Bahrainis slam Riyadh, Manama over clampdown

Bahrainis slam Riyadh, Manama over clampdown
Sat Mar 8, 2014 08:39:27

Bahraini protestors have held a protest rally to censure the Al Khalifa regime’s crackdown on dissent and Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in the country.

The protesters held a demonstration on Friday in the village of Karbabad in the northern part of the Persian Gulf country.

“The nation demands the fall of the regime,” chanted the demonstrators as they carried anti-regime placards. They also showed their resentment to Saudi Arabia because of its involvement in putting pressure on Bahraini opposition.

Bahrain’s opposition alliance said any foreign force would be treated as an invading army.

"We consider the arrival of any soldier, or military vehicle, into Bahraini territory ... an overt occupation of the kingdom of Bahrain and a conspiracy against the unarmed people of Bahrain," said an opposition statement.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on peaceful protesters.

The Saudi intervention comes two days after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Manama and urged King Hamad to undertake rapid and significant democratic reform.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have "evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police" in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested.

NTJ/MB

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