Bahrain: Al-Wefaq Calls for International Protection

Al-Wefaq, the third largest political party in Bahrain has called for international protection of Bahraini nationals after a number of protestors were killed this week whilst campaigning for reform of the political system in the state.

The island has important strategic significance in the region as a relatively liberal political landscape, connected by a causeway to Saudi Arabia. There is also a US naval base located in the kingdom and Bahrain is the venue for next month’s Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Al Wefaq is known as the Islamic National Accord Association and represents the interests of Shi’ite Muslims in the Gulf state. They said in a statement:

Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society calls on legislative entities and international parliamentary unions to intervene immediately to stop massacre of Bahraini people at the hands of security forces.

This call is made against the backdrop of massacres committed against protestors engaging in peaceful demonstrations causing the death of several innocent people. In one incident at 3 am on 17 February 2011, security forces assaulted hundreds of demonstrators engaging in a set-in at the Pearl Roundabout in the capital city of Manama. The protestors at the Pearl Roundabout were not armed. And most were sleep at the early hours of the day when the assault occurred.

The aggression resulted in the killing of several individuals and injury of many others. Concurrently, security and intelligence officers committed other another inhumane crime by restricting movement of medics and other professionals from offering medical services to the injured.

The international community is called upon to press the authorities in Bahrain to cease their assault on demonstrators. Failure to do could cause massacres of a large number of people.

Bahrain has a parliamentary system with an elected lower house and an upper house which is mainly drawn from the ruling Al Khalifa royal family. Moves have been made throughout the last decade to allow universal suffrage, votes for women and the installation of a parliamentary system, though the king still retains a significant influence.


In This Story: Bahrain

Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is a sovereign state in the Persian Gulf. The island nation comprises a small archipelago made up of 40 natural islands and an additional 51 artificial islands, centered around Bahrain Island which makes up around 83 percent of the country’s landmass.

The country is situated between the Qatari peninsula and the north eastern coast of Saudi Arabia to which it is connected by the 25-kilometre (16 mi) King Fahd Causeway. According to the 2010 census, Bahrain’s population is over 1.2 million, of which around half are non-nationals. The capital and largest city is Manama.

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Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is a country in Western Asia constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula.

Saudi Arabia also has one of the world’s youngest populations, with approximately 50 percent of its population of 34.2 million being under 25 years old.

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5 thoughts on “Bahrain: Al-Wefaq Calls for International Protection”

  1. GREETINGS FROM MALAYSIA!

    What we in Malaysia dont understand why must the Shia people in
    Bahrain protest against the King & the govt?

    DO WE HAVE CITIZENS WHO ARE HUNGRY, HOMELESS?
    WE think the Bahrain people shud be GRATEFUL to the Govt !

    as regard coverage of protests..its normal that foreign media
    including my beloved ALJAZEERA TV do not report on
    PRO GOVT rally instead they focus on the OPPOSITION rallies
    & always INFLATE number of people killed!

    LONG LIVE THE BAHRAIN GOVERNMENT!

    Reply
  2. There should be some balance to the reporting. You have the mainly Shi’ite side talking about a “massacre”. Please! Has anyone even bothered to look up the definition of what constitutes a massacre? Get real and get some perspective on things. Whilst ANY death is a tragedy, there have only been 6 or 7 confirmed deaths. Is this number any different to the number that are killed on a daily and weekly basis in Bahrain (and the rest of the Gulf) with the atrocious standards of driving? Up to 30 MILLION Russians lost their lives in during World War 2.

    The media should also give equal time to the pro-government demonstrators who were out in much larger numbers than the Pearl ROUNDABOUT (not Square!) demonstrators. Numbers in the hundreds of thousands. But these were all peaceful, civilised, non-violent demonstrators so probably not news worthy for the sensationalist media.

    Reply
  3. First, to get the facts right. Al Wefaq is the largest political party in Bahrain. Secondly, most of those elected from Al Wefaq are non-educated shiite islamist extremists who were brought in to the parliament by their society just to earn 12000$ per month as salary and screw-up their own poor people. They were the first and the only political society to withdraw from the parliament out of fear of loosing votes in the next elections. It is a pity that they are with these ignorant people on the Pearl roundabout and on the other hand issue a statment in the local and international media that they are not involved in this. If they have issued such a statement for international protection as mentioned in this report, then it is ony because they are scared of getting outnumbered by pro-govt supporters which was already the case when on 21st Feb 2011 more than 300,000 supporters of the govt came forward to show their support in a peaceful rally held in the capital city Manama.

    I just want to say “Al Wefaq, this is a very cheap strategy that is always followed by you guys. You call yourself Democratric Society but yourselves are the most sectarian. No. of anti-govt protesters do not even reach 20,000 and yu call their demands as the demands of the complete people of Bahrain. For sure you have seen the 300,000 people who rallied for the King and the Prime-Minister and the peaceful call for more reforms in the country. And clearly, you do not consider them the voice of Bahrain. How can you be a Democratic Society?”

    Reply

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