Bahrain
erupts after teenager killed
Manama:
Clashes and protests have broken out in about 50 areas of Bahrain,
the opposition says, after a young protester was shot dead by police
near the capital Manama.
16
February, 2013
The
Thursday shooting came as anti-government demonstrators marked the
second anniversary of a pro-reform uprising.
The
16-year-old boy was shot with birdshot in the village of Daih on the
outskirts of the city, where protests erupted early in the morning,
witnesses said.
Protests
continued into the evening, and at night villagers shouted "Allahu
akbar" (God is great) from rooftops to symbolise resistance.
Many
businesses closed their doors in response to a general strike called
by the mainly Shi'ite opposition.
The
grassroots protest group, the February 14 Coalition, has called for a
march on Friday to Pearl Roundabout, the epicentre of anti-government
demonstrations that started on February 14, 2011.
Mainstream
Shi'ite, liberal and nationalist opposition groups are calling for
protests in the north of the island state, a less confrontational
move.
Pearl,
also known as Lulu, Roundabout was forcibly cleared by security
forces a month after the protest movement started. The site remains
closed to the public and is heavily guarded by police.
Bahrain's
Shi'ite Muslim majority has since been protesting to demand political
reform and greater freedoms from the Sunni monarchy.
DPA
‘Go
on, shoot me!’ Grief-stricken protester confronts Bahraini riot
police
16
February, 2013
The
death of a teenage boy during the violent second anniversary of
Bahrain’s popular uprising drove one enraged protester to face down
riot police in a dramatic scene caught on film.
Through
the haze of smoke in the debris-littered streets of Daih, over half a
dozen riot police were met with a volley of screams by an
unidentified protester who was overwhelmed after witnessing the death
of Hussein Jaziri – a teenager killed by shotgun fire on Thursday.
The
tense standoff in the predominately Shiite village outside the
capital Manama seemed likely to end in violence, though the pure
force of the protesters indignation reportedly had police rattled.
“You
criminals! You murderers! You hope to escape God’s wrath? God will
avenge us! Go on, shoot me! Shoot me if you dare, I won’t leave,”
the lone man belted out with raw conviction as he closed in on the
officers.
A
masked youth tentatively approached the man and attempted to pull him
back without effect. His screams only intensified as the first
officer approached and immediately recoiled as a rock struck the
nearby pavement.
A
second officer charged in with his baton but immediately lowered it
when the demonstrator refused to flinch. Projectile-lobbing
protesters then forced back police, who responded with tear gas.
The
scene has served to highlight the opposition’s resolve despite the
government’s hardline response to the ongoing unrest which has
gripped the Gulf country for two years.
Nationwide
protests were organized by opposition activists on Thursday to mark
the uprising’s two-year anniversary. Protests soon turned violent,
with security forces firing shotguns and tear gas to disperse the
demonstrators, who then responded by throwing Molotov cocktails.
Clashes
raged on into the early hours of Friday, with one police officer
reportedly being killed after being hit by “an incendiary device,”
the interior ministry said.
On
Friday police used sound bombs to disperse thousands of opposition
supporters who staged a mid-afternoon demonstration on the Boudaya
highway, which links several Shiite-populated villages with the
capital, AFP cites witnesses as saying.
Opposition
'invents the news' and the world takes it on trust
The
demonstrations held Friday were not forbidden and were in fact issued
a permit, Bahrain’s information minister Samira Rajab has told RT.
The
violence erupted, according to the minister, when the crowd violently
took to the streets violating the mandated course of the
demonstration. To protect order, the government had to respond with
force.
“This
teenager was among his peers who were in possession of Molotov
Cocktail and were heading towards the police, despite it being in a
forbidden zone.”
Continuing
on the topic of clashes, the minister stressed that it stems from the
groups on the streets.
“Our
problem lies in violence, as the crowd resorts to violence in
Bahrain, we can’t be silent seeing this. It is because of them that
the country as a whole is suffering destabilization among the society
in general,” Rajab says.
The
representative of Bahrain has also accused the opposition of
harvesting misinformation in the news flow and following foreign
orders “because outside regional forces are making the calls.”
“The
opposition is inventing the news, and the whole world listens to them
because they are the opposition, and people are used to listening to
them as a legitimate source. As a result of these clashes, one
policeman has died and dozens of others injured,” Rajab says.
Citing
Friday’s events, the minister says that the opposition manipulated
the victims age, “he was 17-years old, and not fourteen,” Rajab
told the viewers, adding “it is the style of the opposition to use
this age-group to flood the streets in some sort of formation,
vaguely resembling the army. And we have evidence of this, which we
can provide.”
Bahrain,
a country where over 75 percent of the country is Shiite, is ruled by
a Sunni monarchy.
On
February 14, 2011, thousands of protesters took to the streets of
Bahrain's capital, Manama, demanding democratic reforms and the
resignation of PrimeMinisterSheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa.
Since
the start of the uprising, at least 82 protesters have been killed,
including nine children.
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