The Arab Awakening: A Bahraini activist struggles to keep protests alive

The Arab Awakening: A Bahraini activist struggles to keep protests alive
by Adrian Humphreys – Dec 22, 2011 – National Post

Even before the Feb. 14 protest erupted in Bahrain, a small island state in the Persian Gulf, Nabeel Rajab had tasted the sting of the police baton and felt the anger of an enraged oligarchy.

He had been marked as a troublesome dissident for years.

But as civil unrest grew in the Arab Spring, and as the kingdom’s neighbours in the Middle East and North Africa saw their strong-arm leaders toppled, Mr. Rajab learned the harsh extent of King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa’s displeasure.

“My house is attacked regularly. They punish me for talking. They beat me — they kidnap me from my home to beat me for a few hours. It has become common,” he said dryly in a telephone interview.

“It is part of my life routine, now. I would barely notice it if my staff didn’t tell me.”

And yet, he is one of the lucky ones. About 50 people have died during clashes between protesters and security forces as the government refuses to budge on demands for democratic reforms.

At the start, there was reason to believe Bahrain would be the next to sweep aside its powerful leaders.

Protests saw the highest participation rate. With a population of about one million citizens, its largest demonstration in the capital, Manama, drew about 200,000 people — 25% of all adults.

Inspired by the Arab Spring, a march was called for Feb. 14, the 10th anniversary of the National Action Charter of Bahrain. To dampen enthusiasm for it, King Hamad announced a gift of US$2,667 to each family to commemorate the date.

Despite the bribe, thousands took to the streets, gathering at the Pearl Roundabout, pledging non-violence. Their core demands were moderate in comparison to the cries for immediate regime change that rang out elsewhere: political reform, an end to corruption and increased civil participation.

Although billed as a “Day of Rage,” the marches were orderly. One sign held aloft read, “Our movement is peaceful and our demands are legitimate.”

ADAM JAN/AFP/Getty Images files

U.S. lawyer Mark S. Sullivan and president of Bahrain’s Human Rights Society Nabeel Rajab in 2006. “The [Bahraini] government uses a lot of violence but I am confident in the people’s commitment,” Rajab says.

Encouraged by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain’s powerful neighbour to the west, the government’s response was unforgiving. Security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd, killing two protesters and injuring more than a dozen.

One key difference between the reaction in Bahrain and that in some other countries was the kingdom’s sectarian split. Bahrainis’ discontent was fuelled in part by discrimination by the ruling elites, which are drawn from the Sunni branch of Islam, against the masses, largely adherents to the Shia branch.

The Bahraini security forces were Sunni and had little sympathy for the Shiites’ cause, unlike in Egypt where many in the military supported the protests. Worse still, there was deep suspicion the protest was fuelled by Iran, a distrusted Shiite state.

A raid on the protesters’ encampment brought more deaths, and the funerals for each protester produced larger and fiercer demonstrations. The modest demands turned into calls for revolution.

The killings also sparked broad and diverse support for dissent, recruiting members of the middle and professional classes. Doctors treating the injured while protesting the regime became symbols of the struggle.

By March, Bahrain’s sympathetic neighbours, led by the Saudis, were supplying manpower, equipment and financial support to crush the protest.

“When the government began to attack the protesters it became more difficult,” Mr. Rajab said.

“When the ruling elite took their decision to kill their own people and to invite the Saudis in, that is the black point of their own history. It cannot be soon forgotten. The area is ruled by families who will destroy the whole country rather than leave power.”

AFP/Getty Images

Protesters run for cover after police fired tear gas canisters to disperse them in the village of Diraz, northwest of Bahrain, on Feb. 14, during a demonstration called for on Facebook.

Mr. Rajab’s open activism made him an easy target for authorities and a difficult one to deal with. His leadership in the Bahraini human rights movement made it impossible for him to avoid police scrutiny, but his international profile meant the government, as it continues to wage an international public relations campaign, had to show restraint.

It would be noticed around the world if he disappeared, if his Twitter feed went dead, if his voice in the international press fell silent.

That is one reason he speaks out. With his terrific English and stately manner, not only does he get the protesters’ message out to the international community, he remains a thorn in the authorities’ side.

From his secretive meetings in the late 1990s, Mr. Rajab became a forerunner in speaking out for reform. In 2007, he became president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. He worked with international human rights organizations and when the Arab Spring gripped Bahrain, he was a natural to become a spokesman.

But the fight has not gone well.

In an attempt at concession, King Hamad commissioned an independent study of human rights abuses. In November, the 500-page report was released. It said the authorities had used torture, excessive force, terrifying night-time raids and collective punishment against villages and communities to crush the protest.

King Hamad promised a “new page in our history.”

Hamad I Mohammed / Reuters

A woman shouts anti-government slogans as she stands near tear gas fired by the riot police during a sit-in at a roundabout in Budaiya Highway west of Manama, Bahrain, on Dec. 15.

It had little calming effect on either side. Soon after the report’s release, another barrage of tear gas and stun grenades hit demonstrators.

While Mr. Rajab said he and his property are attacked repeatedly, he is left alive and out of detention while thousands of his cohorts are imprisoned.

The large gatherings have been snuffed out for now, but protest has not ended.

“The Arab Spring in Bahrain is continuing. We thought we would have been through by now, but it was not like in Egypt or Tunisia,” he said.

“We can’t have the one huge protest right now but there are protests on a daily basis. It has continued and it will continue. People were gathering by the hundreds of thousands of people. Now, we see hundreds of protests of hundreds of people, in almost every village of Bahrain.”

The protesters are getting little international support, largely because of the country’s location, said F. Gregory Gause III, a political science professor at the University of Vermont who specializes in the politics of the Gulf area.

The archipelago demands significance beyond its size because of its strategic location. Bahrain’s main port is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, responsible for the crucial waterways of the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea and East Africa.

“We have the naval base there so we tread carefully,” said Prof. Gause.

“[Th U.S.] tried at the beginning to mediate between the Crown Prince and the opposition but the Saudis cut that off.”

Mr. Rajab is angered by Washington’s stance.

“The government of the United States is backing the royals in this part of the world. They are supporting the dictators. The U.S. looks very hard on Syria and Libya but, when they look at their allies, are very soft,” he said.

“If you want to be respected in the world, you should embrace the principles and values as being the same everywhere.”

He believes the rebels will eventually succeed.

“The government uses a lot of violence but I am confident in the people’s commitment. This movement, this snowball that started in Tunisia a year ago, will sooner or later spread and those who do not allow reform will be blotted out of history.”

However, Prof. Gause said momentum has been lost.

“Nobody has any doubt that the Al-Khalifa family is still going to be running the place,” he said.

“This monarchy has the force to remain in power and I don’t see an exit ramp, certainly not in the short term.”

Mr. Rajab remains unmoved. In a message on Twitter this week, he urged supporters, “No retreat, no retreat.”…source