen overeind te blijven. Het Westen worstelt met de protesten in het land: enerzijds worden in Bahrein aantoonbaar de mensenrechten geschonden, anderzijds de koning is een nauwe bondgenoot, en Iran de boze vijand.
quote:
quote:CNN's total cost for the documentary, ultimately titled "iRevolution: Online Warriors of the Arab Spring", was in excess of $100,000, an unusually high amount for a one-hour program of this type. The portion Lyon and her team produced on Bahrain ended up as a 13-minute segment in the documentary. That segment, which as of now is available on YouTube, is a hard-hitting and unflinching piece of reporting that depicts the regime in a very negative light.
In the segment, Lyon interviewed activists as they explicitly described their torture at the hands of government forces, while family members recounted their relatives' abrupt disappearances. She spoke with government officials justifying the imprisonment of activists. And the segment featured harrowing video footage of regime forces shooting unarmed demonstrators, along with the mass arrests of peaceful protesters. In sum, the early 2011 CNN segment on Bahrain presented one of the starkest reports to date of the brutal repression embraced by the US-backed regime.
On 19 June 2011 at 8pm, CNN's domestic outlet in the US aired "iRevolution" for the first and only time. The program received prestigious journalism awards, including a 2012 Gold Medal from New York Festival's Best TV and Films. Lyon, along with her segment producer Taryn Fixel, were named as finalists for the 2011 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. A Facebook page created by Bahraini activists, entitled "Thank you Amber Lyon, CNN reporter | From people of Bahrain", received more than 8,000 "likes".
Despite these accolades, and despite the dangers their own journalists and their sources endured to produce it, CNN International (CNNi) never broadcast the documentary. Even in the face of numerous inquiries and complaints from their own employees inside CNN, it continued to refuse to broadcast the program or even provide any explanation for the decision. To date, this documentary has never aired on CNNi.
quote:"It became a standard joke around the office: the Bahrainis called to complain about you again," recounted Lyon. Lyon was also told by CNN employees stationed in the region that "the Bahrainis also sent delegations to our Abu Dhabi bureau to discuss the coverage."
Internal CNN emails reflect continuous pressure on Lyon and others to include claims from the Bahraini regime about the violence in their country even when, says Lyon, she knew first-hand that the claims were false. One April 2011 email to Lyon from a CNN producer demands that she include in her documentary a line stating that "Bahrain's foreign minister says security forces are not firing on unarmed civilians," and another line describing regime claims accusing "activists like Nabeel Rajab of doctoring photos fabricating injuries".
quote:In March 2012, Lyon was laid off from CNN as part of an unrelated move by the network to outsource its investigative documentaries. Now at work on a book, Lyon began in August to make reference to "iRevolution" on her Twitter account, followed by more than 20,000 people.
On 16 August, Lyon wrote three tweets about this episode. CNNi's refusal to broadcast "iRevolution", she wrote, "baffled producers". Linking to the YouTube clip of the Bahrain segment, she added that the "censorship was devastating to my crew and activists who risked lives to tell [the] story." She posted a picture of herself with Rajab and wrote:
. "A proponent of peace, @nabeelrajab risked his safety to show me how the regime oppresses the [people] of #Bahrain."
The following day, a representative of CNN's business affairs office called Lyon's acting agent, George Arquilla of Octagon Entertainment, and threatened that her severance payments and insurance benefits would be immediately terminated if she ever again spoke publicly about this matter, or spoke negatively about CNN.
Russia Today is geen haar beter.quote:Op donderdag 5 juli 2012 16:59 schreef waht het volgende:
[..]
Hilarisch vaak inderdaad. Mooie zender.
quote:
quote:Tot de demonstraties was opgeroepen door de Jeugd van 14 februari, een beweging die geen banden heeft met de sji’itische oppositie maar oproept tot de mobilisatie van ras. Sommige demonstranten schreeuwden anti-regeringsleuzen voordat ze door de politie uiteen werden gedreven. Er zouden verschillende arrestaties zijn verricht. De minister van Binnenlandse Zaken zei dat “saboteurs” Molotovcocktails naar de politie hebben gegooid en dat de politie slechts ingreep om de orde te herstellen.
quote:Het kleine Golfstaatje Bahrein is een bondgenoot van het Westen, met name als haven van de Amerikaanse Vijfde Vloot. Het is niet al te vergezocht om de geringe belangstelling voor de opstand tegen de monarchie daarmee in verband te brengen. En aan de inspanning van het bewind om de protesten aan Iraanse opruierij toe te schrijven. De betogers zijn toch sji’ieten? Hoe dan ook gaan de demonstraties voor democratische hervormingen er nog altijd door.
quote:Two foreign workers have been killed in Bahrain's capital Manama after a series of blasts went off, authorities say.
