Bahraini protesters camped out in Manama’s Pearl Square pressed demands for a new government yesterday, backed by a teachers’ strike that closed many schools.
“No teaching until the government falls,” chanted more than 1,500 teachers gathered at the square in the Bahraini capital.
Up to 10,000 demonstrators packed Pearl Square, at the heart of weeklong protests led by majority Shiites demanding more say in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.
Near the group of teachers, a dangerously leaning chair had been erected, representing the government, on top of a box painted blood red. Arrows were stuck into the chair, which had a rifle strapped to it. They bore labels such as corruption, joblessness, naturalization and the blood of martyrs.
“In the eyes of the people the government has already fallen,” said Amir Ahmed, 38, a government oil sector employee.
The opposition is demanding a true constitutional monarchy that gives citizens a greater role in a directly elected government and wants the release of political prisoners.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa has asked his son, the crown prince, to conduct a dialogue with all parties, but after the bloodshed on the streets, opposition parties are wary.
One group of protesters called yesterday for the ouster of the monarchy. The manifesto issued by a group calling itself “Youth of Feb. 14” — after the day of the first marches — apparently seeks to stake out an uncompromising stance before possible talks between the opposition and the monarchy. It is unclear how much weight the group carries.
The group is also calling for authorities to be put on trial for attacks on protesters that have left at least seven dead and hundreds injured.
Meanwhile, a Shiite opposition leader, tried in absentia for attempting to topple the government, indicated that he would return home from London today, raising the stakes in the standoff between the government and its foes.
A status update to his Facebook page said Hassan Mushaimaa, leader of the Haq Movement for Liberty and Democracy, planned to “see if this leadership is serious about dialogue and if it will arrest him or not.”
The Haq movement disputes the legitimacy of the reform process launched by the king a decade ago and boycotts elections. It broke away from the main Shiite opposition group Wefaq when it took part in a parliamentary poll in 2006.
Haq’s leaders have often been arrested in recent years, only to receive royal pardons. Some were rearrested in a crackdown in August, when 25 Shiite activists, including 23 now on trial, were charged with trying to overthrow the government violently.
Ibrahim Mattar, a lawmaker of the main Shiite Wefaq party, said the crown prince should signal willingness to accept a genuinely constitutional monarchy as a prelude to dialogue.
The demonstrators in Pearl Square were impatient for change.
“The history books will be rewritten. We will sacrifice for the martyrs,” said a schoolgirl who addressed the crowd over loudspeakers, referring to the seven people killed since last Monday.
Lamia, a 26-year-old elementary school teacher, said Bahrain would also topple its leaders.
“We are much stronger than them and we hope it will happen as soon as possible,” she said. “We are brave and ready to die. I come to the square every day and I’m pregnant with my child.”
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