Compiled by Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Bahrain’s Shiite-led opposition demanded on Wednesday an independent inquiry into the expulsion last month of an alleged British spy who claimed to have uncovered a plot to maintain Sunni domination of the Gulf kingdom. The largest party representing the archipelago’s Shiite majority – the Islamic National Accord Association – said agreement needed to be reached with the opposition on the make-up of a neutral commission to investigate the allegations made by Salah al-Bandar.
“We demand the formation of a neutral commission of inquiry because the affair is exceptional and the contents of the report are serious and threaten national unity,” the association said.
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Bahrain’s Shiite-led opposition demanded on Wednesday an independent inquiry into the expulsion last month of an alleged British spy who claimed to have uncovered a plot to maintain Sunni domination of the Gulf kingdom. The largest party representing the archipelago’s Shiite majority – the Islamic National Accord Association – said agreement needed to be reached with the opposition on the make-up of a neutral commission to investigate the allegations made by Salah al-Bandar.
“We demand the formation of a neutral commission of inquiry because the affair is exceptional and the contents of the report are serious and threaten national unity,” the association said.
“It should be chaired by an independent figure whose nomination should be agreed by both government and opposition,” it said, adding: “The regime’s credibility is at stake.”
Bandar, who was expelled from Bahrain last month, said he had uncovered a secret organization operating within the government to “deprive an essential part of the population of this country of their rights.”
“This group aims to prevent people from participating in electing freely their representatives … in order to transform the political opposition into a mere figure opposition and block any chance of alternation in the executive power,” he said, alluding to parliamentary elections due later this year.
Bandar, who worked for Bahrain’s Cabinet affairs minister and the government statistics agency, issued a bundle of documents to back up his allegations – including a memo by a top Sunni academic from Iraq calling for Shiites to be “cleansed” from Bahrain and bank statements showing large sums of money being transferred from government coffers to anti-Shiite figures.
Sectarian tension boiled over here in the 1990s, when liberal dissidents joined Shiites in staging a series of violent protests that contributed to wider social unrest and the deaths of 40 people.
Bahrain revived its elected Parliament in 2002, although the opposition continues to object to the splitting of legislative power equally between the elected chamber and an appointed Consultative Council.
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Minister of State Sheikh Ahmad bin Attiyatallah al-Khalifa, whom Bandar accused of heading the alleged “secret organization” within the government, last month denounced the charges as a plot to “undermine national unity [and] throw doubt on the elections and on certain political personalities.”
The scandal has made surprising waves in the country.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets west of Bahrain’s capital, Manama, last week to urge the government to stop granting citizenship to migrants ahead of November elections.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups have criticized recent government restrictions on free speech and public gatherings as violations of international law.
Opposition parties accuse the government of doling out citizenship and voting rights to migrants from other Arab countries as well as Pakistan, Bangladesh and India to dilute the power of the Shiite majority.
Interior Minister Sheik Rashid bin Abdullah al-Khalifa says that naturalization has not been accelerated, and that 5,000 immigrants have been granted citizenship since 2004. But independent research said that more than 30,000 were granted citizenship since 2002, at a rate of 7,500 per year.
At the same time, some Sunnis accuse shadowy “Iranian agents” of buying property in contested electoral districts to tilt the sectarian balance in favor of their Bahraini Shiite brethren. State-run newspapers reported that Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa foiled the plan by freezing real estate deals.
“Sectarians want to gain ground ahead of the election by agitating one section of society against another,” said Mohammad al-Shehabi, who heads the National Ikhaa Society, a Shiite party comprised of Bahrainis of Iranian descent. – AFP