al-Wefaq struggles to find relevance and engages in theatrics at National Monologue

Bahrain opp. delegation leaves talks
Written by Web Editor | July 13, 2011

A delegation from Bahrain’s biggest opposition party has walked out of the ongoing talks with the Al Khalifa regime, saying the regime is not serious about addressing people’s demands.

The representatives of Bahrain’s main opposition group al-Wefaq left the Tuesday session of the so-called “national dialogue,” AP reported.

Khalil al-Marzouq, spokesman of group, said that he advised the party’s top leaders to withdraw from the US-backed talks entirely, noting that the regime is not interested in political reform, therefore the dialogue is meaningless.

The opposition group agreed to participate in talks with the government after Bahraini King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa said he would set up an independent inquiry into the violent crackdown on protesters.

The opposition bloc is not satisfied with the process, saying participants in the dialogue do not fairly represent society and those participating are not being given a chance to speak during the sessions.

Earlier last week, senior Bahraini cleric Sheikh Issa Qasim also accused the Al Khalifa regime of using the ongoing reconciliation talks to delay democratic reforms, saying, “This dialogue process is twisted and the way it is conducted indicates that there is no meaningful substance.”

Since the onset of popular anti-regime protests in Bahrain in mid-February, Manama rulers have launched a brutal crackdown on protesters, their leaders and virtually anyone that come in contact with them, rounding up senior opposition figures and activists and even detaining doctors, nurses, lawyers and journalists that sympathized with the uprising in one way or another.

In March, a number of Persian Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, deployed military forces to Bahrain in an attempt to assist the Manama regime’s crackdown on peaceful protesters that demand an end to the despotic, near 40-year rule of the Al Khalifa family.

Rights groups and families of those arrested during the Saudi-backed crackdown on popular protests have blamed Bahraini security authorities for mistreating anti-government protesters, charging that they have been subjected to physical and mental abuse.

Scores of people have been killed and over 1,000 have been arrested in the Saudi-backed crackdown on the peaceful uprising in Bahrain, a submissive US ally and home to US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, reports say. …source