The interior ministry said at least five homemade explosive devices exploded on Monday and described the blasts as "terrorist acts" - its term for violence by opposition activists.
The apparently co-ordinated explosions point to escalating levels of violence in the nearly 21-month uprising against the Gulf kingdom's rulers and come less than a week after Bahrain banned all protest gatherings in the country.
The official Bahrain News Agency said the explosions took place between 4.30am and 9.30am (01:30 and 06:30 GMT) in the Qudaibiya and Adliya districts of Manama.
"As always, we condemn violence but, given the Bahraini authorities' background in spreading disinformation, we call for an independent investigation"
- Maryam al-Khawaja,
opposition activist
One of the attacks occurred outside a cinema, where a street cleaner died when he kicked a package that blew up. The other man died from injuries in a separate blast, officials said, identifying the dead as a 29-year-old Indian and a 33-year-old Bangladeshi. Another Indian man was injured.
Rights group Amnesty International called for an independent investigation into Monday's attacks. "...those responsible [must be] brought to justice in proceedings that comply with internationally recognised standards for fair trial and with no possibility of the death penalty," a statement said.
Police have been targeted by explosions several times this year, as the government has stepped up efforts to quell an uprising that has simmered since protests broke out in early 2011.
But bombs targeting civilians are rare in the kingdom, where the Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa family rules over a majority Shia population.
'Strange incident'
Opposition politician Matar Matar of the Shia party al-Wefaq said he doubted that opposition activists were behind Monday's attacks.
He suggested the police or military might have been responsible, or a rogue unit.
"This incident is strange - why would anyone target workers?" he said. "I'm worried that police and military are losing control of their units or it is [preparation] before declaring martial law."
Maryam al-Khawaja, acting head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said: "As always, we condemn violence but, given the Bahraini authorities' background in spreading disinformation, we call for an independent investigation into the deaths of the two migrant workers."
Khawaja, who is based in Denmark, said the attacks were "not grounds to start a campaign of collective punishment, arbitrary arrests, and torture, as we've see happen before".
The army was called in to quell mass rallies in Manama last year[GALLO/GETTY]
Foreign ministers from the Gulf Co-operation Council - made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - plan to meet in Manama on Wednesday to discuss regional issues.
The meeting will discuss Bahrain's tensions and growing clashes in Kuwait between security forces and the opposition.
Thirty-five people were killed in Bahrain as the Shia-led opposition staged protests in February and March 2011 and the two months of martial law that followed. While mass protests in central Manama have been stamped out, clashes between protesters and riot police are still common in Shia districts.
Activists and rights groups say 50 civilians have been killed in the turmoil since the end of martial law, while the authorities say two policemen have died.
Shias make up about 70 per cent of Bahrain's 525,000 citizens. They complain of discrimination in the electoral system, jobs, housing and education, and say they are mistreated by government departments, the police and the army.
Bahrain's Western allies have urged renewed efforts at dialogue to ease the crisis, but opposition groups insist that talks cannot move forward unless the monarchy is willing to make greater concessions to loosen its hold on the country's affairs.
Bahrain's leaders have so far made reforms that include transferring more oversight powers to the elected parliament.
quote:ITV News crew forced to leave Bahrain ahead of grand prix
Rageh Omaar's team detained by police and asked to leave country as tensions mount ahead of weekend's F1 race
Rageh Omaar's ITV News team has been forced to leave Bahrain ahead of this weekend's controversial Formula One race following a dispute with the authorities.
Omaar, the former BBC foreign correspondent who joined ITV in February, and an ITV News cameraman and producer left the country on Friday morning after being detained by the police.
