[Arab News] Opposition groups in Bahrain were meeting Sunday to formulate a charter of demands and a leading opposition figure expressed her party's readiness to take part in a dialogue process announced by King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa.A day after the armed forces withdrew from Pearl Square -- the nerve center of protests in the Gulf kingdom -- crowds raised slogans vowing to continue their protests until their demands for wider democracy are conceded by the monarchy.
The United States warned Bahrain against any attempt by security forces to crack down on peaceful protests while thousands of workers walked out of their jobs demanding the right to hold peaceful demonstrations.
"We are ready for dialogue -- provided we know how much the government is willing to concede and how serious it is in listening and acceding to our demands," said Muneera Fakhro who belongs to the Al-Waad political grouping.
In a gesture of reconciliation in the face of sustained opposition protests, the king on Friday delegated Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa to open dialogue with the opposition.
Fakhro said: "The dialogue process has the capacity to succeed because the crown prince is trusted by many Bahrainis. The first element of any dialogue to succeed is the element of trust."
Ibrahim Mattar, a politician of the main opposition Wefaq party, said that they wanted the crown prince to show signs of addressing their demands before any formal dialogue could start.
In Pearl Square, public mood was anything but conciliatory. "We will not sit down with murderers. No to dialogue!" one woman shouted, as people handed out bread, fruit and juice.
Along with a medical center and lost-and-found department, tents were being organized and portable toilets brought in. "I came here to prove we are united," said May Hadi, a 27-year-old woman who said she was a bank dealer. "Bahrain television is trying to show we are divided. We are not. They are trying to prove it is a Shiite revolution. We are asking for freedom in this country."
Criticizing the government's show of force, US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another John Foster Dulles...
said: "We've been very clear from the beginning that we do not want to see any violence. We deplore it. We think it is absolutely unacceptable."
"We very much want to see the human rights
... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you...
of the people protected, including right to assemble, right to express themselves, and we want to see reform," Clinton told the ABC News program This Week.
With the focus switching to talks rather than festivities, Bahrain's main trade union called off a general strike it had organized for Monday because its main demand for the right to peaceful demonstrations had been satisfied. "In the light of the army's withdrawal and respect of the right to demonstrate peacefully, the general union for labor syndicates has decided to suspend the general strike and return to work on Monday," the General Federation of Trade Unions said.
A union official said that "many sectors abided by the strike call," adding that a large number of workers had joined the protesters in Pearl Square.
Earlier, Bahrain's Chamber of Commerce and Industry condemned the strike call, citing losses to businesses. "The uncertain situation fueled by the protests will have a huge economic and financial impact on the national economy and will tarnish the image of the kingdom as one of the rapidly growing economies in the region," the BCCI said in a statement.