BAHRAIN: U.S. Experts Sceptical Over Dialogue
As Bahrain's government launches its much-touted 'national dialogue' with members of civil society, experts here are expressing scepticism that it will defuse growing tensions in the strategically located Gulf kingdom, let alone promote genuine reform.
Strongly supported by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, the dialogue, which formally got underway Saturday, is supposed to involve some 300 civil society representatives, all chosen, however, by the government itself.
Hundreds of people detained by the authorities over the last five months of unrest remain in prison, including prominent leaders of the majority Shi'a Muslim community, which has been the main target of the government's crackdown that began in late February.
'How can there be real dialogue when most [of the opposition] is in jail?' asked Kristin Diwan, a Gulf specialist at American University here.
'To have a real dialogue, people need to be free to express their opinions. Over the past four months, those in power in Bahrain have created an environment where this is impossible,' she wrote in an analysis on cnn.com Friday. One key opposition group decided to take part at the last minute.
Al-Wefaq, whose 18 elected members of parliament resigned in February to protest the repression, said it would attend after King Hamad Issa al-Khalifa agreed to appoint an independent commission to investigate human rights violations during previous months of protests, in which some 36 people were killed and hundreds of others wounded.
The government also announced the release of 100 detainees, while Saudi Arabia, which, along with the United Arab Emirates, had sent some 1,500 troops to support the crackdown, said it will begin gradually withdrawing its forces from the kingdom, although it did not set a precise timetable.
The Obama administration warmly welcomed the dialogue's launch. 'The United States commends King Hamad bin Issa al- Khalifa for his leadership in initiating the dialogue,' the White House said Saturday.
'We also commend the decision by Al Wifaq, Bahrain's largest opposition group, to join the dialogue… We urge all Bahrainis to seize this opportunity to forge a more just future together,' it added, while the State Department issued a similar statement.
Washington has been increasingly concerned that the government's repression will lead the Shi'a population, which is estimated at 60 to 70 percent of the citizenry, to look to Iran for support. The al- Khalifa family, which is Sunni and has ruled Bahrain for some 250 years, has claimed throughout the repression that Iran is actively supporting the largely Shi'a opposition, an allegation with which U.S. officials have disagreed.
Saudi Arabia, which is connected to Bahrain by a 25-km causeway, has echoed the government's charges against Iran and is believed to have encouraged Hamad and his long- serving prime minister, Khalifa ibn Sulman al-Khalifa, to crack down hard on the Shi'a community and their Sunni allies.
Bahraini Shi'as are closely related to the Shi'a minority in Saudi Arabia concentrated in Eastern Province, which produces most of the country's oil. Saudi rulers, who are also Sunni Muslims, have long worried that unrest among the Shi'as in Bahrain would spread to the Eastern Province.
Washington and Riyadh have clashed — sometimes publicly — over the situation in Bahrain. While Washington has urged restraint and reform on the part of King Hamad's government, senior Saudi officials, who were infuriated by Obama's abandonment of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, have warned that empowering the Shi'a community in Bahrain would be analogous to having a Soviet-backed Cuba just off Florida during the Cold War.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service