Bahrain arrests trigger clashes
MANAMA: Authorities in Bahrain detained three opposition activists and released them later yesterday, prompting clashes with the security forces in the Gulf state. Police fired tear-gas and rubber bullets to control a crowd of hundreds in Sanabas, a town northwest of Bahrain’s capital, Manama, said a spokesman for rights group Haq. Security forces used teargas to disperse around 100 stone-throwing protestors in a mainly Shiite western suburb of the capital Manama, a correspondent said. An interior ministry statement confirmed that three opposition activists had been detained for “advocating regime change by illegitimate means” and for “incitement to hatred against the regime, couched in indecent language.” Prosecutors had already started questioning the trio, ministry official Colonel Mohammed Rashed Bu Hamud said. Security sources named two of the three detainees as Hassen Meshema, leader of the opposition Movement of Liberties and Democracy, or Haq, and Abdel Hadi Al-Khawaja, chairman of the Bahraini Human Rights Centre, both of them Shiites. Opposition sources named the third as activist Shaker Abdel Al. Special police units seized the trio in morning raids on their homes, an emigre official of the Haq group, Abdel Jalil Senkis, told AFP by telephone from London. The authorities had been angered by a news conference the trio held on Monday in which they raised accusations levelled by an alleged British spy that a “secret organisation” existed within the government aimed at maintaining Sunni domination in the Gulf region, Senkis added. In a statement on the arrests, Haq said that Meshema and Al-Khawaja worked on “issues sensitive to the Bahraini authorities.” The two have reported on a case dubbed “Bandargate” that sent shockwaves through this Gulf state, which hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. The case involves claims made by former government consultant Salah Al-Bandar, who alleged last year that top government officials were behind the use of electronic technology to rig the November elections in favour of Sunnis, the ruling Bahrain minority. The government denied the allegations and charged Al-Bandar, a Sunni Muslim, with sedition and expelled him from the country. Rajab also said the arrested activists had planned a conference in late February in Bahrain, inviting a US think-tank and others to discuss ‘Bandargate’. Security officials declined to immediately comment on the arrests, saying only that an official statement will be issued later. Following the arrests, some 400 supporters of Haq staged demonstrations in Sanabas, northwest of the capital, Manama, Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed bin Dina said. Haq spokesman Abdul-Jalil Al-Singace said special security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullet at the demonstrators, who originated in three different villages west of the capital. The demonstrators dispersed but later regrouped. “The three villages were besieged by the security forces and helicopters were seen roving over the area. We expect an escalation in confrontation in the coming hours,” Al-Singace said. Haq is an opposition movement seeking democratic reform and greater rights for the Shiite Muslims who make up around 60 per cent of the Gulf kingdom’s population but complain of discrimination by the Sunni leadership. Sudanese-born Salah Al-Bandar, who had worked as a consultant in a government department before making the accusations, was expelled from Bahrain in September. The following month, Bahrain’s high court banned publication of any information on the purported plot. Last November, the Haq group charged in a letter to then UN chief Kofi Annan that the government planned to rig that month’s parliamentary elections through gerrymandering and stuffing the electoral rolls with newly naturalised Sunnis of south Asian origin. – Agencies
Bahrain arrests trigger clashes
MANAMA: Authorities in Bahrain detained three opposition activists and released them later yesterday, prompting clashes with the security forces in the Gulf state. Police fired tear-gas and rubber bullets to control a crowd of hundreds in Sanabas, a town northwest of Bahrain’s capital, Manama, said a spokesman for rights group Haq. Security forces used teargas to disperse around 100 stone-throwing protestors in a mainly Shiite western suburb of the capital Manama, a correspondent said. An interior ministry statement confirmed that three opposition activists had been detained for “advocating regime change by illegitimate means” and for “incitement to hatred against the regime, couched in indecent language.” Prosecutors had already started questioning the trio, ministry official Colonel Mohammed Rashed Bu Hamud said. Security sources named two of the three detainees as Hassen Meshema, leader of the opposition Movement of Liberties and Democracy, or Haq, and Abdel Hadi Al-Khawaja, chairman of the Bahraini Human Rights Centre, both of them Shiites. Opposition sources named the third as activist Shaker Abdel Al. Special police units seized the trio in morning raids on their homes, an emigre official of the Haq group, Abdel Jalil Senkis, told AFP by telephone from London. The authorities had been angered by a news conference the trio held on Monday in which they raised accusations levelled by an alleged British spy that a “secret organisation” existed within the government aimed at maintaining Sunni domination in the Gulf region, Senkis added. In a statement on the arrests, Haq said that Meshema and Al-Khawaja worked on “issues sensitive to the Bahraini authorities.” The two have reported on a case dubbed “Bandargate” that sent shockwaves through this Gulf state, which hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. The case involves claims made by former government consultant Salah Al-Bandar, who alleged last year that top government officials were behind the use of electronic technology to rig the November elections in favour of Sunnis, the ruling Bahrain minority. The government denied the allegations and charged Al-Bandar, a Sunni Muslim, with sedition and expelled him from the country. Rajab also said the arrested activists had planned a conference in late February in Bahrain, inviting a US think-tank and others to discuss ‘Bandargate’. Security officials declined to immediately comment on the arrests, saying only that an official statement will be issued later. Following the arrests, some 400 supporters of Haq staged demonstrations in Sanabas, northwest of the capital, Manama, Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed bin Dina said. Haq spokesman Abdul-Jalil Al-Singace said special security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullet at the demonstrators, who originated in three different villages west of the capital. The demonstrators dispersed but later regrouped. “The three villages were besieged by the security forces and helicopters were seen roving over the area. We expect an escalation in confrontation in the coming hours,” Al-Singace said. Haq is an opposition movement seeking democratic reform and greater rights for the Shiite Muslims who make up around 60 per cent of the Gulf kingdom’s population but complain of discrimination by the Sunni leadership. Sudanese-born Salah Al-Bandar, who had worked as a consultant in a government department before making the accusations, was expelled from Bahrain in September. The following month, Bahrain’s high court banned publication of any information on the purported plot. Last November, the Haq group charged in a letter to then UN chief Kofi Annan that the government planned to rig that month’s parliamentary elections through gerrymandering and stuffing the electoral rolls with newly naturalised Sunnis of south Asian origin. – Agencies