(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Anti-regime protesters once again took to streets in the capital on Sunday, demanding the release of all political activists and an end to the regime’s crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.
Protesters rallied in the streets of Sitra and Ma’ameer, renewing their calls for the regime’s downfall. They have also expressed solidarity with jailed Saudi cleric Sheikh Nemr al-Nemr, who has staged an open-ended hunger strike.
The rally turned violent after Bahraini security forces clashed with protesters, firing teargas canisters and rubber bullets.
At least 10 people were injured during the confrontation and several others arrested by the forces.
Thousands of anti-regime protesters have been staging regular demonstrations in the Persian Gulf island nation since mid-February 2011.
Protesters first demanded political reform and a constitutional monarchy, a plea that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa regime following its brutal crackdown on peaceful protests.
We have conducted an interview with Kamel Wazni, political analyst, to further discuss the issue. The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Q: I’d like to ask you where you feel this revolution in Bahrain has reached at this point?
Wazni: I think it has reached a milestone because it has more involvement from every side within the country. The people are determined to carry through their legitimate demands. They will accept no less than their total new democratic system and the fall of the regime.
I think the people have the right to continue demonstrating because the level of crackdown and the crime that has been committed by the Al Khalifa family, by the Bahraini government against the people and they continue crackdown and imprisonment for innocent people obviously will not be tolerated for very long.
I think there is genuine feeling among those people on the street that they are willing to face the hardship as Sheikh [Isa] Ghasem said those people will not be weakened by this heavy crackdown and this criminal act by the government.
As we witnessed the people feel liberated at this point even the crackdown is heavier today than was before.
There is a lot of imprisonment and illegal imprisonment, doctors even children [have] been actually abducted and put in detention. These crimes has to be answered by the international community, has to be answered by the United States which actually gave the order to the Bahraini government to continue the crackdown because they have an interest in the American Fifth Fleet that actually sit on the Bahraini soil.
This is actually an occupation by the American of a free Bahrain.
Q: Mr. Wazni, how interconnected then are the protest movements in both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain?
Wazni: I think the same crime has been committed against those two people. We know that the Saudis sent their soldiers to crackdown against the Bahraini and those two populations [have] been discriminated against, [have] being marginalized by the Saudis and by the Bahrainis.
Today you have to put more the blame on the Saudis than on the Bahraini even the Bahraini are participant in this huge violation of human rights but the Saudis are sending their tanks and their weapons and they are using this heavy hand against the protesters whether is in Bahrain and whether it is in Saudi Arabia.
In Qatif, the arrest of Sheikh Nemr al-Nemr who is actually calling outright for another form of government, for another form of body to rule the country because for very long time now other people at the leadership, they have been calling for the same thing.
You cannot tolerate discrimination for very long time, you cannot tolerate abuse for very long time and you cannot tolerate imposed poverty for very long time. You have a country like Saudi Arabia which has a GDP of over 600 billion dollars and you have a lot of poverty and this poverty is designed by the government to keep the people in the eastern part to be impoverished because they belong to certain sects, so this is not acceptable any longer.
So there is a lot of similarity, the same abuses, the same ideology, this cannot be stand. I think that is why you see a lot of solidarity between the Bahraini and the people of Qatif and actually the Bahrainis [have] been demonstrating for the liberation of Sheikh Nemr al-Nemr.
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