From Bloomberg:Bahraini riot police were deployed to break up protests across the island nation as demonstrators, inspired by revolts in Egypt and Tunisia, demanded more political freedom and jobs.
Police fired tear gas into crowds in the areas of Diraz and Bani Jamrah. Earlier, residents of the Shiite Muslim village of Nuweidrat said clashes broke out between activists and police after morning prayers. Police were present on the outskirts of Nuweidrat, where Shiite flags adorned buildings along alleyways.
”We were starting our peaceful protests when riot police attacked us with tear gas,” Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said in an interview after the protest in Bani Jamrah was dispersed. “We will continue our protests until the government hears our demand.”
A group called “the Revolution of 14th February in Bahrain” used Facebook Inc. to promote the protests today and has more than 13,400 followers on the social-networking website. The date marks the anniversary of the establishment in 2002 of a second constitution, which provided an elected parliament in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, and made the kingdom a constitutional monarchy.
The Arab world has been shaken over the past two months by anti-government demonstrations over economic hardship and corruption that drove Tunisian President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali from office on Jan. 14 and forced Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak to resign and cede his presidential powers to the country’s armed forces on Feb. 11. Bahraini Shiites, who represent between 60 and 70 percent of the population, say they face job and housing discrimination by the government.
‘Protests Accepted’
In Bahrain, “protests are accepted and sanctioned by the law,” Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Khalifa said today in an interview in the capital, Manama, before the rallies began. “I don’t see any reason for violence from any side. This is something we aren’t seeing as a domino effect. Maybe some people will look at it because it happened in Tunisia, because it happened in Egypt, let us have one day in Bahrain. To have the same effect, no, it will not.”
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa ordered an increase in food subsidies and social welfare payments as the government sought to ease the burden of rising food prices, the Bahrain News Agency said Feb. 3. He also ordered the payment of 1,000 dinars ($2,653) to each Bahraini family. The Information Affairs Authority began talks yesterday with the media on a new regulatory framework....read on
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