Bahraini Activist: Al-Khalifa Regime Powerless to Suppress Popular Revolution

A senior Bahraini opposition figure said that the incapability of the Al-Khalifa to suppress the popular uprising in the tiny Persian Gulf island shows that the regime lacks the power to confront people’s peaceful revolution.
“Some security and military bodies of Bahrain, whose decision-makers are not known and are involved in the suppression of the nation, are now facing internal differences emanating from power-mongering,” Jamil Kazzem, a senior member of Bahrain’s National al-Wefaq party, told Al-Alam television channel on Saturday.

He further lashed out at the Bahraini media for censoring the news coverage of the regime’s suppressions and besieging many regions of the country, specially Mahza village near the capital Manama.

Yesterday, hundreds of Bahrainis staged large demonstrations across the country, calling for the ouster of the al-Khalifa regime and the establishment of a democratic ruling system in their tiny Persian Gulf island.

The protesters asked for the downfall of the Bahraini regime, establishment of a democratic system, and voiced support for people in Mahza village, southern capital City of Manama, which has been under siege by the Bahraini security forces since two weeks ago.

According to the Bahraini media, the security forces have launched several night raids on the village residents.

The Bahraini government, facing protracted unrest by an overwhelming majority of the people, has resorted to any harsh measure to suppress popular protests and arrest political activists. It also revoked the nationality of 31 men on charges of harming national security earlier this month.

The men include London-based dissidents Saeed al-Shehabi and Ali Mushaima, the son of jailed opposition leader Hassan Mushaima, as well as clerics, human rights lawyers and activists.

Also on the list published by Bahraini News Agency (BNA) were two former parliamentarians from the leading Shiite party Wefaq, Jawad and Jalal Fairooz.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty’s over-40-year rule, end of discrimination, establishment of justice and a democratically-elected government as well as freedom of detained protesters.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar – were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

So far, tens of people have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.