Bahrain police disperse protest as army pulls out
MANAMA — Bahraini police fired tear gas Saturday to disperse protesters who poured into the capital's Pearl Square as soon as the army pulled out amid mounting pressure on the pro-Western Gulf kingdom to negotiate with the Shiite-led opposition.
A statement from Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, who on Friday promised a sweeping national dialogue once calm is restored, said he "ordered the withdrawal of all military from the streets of Bahrain with immediate effect."
But shortly after military vehicles pulled away from Pearl Square, large crowds of demonstrators poured into the area by car and on foot. Police dispersed them with tear gas and made at least three arrests, an AFP correspondent reported.
The opposition had earlier rejected the crown prince's offer of dialogue saying it would join talks only after troops withdrew and the cabinet quit.
The Islamic National Accord Association, which has been boycotting parliament in protest at the army's iron-fisted response to the wave of protests sweeping the small but strategic Gulf kingdom, said 95 people were wounded on Friday, of whom three were "clinically dead."
"To consider dialogue, the government must resign and the army should withdraw from the streets," said the group's parliamentary leader, Abdel Jalil Khalil Ibrahim.
"What we're seeing now is not the language of dialogue but the language of force."
King Hamad announced on Friday that he had assigned his son to start a dialogue.
In a television interview, Prince Salman said "our dialogue must take place in a climate of total calm," adding that "no issue can be excluded from that dialogue.
"What is happening today in Bahrain is not acceptable," he said. "We have reached a dangerous stage that necessitates that each of us acknowledges the responsibilities ... Bahrain today is divided."
On Saturday, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said it was vital that the promised dialogue "should begin without delay," adding she was "deeply concerned" by violence against protesters.
"I urge the Bahraini authorities to respect fundamental human rights including freedom of expression and the right to assemble freely," Ashton said.
Both Britain, the former colonial power in Bahrain, and the United States, which headquarters its Fifth Fleet in the island state, have warned their nationals to avoid non-essential travel.
The army's intervention came after a deadly police action prompted protesters, inspired by the February 11 overthrow of veteran Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, to occupy Pearl Square in the heart of Manama.
Six people have so far died, according to the opposition and families, five according to the government.
Opposition MP Ali al-Aswad said Bahraini security forces, many of whom are recruited from Asian and Arab countries, had "fired live bullets at more than one thousand people" trying to return to Pearl Square on Friday.
US President Barack Obama condemned the violence in a telephone conversation with the king.
He said "the stability of Bahrain depends upon respect for the universal rights of the people of Bahrain, and a process of meaningful reform that is responsive to the aspirations of all Bahrainis," according to a White House statement.
On Friday, thousands of mourners attended the funerals of four people killed the previous day.
They chanted slogans calling for the ouster of the Al-Khalifa ruling family at the same time as songs urging unity between Shiites and Sunnis.
A banner carried at the head of a funeral procession hit out at concerns expressed by Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone that next month's season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix may have to be cancelled because of the unrest.
"Mr Ecclestone, are our lives a price for your Formula One?" it asked, in English.
In the 1990s, Bahrain was plagued by a wave of deadly Shiite-led unrest before reforms in 2001 restored its elected parliament, which was dissolved in 1975, and officially turned the emirate into a constitutional monarchy.