The Somalia-born reporter, who became a household name during the 2003 invasion of Iraq while reporting from Baghdad, and his team were in the Gulf state on official visas to cover news including potential political protest surrounding the race.
"Our news team were on assignment with visas approved by the Bahraini authorities," said a spokeswoman for ITV News. "Having filed a report last night [Thursday], they were stopped while filming this morning and taken to a local police station for discussions with officers. They have since been asked to leave the country, which they are in the process of doing."
It is understood that the team, which included two locals driving and translating who have not been asked to leave the country, was held by local police but not arrested. The police asked that the ITV News team leave Bahrain.
The spokeswoman said ITV will continue to cover the events around Bahrain's grand prix.
Last year, authorities denied entry to a number of journalists from a number of news organisations including Sky, which holds the UK TV rights to air the grand prix, in an attempt to stifle coverage of potential political unrest.
In 2012, Bahrain's authorities granted permission for journalists who regularly cover Formula One to enter the country, but denied visas to other reporters from news organisations including Sky News, CNN, Reuters and the Financial Times.
quote:Bahrain Raises Alarm Over Rising Violence
Bahrain's king urged lawmakers Sunday to move ahead with proposed harsher measures against escalating attacks by Shiite-led opposition factions, including banning protest gatherings in the capital, after top government officials joined an emergency parliament session to discuss the Gulf nation's nearly 30 months of unrest.
It was unclear what new steps could emerge more than two years after Bahrain lifted temporary martial law-style rule. But the endorsement for speedy action by the king virtually clears the way for tougher codes that also could include freezing bank accounts and stripping citizenship over links to violence.
The gathering also underscored the growing alarm in Bahrain that the Arab Spring-inspired uprising by the kingdom's majority Shiites could be drifting into an even more violent stage. A spate of recent bomb attacks, including a blast Saturday, has wounded several policemen and suggests that militant groups are operating with greater autonomy.
Bahrain's main Shiite political blocs have denounced the attacks, but also complain about widespread injuries among protesters from security forces using bird-shot fire and tear gas.
More than 60 people have died in Bahrain's upheaval as Shiites press for a greater political voice in the strategic Sunni-ruled kingdom, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Activists and Shiite leaders place the death toll above 100.
The parliament session also appeared prompted by opposition calls for major protests Aug. 14 inspired by the crowds that helped topple Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi. Authorities have already warned of a tough response to attempts at organizing large-scale marches that day.
Abdul Jalil Khalil, a top official with the main Shiite political group Al Wefaq, criticized Sunday's emergency session and royal endorsement of tougher measures, saying "what came today is a green light to tighten laws that are incompatible with freedom of expression and human rights."
On the other side of the political divide, Justice Minister Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa told lawmakers that authorities must first quell "terrorism" before it can discuss reconciliation, but he stopped short of outlining any specific measures.
Samira Rajab, the information minister and government spokesman, said Bahrain should adopt a "zero-tolerance policy" against "violent acts that have affected the social fabric of its society."
Parliament members, however, pressed government officials to impose tougher punishments and steps to control violence, including banning all protest gatherings in the capital, Manama, whose Pearl Square was the center of the uprising in its early days. Shortly after clearing the square of demonstrators in early 2011, wrecking crews brought down the six-pronged monument that towered above the area and was one of the city's main landmarks. It is now ringed by razor wire and guarded round the clock.
"The dangerous escalation, which tries to pull the country into a whirlpool of insecurity and political tensions, should be faced," said the parliament's chairman, Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Dhahrani.
Nearly all the 80 members in both chambers of parliament back the Sunni monarchy. Shiite lawmakers walked out amid the crackdowns against protesters in early 2011.
One lawmaker, Latifa al-Qaood, urged authorities to wield "an iron fist against all traitors," according to the official Bahrain News Agency.
Another, Sawsan Taqawi, called for banning any gatherings or rallies "that endanger national security" and take more decisions to strip citizenship from people convicted of "terrorism." In November, Bahrain revoked citizenship for 31 Shiites for roles in the uprising — a move that brought widespread denunciations from international human rights groups.
Bahrain courts also have jailed prominent opposition figures and others, including some with alleged links to Iranian-backed groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah. Bahrain and other Gulf states claim Shiite power Iran has a hand in the protests, but there has been no clear evidence presented. Iran denies any direct role in Bahrain's unrest.
