Bahrain’s Prime Minister in Paranoid Rant – Says Protestors Call for Democracy a “coup attempt” – Justifies Torture, Murder

By Fredrik Richter and Martina Fuchs

MANAMA/DUBAI | Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:54am EDT

MANAMA/DUBAI (Reuters) – Bahrain’s prime minister, who has faced calls for his ouster by street protesters, described the unrest as a coup attempt and said those who took part would be held to account.

The country’s foreign minister said Saudi and UAE troops called in to help quell weeks of pro-democracy protests by the Sunni Muslim-ruled country’s disgruntled Shi’ite majority would stay until an Iranian threat is judged to be over.

“Bahrain has witnessed a coup attempt,” Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa said in remarks carried by pro-government media on Monday. “No violators would get away with it. All co-conspirators and abettors must be held accountable.”

Weeks of anti-government protests in February and March by mostly Shi’ite protesters demanded more freedom, an end to discrimination and a constitutional monarchy in the Sunni-ruled country, a U.S. ally that hosts Washington’s Fifth Fleet.

Bahraini rulers crushed the protests last month, deploying security forces in the capital and calling in troops from Gulf neighbors Saudi Arabia and the UAE under the aegis of a Gulf defense pact, a move demonstrators saw as an act of war. …more