Bahrain Protesters Join Anti-Government March in Manama

    Kalil al Marzooq, one of rally organisers, said
    the event was unprecedented

BBC
March 9, 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17309839

    Bahrain Protests Videos:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmthDp_kyks&feature=player_embedded
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_3zSjmkMdw&feature=player_embedded
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Om30-k88uZI
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=guy26IfQBis

Tens of thousands of people have joined an anti-
government march just outside the Bahraini capital,
Manama.

Video posted online showed protesters with Bahraini
flags in a line stretching back hundreds of metres.

The security forces fired tear gas at a small group of
protesters, but the rally was mostly peaceful.

Activists had called for the biggest rally since the
Bahraini authorities quelled a popular protest with
help from Saudi troops more than a year ago.

Next month, the Bahraini Grand Prix is due to be held
in what the authorities are trying to promote as a
return to normality in the country.

'Biggest rally'

Protesters carried banners denouncing the government
and calling for the release of political detainees.
They chanted "Down, down Hamad", referring to King
Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Women attend the anti-government march just outside
Manama Many women were among the thousands who attended
the march

Sheikh Isa Qassim, a leading Shia cleric, made a speech
at the start of the march in the village of Diraz
before joining in.

Reports say the march stretched for more than 1.5km (a
mile). Opposition leaders estimated the crowd at nearly
100,000, which would make it one of the largest protest
gatherings since the street rallies erupted in February
2011.

Police used tear gas to drive back a small group of
demonstrators who attempted to approach Pearl Square,
which was the heart of the 2011 protests before it was
stormed by security forces in March 2011.

Bahrain's majority Shia community has long complained
of deep discrimination. They make up about 70% of the
country's 525,000 citizens.

Protesters, most of them Shia, are seeking the end of
the rule of the Al Khalifas, a Sunni dynasty that
controls politics and all the main posts in Bahrain.

The government has offered some political concessions,
but insists on controlling all the main appointments
and ministries.

Bahrain is home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet and it is
a significant oil and gas producer.

At least 50 people, including five police officers,
have been killed, and hundreds arrested since the
unrest began in February of last year.

The government commissioned a report into the political
unrest by the Egyptian human rights expert, Cherif
Bassiouni. He concluded that security personnel had
used excessive force and that there had been systematic
torture of detainees.

The government has claimed that Iran is behind the
unrest in Bahrain, but has offered no proof of this.
The claim was rejected by the Bassiouni report.

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