Other lawmakers proposed freezing assets for suspects linked to attacks and ordering blanket curfews in areas of frequent clashes.
quote:Children injured 'planting bomb' in Bahrain
Interior ministry says children hurt in same village where policemen were killed by a bomb earlier this week.
Bahrain's interior ministry has said two children were injured after they were instructed to plant a bomb in the same village where a bomb killed two local policemen and a police officer from the United Arab Emirates earlier this week.
The two children, aged 10 and 11, had been instructed by "terrorists" to plant a bomb in Daih, west of the capital Manama, but it exploded as they were handling it causing serious injury to one of them, the statement by the ministry on Thursday said.
Monday's attack in Daih had raised fears of more violence in the Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom, where opposition groups led by majority Shia have staged protests for the past three years demanding political reform and an end to perceived discrimination.
Bahrain blacklisted three anti-government groups as terrorist organisations after the blast took place, outlawing the February 14 movement, Saraya al-Ashtar (Ashtar Brigade) and Saraya al-Muqawama (Resistance Brigade), according to Reuters news agency.
The little known Saraya al-Ashtar claimed responsibility for Monday's attack in a message on social media that could not be immediately authenticated.
Bombing arrests
The interior ministry said late on Wednesday it had arrested four more people in connection with Monday's bombing.
Authorities said earlier this week that 25 suspects had been rounded up in relation to the Daih bombing.
"The statements of the (four) detained indicate that their roles varied from bomb making, to monitoring and photography, and it was learned that other key actors were responsible for luring the police to the scene," the statement said.
Bahrain's Shia have long complained of discrimination against their majority community in areas such as jobs and public services, charges that the Sunni-led government denies.
The Gulf island is a US ally which hosts the US Navy's Fifth Fleet. The Sunni al Khalifa family, which has ruled for two centuries, has resisted demands for an elected government, not one chosen by the king
De regel is dat 'revoluties' altijd uitmonden in massamoord en repressie.quote:Op donderdag 6 maart 2014 23:58 schreef Frikandelbroodje het volgende:
Ik moet dat boek nog steeds lezenMaar Sharp stelt dus dat mensen altijd vreedzaam moeten blijven, zelfs als het regime jarenlang geweld kan inzetten zonder consequenties te ondervinden?
Klopt, dat moet alleen geen argument zijn om niet voor een revolutie te gaan.quote:Op vrijdag 7 maart 2014 00:00 schreef IPA35 het volgende:
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De regel is dat 'revoluties' altijd uitmonden in massamoord en repressie.
Tsja regimes zijn hardnekkig, vooral als ze ten onder dreigen te gaan.quote:Op vrijdag 7 maart 2014 00:00 schreef IPA35 het volgende:
[..]
De regel is dat 'revoluties' altijd uitmonden in massamoord en repressie.
Meestal zijn het de 'revolutionairen' die politieke tegenstanders uit de weg ruimen, mensen die hun 'revolutionaire ideen' niet wenselijk achten op laten hangen en minderheden aanpakken.quote:Op vrijdag 7 maart 2014 00:06 schreef Frikandelbroodje het volgende:
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Tsja regimes zijn hardnekkig, vooral als ze ten onder dreigen te gaan.
Die zichzelf revolutionairen noemen bedoel je? Een beetje zoals het regime dat dus gewoon doet. Kijk, dat radicalen na een revolutie invloed proberen te winnen heb je altijd. Daar kun je niet omheen. Vooral wanneer die revolutie wat langer blijkt te duren dan verwacht. Regimes weten dit en spelen daar handig op in, 'zonder mij is er chaos' zoals Ben Ali zei.quote:Meestal zijn het de 'revolutionairen' die politieke tegenstanders uit de weg ruimen, mensen die hun 'revolutionaire ideen' niet wenselijk achten op laten hangen en minderheden aanpakken.
Dan noem je ook wel twee flinke mislukkingen op. Beiden hebben ook een flinke impact gehad.quote:Neem de Franse en de Russische revoluties als voorbeeld. Die hebben alleen maar narigheid voortgebracht.
