Bahrain opposition figure to return, test for talks

MANAMA: A Bahraini opposition figure was set to return to the Gulf Arab country on Tuesday after a week of unprecedented protests by majority Shi'ite Muslims against the Sunni monarchy.

Hassan Mushaimaa, leader of the opposition Haq movement, said on his Facebook page on Monday that he wanted to see if the island nation's leadership was serious about dialogue or if it  would arrest him.

He was due to arrive on Tuesday evening.

Mushaimaa, who is based in London, is one of 25 people on trial since last year over an alleged coup plot but a statement by King Hamad bin Isa on Monday hinted that the trial would be shelved, allowing Mushaimaa an unhindered return.

State media said the king had ordered the release of unspecified convicted prisoners and a stop to ongoing court cases, and opposition figures say they understood this to mean the trial will be ended.

"We're expecting this even though we don't know for sure," said Jasim Husain of the Shi'ite Wefaq group.

It was not clear if this would be enough to bring opposition groups into a dialogue that King Hamad has asked his son, the crown prince, to conduct.

"His royal highness continues to call for all Bahrainis to engage in this new process (of dialogue) to move away from polarisation and ensure that sectarianism does not take root," government spokeswoman Maysun Sabkar told a news conference.

She said the crown prince had met some opposition leaders in recent days, though opposition groups say no dialogue has begun yet. Sabkar said she had no information on prisoner releases.

Opposition parties Wefaq and Waad were due to hold a rally later on Tuesday, the first effort to organise the protest movement since it emerged a week ago.

Inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, the protests in the capital Manama were peaceful until police tried to break them up. Seven people died and hundreds were wounded.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has condemned attempts by security forces to crush the demonstrations, limiting the government's room for manoeuvre.

In a speech to the Kuwaiti parliament on Tuesday, British Prime Minister David Cameron praised the popular protests that have also taken place in Kuwait, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, Morocco, Jordan and Iraq as well as Iran.

"History is sweeping through your neighbourhood," he said.

“Not as a result of force and violence, but by people seeking their rights, and in the vast majority of cases doing so peacefully and bravely."

Kuwait has the most advanced democratic tradition in the Gulf region, in most of which Western-backed dynasties have given their people little right to political representation. But Kuwaiti police clashed this week with hundreds of stateless Arabs known as Bidoon who want Kuwaiti nationality rights.

The Bahraini protesters want a full constitutional monarchy, in contrast to the current system where Bahrainis vote for a parliament that has little power and policy remains the preserve of an elite centred on the al-Khalifa family.

The al-Khalifa dynasty has ruled Bahrain for 200 years, and the family dominates a cabinet led by the king's uncle, who has been prime minister since independence in 1971.

On Monday the government cancelled the March 13 opening race of the motor racing Formula One season in Bahrain. "At the present time the country's entire attention is focused on building a new national dialogue for Bahrain," Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa said in a statement.

PEARL SQUARE

Protesters have set up camp at Pearl Square in the capital Manama where some 10,000 gathered on Monday demanding more say in a country whose rulers are seen by the West and Arab allies as a bulwark against the influence of Shi'ite power Iran. The island hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

Neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil producer, has a restive Shi'ite minority of its own in its Eastern Province.

Bahraini Shi'ites reject the idea that their affiliations are to Iran, saying such attitudes are typical of discrimination that extends to housing and jobs.

Shi'ites account for about 70 percent of the population but are a minority in Bahrain's 40-seat parliament because of an electoral process that they say shuts them out.

The government denies that it treats Shi'ites unfairly and in a rally widely covered by state television on Monday, thousands carried Bahraini flags and signs supporting unity and the dialogue proposed by the government.

A resolution read at the rally rejected any attempt to question the government's legitimacy, but also called for the release of prisoners of conscience.

Mushaimaa's Haq movement is more radical than the Shi'ite Wefaq party, from which it split in 2006 when Wefaq contested a parliamentary election. Wefaq's 17 MPs resigned last week in protest at the state's use of violence against the protesters.

Haq's leaders have often been arrested in recent years but later pardoned. Some were rearrested in a crackdown last year, when 25 Shi'ite activists including Mushaimaa were charged with trying to overthrow the government violently.