March 9 – Bahrain prepares for “biggest ever” protest

Bahrain prepares for “biggest ever” protest
8 March, 2012 – Al-Akhbar

Thousands of protesters are set to take to the streets of Bahrain’s capital Manama on Friday in what is expected to be the biggest protest against the country’s rulers since last year’s uprising was brutally crushed.

Event organizers estimate that up to half of the country’s 1.2 million people will take to the streets to call for democracy, civil rights, and equal citizenship.

Last February tens of thousands of Bahrainis took to the streets to demand reform from the ruling Khalifa family.

Saudi Arabia and neighboring Gulf states sent in troops to help Bahraini authorities crush the protests, fearing the spread of the pro-democracy Arab Spring.

The crackdown resulted in hundreds of activists being detained and jailed, while at least 35 were killed.

Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said that Friday’s protests would be a major turning point for the campaign.

“I am hopeful that half of the population will be there. Not less than 300,000 people for sure,” he said.

Activists raised awareness of the protest on Thursday night on the social networking site Twitter using the hashtag #BahrainWantsDemocracy.

Former opposition MP Jawad Fairooz added that the streets for the 5km march are expected to be full.

“We can expect this to be the largest march in the history of Bahrain,” he added.

Al-Akhbar will be running a live blog on the protests from 11 GMT tomorrow. …more