Bahrain rounds up dissident leaders

Shiite opposition MP says five hardline Shiite activists, one Sunni are rounded up during night.

Middle East Online

By Ali Khalil - MANAMA

All quiet in Pearl Square Bahrain rounded up dissidents Thursday as it came under mounting diplomatic pressure to end a bloody crackdown on Shiite-led protesters which has alarmed its ally the United States and infuriated Iran. Five hardline Shiite activists and one Sunni were rounded up during the night, a parliamentarian from the Shiite opposition alliance said, after a day of violence which left five dead in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. "They were arrested in the night," Khalil Marzouk, deputy leader of the Al-Wefaq opposition movement, told AFP. Among those arrested was Hassan Mashaima, a leader of the hardline Shiite Haq group which is seeking to overthrow the Sunni monarchy that has ruled the Shiite-majority island state for 230 years. Mashaima only returned to Manama from abroad on February 26 after terrorism charges against him were dropped as part of an earlier peace offering from the government to the opposition. Human rights activist and Haq member Abduljalil al-Singace, who was released in February after six months in jail, was also detained, the opposition said. The government has not confirmed the arrests. Security forces firing tear gas and shotguns cleared out a month-old pro-democracy sit-in at Manama's Pearl Square on Wednesday in the worst day of violence since activists took to the streets last month. The opposition said three demonstrators were killed in the raid, while the government said two police died in hit-and-run attacks by opposition motorists. US President Barack Obama, whose country is a close ally of Bahrain, called King Hamad to express "deep concern," while British Prime Minister David Cameron urged the king to pursue "reform, not repression." The protesters are demanding a constitutional monarchy, the resignation of the government and an end to repression and corruption. More radical Shiite elements like Haq want a republic. King Hamad declared a three-month state of emergency on Tuesday and hundreds of armoured troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have entered the country to help restore security. The sectarian tensions have given rise to fears among Bahrain's Sunni-led Arab neighbours that Iran, the Shiite power a short boat ride away across the Gulf, is seeking to foment unrest in the kingdom. In the wake of the violence, Obama telephoned King Hamad and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to express "deep concern," stressing the need for "maximum restraint" and "importance of a political process," his spokesman said. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticised the Gulf deployment, in remarks to journalists in Cairo. She said it was "the wrong track. And we believe that a long-term solution is only possible through a political process." "What is happening in Bahrain is alarming, and it is unfortunately diverting attention and effort away from the political and economic track. That is the only way forward to resolve the legitimate differences of the Bahrainis themselves." Bahrain is the home of the US Fifth Fleet and a major regional financial hub. Police and troops have fanned out across Manama and Shiite villages in the surrounding countryside were sealed off amid reports of clashes which have left hundreds wounded. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was slapped on Manama's business district, and movement was restricted. Rights activists have accused the security forces of preventing the injured from reaching hospitals and of beating medics trying to collect the wounded from the streets. Bahrain's Health Minister Nizar Baharna, a Shiite, announced his resignation after police allegedly burst into a Manama hospital, and 12 Shiite judges also stepped down in protest at what they termed the "excessive use of force." Amnesty International's regional director Malcolm Smart said reports coming out of Bahrain were evidence the authorities were "using lethal and other excessive force to crush protests, with reckless disregard for human life." "Wounded protesters have also been prevented from accessing medical attention by government forces. The Bahraini authorities must immediately put a stop to this bloodshed," he said in a statement. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the intervention of Saudi-led Gulf forces to prop up the Al-Khalifa royal family as "foul and doomed." Iran later withdrew its ambassador from Bahrain in a tit-for-tat response to the withdrawal of Bahrain's ambassador from Tehran a day earlier. Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the Bahraini leadership had committed a "strategic and political" blunder and warned the intervention would cost its "legitimacy." "Such actions will increase tensions and undermine regional stability and security," said the defence minister of Shiite Iran. The spiritual guide of Iraq's majority Shiites, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, "appealed to Bahraini authorities to stop violence against unarmed citizens." In Beirut, hundreds of supporters of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah held a rally to denounce the Saudi intervention.