International calls for freedom of Bahrain detainees met with intensified brutality by desperate regime

Bahrain breaks up protests, faces calls to free prisoners
By Aamer Mohammed – 1 May, 2012 – Reuters

Manama (Reuters) – Riot police firing tear gas and stun grenades routed protesters in Bahrain’s capital on Tuesday as the government came under mounting international pressure to release jailed leaders of last year’s uprising.

An appeals court decision on Monday to grant a retrial to 21 opposition figures was not enough to defuse resurgent unrest among the Gulf Arab state’s majority Shi’ite Muslims, and street rallies resumed on Tuesday.

A heavy riot police presence cut short a demonstration in the market area of Manama, as tear gas and stun grenades were unleashed at several dozen who chanted anti-government slogans.

Activists also reported small protests on the occasion of World Labour Day in a number of Shi’ite districts. Several thousand protesters and suspected supporters were sacked or suspended from work last year during a crackdown on the uprising and some say they have not got their jobs back.

Shi’ites, whose unrest is seen by the Sunni Muslim ruling elite as a subversive bid to put U.S.-aligned Bahrain under the sway of Shi’ite Iran, complain of discrimination and marginalization in political and economic life.

The government says many Shi’ites hold state posts and help run the economy and that police and judicial reforms have begun. But there has been no progress on the main opposition demand for a parliament with full powers to legislate and form governments.

The cassation court, the highest judicial body in the Gulf Arab state, on Monday shifted the case of 21 men who were convicted in a military court to a civilian court and freed one, lesser-known prisoner. Seven of the 21 are abroad or in hiding. …more