Bahrain’s king offers July reform talks

Agencies/Manama

A newly erected signboard showing the direction towards Al Farooq Junction (previously the Bahrain GCC Roundabout or Pearl Square) is seen along a road in Manama yesterday. Authorities in March demolished the monument in Pearl Square following the unrest when thousands of Shias protested by camping there from February to March. The area will be transformed into a traffic light junction and the roundabout removed

Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifah called for talks on reform involving all parties in the kingdom “without preconditions” from July 1, the state news agency said yesterday. The offer comes as the government prepares today to lift a state of emergency imposed in March to break up pro-democracy protests inspired by uprisings that brought down veteran rulers in Egypt and Tunisia. The government is also hoping to get back its Formula One race. The prestigious March event in the racing calendar was cancelled because of the unrest but a meeting of the sports governing body on Friday could reinstate it for later this year. “The king called on everyone to take part...to push forward reform for development in all areas and to firmly anchor the bases of the reform process,” the Bahrain News Agency said. It quoted the king as saying in a speech to Bahraini journalists that the talks would be “comprehensive, serious and without preconditions”. Bahrain called in Gulf Arab forces in March, and has said the Saudi and Emirati forces would remain in the country indefinitely to help face a perceived threat from Shia power Iran, across a short stretch of water from Bahrain. Bahrain says Iran was behind the protest movement, which was dominated by the country’s majority Shias. The authorities unleashed a campaign of detention and dismissals during martial law that has affected thousands of people who took part in the protests, most of them Shias. Dozens of Shia places of worship have also been demolished and four people have died in custody. Twenty-one opposition figures—seven of whom are abroad—are on military trial on charges of seeking to overthrow the system. Rights activists say they were tortured. US President Barack Obama criticised the crackdown in a speech last month, saying the government should begin dialogue with peaceful opposition leaders. The government had at one stage threatened to close down Shia group Wefaq, the largest opposition party. The king praised the National Unity Rally, a government-backed Sunni group that emerged during the unrest as a counterweight to Shia opposition groups. The Rally has said Wefaq would have to change its leadership before political reconciliation would be possible and Sunni Islamist groups have campaigned for Wefaq to be ostracised and harsh sentences in the ongoing military trials. Former Wefaq MP Jasim Husain welcomed the announcement. “I’m quite upbeat and pleased that the king made the offer on the eve of a return to normal conditions,” he said. “Given that the future of the country is at stake, I think we can overcome the problems.” But an opposition activist who declined to be named said the speech lacked substance. The king did not specify parameters, talking in general terms of the need to improve government and parliament. “Reform is the project that we have not and will not flinch from,” he said. “Who does not want more efficient government performance? Who does not want more effective legislative representation? Or political associations and civil society groups that work in the framework of national unity and the rule of law?”l The State Department said yesterday that a US diplomat in Bahrain faced threats over his work in the kingdom, but denied reports he was brought home for his safety. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said the diplomat, Ludovic Hood, returned to Washington as part of his normal work duties and not because of the threats against him. McClatchy Newspapers reported that Hood, the US human rights officer at the US embassy in Manama, was recalled after he experienced “ethnic slurs and thinly veiled threats” on a pro-government website and in official newspapers. “We are aware, as press reports have cited, that there were threats, accusations made against him on some websites,” Toner told reporters, adding that Washington takes all threats against its personnel seriously. “While there were, obviously, concerns about his security,” he in fact returned to Washington because “he did just complete his tour in Manama,” Toner said. “So he wasn’t recalled.” Toner denounced the threats and allegations against Hood but added the US government did not know for sure who was behind them. “We have no way to confirm that they were actually made by the government or people within the government of Bahrain. I’m aware that they were on these websites,” Toner said. “But it’s unacceptable that any elements there would target an individual, a diplomat for carrying out his duties,” he added.