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Bahrain protesters swarm square, police flee
[Al Arabiya] Anti-government protesters in Bahrain swarmed back into a symbolic square on Saturday, putting riot police to flight in a striking victory for their cause and confidently setting up camp for a protracted stay.Crowds had approached Pearl Square in Manama from different directions, creating a standoff with riot police who had moved in earlier to replace troops withdrawn on royal orders. Suddenly police raced to their buses, which drove away mounting kerbs in their haste to escape. The emboldened protesters, cheering and waving national flags, ran to the centre of the traffic circle, reoccupying it even before all the police had left. The crowd waved fleeing coppers through. "We don't fear death anymore, let the army come and kill us to show the world what kind of savages they are," said Umm Mohammed, a teacher wearing a black abaya cloak. Troops in tanks and armoured vehicles took over the traffic circle on Thursday after riot police attacked protesters who had camped out there, killing four people and wounding 231. Army withdrawn Bahrain's crown prince announced that all troops had been ordered off the streets and that police would maintain order. "That's a very positive step," Jasim Hussain, a member of the main Shiite Wefaq bloc that quit parliament on Thursday, told Rooters. "They're trying to ease the tensions. I don't know whether it will be sufficient." "We hope to hear a clear message from the government that it will stop killing people who are protesting peacefully." Mattar said the king must accept the "concept" of constitutional monarchy, as well as withdrawing the military. "Then we can go for a temporary government of new faces that would not include the current interior or defence ministers." He reiterated an opposition demand for the king to fire his uncle, Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, crown prince, and prime minister since Bahrain gained its independence in 1971. "We are not going to enter a dialogue as Shi'ites," Mattar said. "They try to put the issue in this frame. The dialogue should be with all people who were protesting. Some are liberal, non-Islamic. Some are Sunni and some Shi'ite." Bahrain's general labor union called an indefinite strike on Saturday in protest against "violent acts" by police and demanding the right to demonstrate peacefully. Bahrain's main Shiite opposition group said on Saturday that the government must resign and the army pull off the streets of the capital before it will take up an offer of dialogue from the crown prince. "To consider dialogue, the government must resign and the army should withdraw from the streets" of Manama, said Abdul Jalil Khalil Ibrahim, parliamentary leader of the Islamic National Accord Association (Al-Wefaq), the largest Shiite opposition bloc. "What we're seeing now is not the language of dialogue but the language of force," he said. On Friday King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa said he had granted the crown prince all powers to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of all gracious citizens from all sections" in the national dialogue. Bahrain's crown prince appealed on television for calm. "Today is the time to sit down and hold a dialogue, not to fight," he said on Friday. The monarch's offer of dialogue "is not serious," said the INAA's top MP, urging the authorities to take "serious and sincere measures that meet the requirements of the current situation". "The situation is complicated and I fear it has run out of control," warned Ibrahim, whose group -- which holds 18 of the 40 seats in parliament -- has pulled out in protest. Posted by: Fred 2011-02-20 |
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