Vind je? Na de Amerikaanse revolutie golden de verworven rechten vooral voor de blanke protestantse man.quote:Er is echter wel een ander type revolutie die wel goed kan uitpakken, zoals de Amerikaanse Revolutie of bijvoorbeeld in mindere mate de opstand tegen de Habsburgers in de Nederland.
Daarom zei ik ook in mindere mate. Het zou mooi zijn geweest als Willem van Oranje zijn zin kreeg, maar bepaalde Katholieken liepen over met de Unie van Atrecht en radicalen in het Noorden bande het Katholicisme uit het publieke leven. De Unie van Utrecht is een spijtig gevolg geweest van het falen van een "heel-nederlandse" oplossing op basis van de Pacificatie van Gent, door godsdienstfanaten.quote:Op vrijdag 7 maart 2014 17:25 schreef Frikandelbroodje het volgende:
Die 80-jarige oorlog is aanvankelijk ook niet goed uitgepakt voor de minderheden in ons land, vooral niet voor 'de religie van de vijand'. Ik heb laatst nog eens in een essay gelezen wat de Geuzen zoal hebben uitgevreten met de Katholieken in Leiden. Daarna werden ze ook behandeld als tweederangsburgers, zoek maar eens op wat een schuilkerk is. Iets wat op echte godsdienstvrijheid leek kregen we pas na het rampjaar, toen Katholieken niet massaal overliepen naar de Fransen.
Allemaal leuk en aardig maar die duizenden mannen, vrouwen en zelfs kinderen die bij Nantes verzopen werden, of de Bretoense kinderen die onder dwang de Franse taal werden opgedrongen. Of de Krim-Tataren die gedeporteerd werden door gekke rooien, als we iets actueels willen noemen.quote:Op de lange termijn hebben beide revoluties natuurlijk vooral goede dingen gebracht, dat zeker. Daarom kun je pas over een revolutie pas echt oordelen als je het bekijkt op de lange termijn.
En de Amerikaanse niet?quote:Daarom zei ik ook in mindere mate.
En Oldenbarnevelt.quote:Het zou mooi zijn geweest als Willem van Oranje zijn zin kreeg, maar bepaalde Katholieken liepen over met de Unie van Atrecht
Eens.quote:en radicalen in het Noorden bande het Katholicisme uit het publieke leven. De Unie van Utrecht is een spijtig gevolg geweest van het falen van een "heel-nederlandse" oplossing op basis van de Pacificatie van Gent, door godsdienstfanaten.
Niet helemaal, nu ben je de boel aan het romantiseren. Het afpakken van privileges en centralisatie waren voornamelijk dingen die de edelen dwarszaten. Dat maakt het deels een revolutie tegen centralisering. Maar rond diezelfde tijd zaten de Nederlanden in een door Spanje veroorzaakte economische crisis en kregen sommige delen van het land te maken met een hongersnood - wat overigens vrijwel altijd het geval is in een revolutie. Dat wordt nogal vaak vergeten.quote:Punt is wel de de opstand in feite geen 'revolutionair gedachtengoed' had zoals de Franse en Russische wel. Het was juist een 'conservatieve revolutie' omdat het een strijd was tegen radicale verandering.
Je bent het nu constant aan het gooien op de Franse en Russische revolutie, maar ik had het over de gevolgen Amerikaanse en Nederlandse. Beiden niet helemaal te vergelijken met een Arabische volk ipv Slavisch, Frans of Angelsaksisch een paar duizend kilometer verderop, een paar honderd jaar later.quote:Allemaal leuk en aardig maar die duizenden mannen, vrouwen en zelfs kinderen die bij Nantes verzopen werden, of de Bretoense kinderen die onder dwang de Franse taal werden opgedrongen. Of de Krim-Tataren die gedeporteerd werden door gekke rooien, als we iets actueels willen noemen.
"Oh ja, maar het heeft wel verbeteringen voortgebracht." gaat er bij mij niet in.
Ik kan niks met what-if history. Dat is speculeren. Misschien was zonder de revolutie half Frankrijk doodgehongerd en was het veroverd door Spanje en het Heilige Roomse Rijk, weet jij veel.quote:Als de Revolutionairen minder ver waren gegaan was Frankrijk gewoon een constitutionele monarchie geweest.
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