Arrests, Fatat Firebombing, Execution Raise the Stakes in Bahrain Unrest

by Stephen J. Sosebee

Bahrain’s announcement in early June that it has arrested 44 persons in connection with an alleged pro-Iranian plot to overthrow the hereditary ruler of the island state brings a simmering feud with neighboring Iran into the open. More than 30 of the accused have confessed to receiving training from Iran or its agents. The unrerst peaked with the March 15 firebombing of a Bahraini restaurant in which seven Bangladeshi expatriate workers were killed, and the subsequent execution by the Bahraini national government of Isa Qamber on March 26. While there had been many disturbances and acts of terrorism over a 15-month period by members of the Shi'i majority in Bahrain, Qamber’s execution was the first time that the government of the Sunni Muslim Al Khalifah ruling family has resorted to capital punishment.

“Legally, our Supreme Court confirmed his death sentence for the murder of Ibrahim al-Saidi, a policeman,” said Mohammed Badwan of the Interior Ministry. “No nation can allow criminals and terrorists to get away with the murder of its security personnel. This was justice.”

Qamber was arrested in early 1995 with eight other Shi’i men for the beating death of al-Saidi. He was the third policeman killed in clashes with demonstrators. Amnesty International monitored Qamber’s trial and condemned his execution, saying: “We seriously fear that this will now pave the way for further death sentences and executions.” The human rights group claimed Qamber was “sentenced to death after a trial which ignored internationally accepted human rights standards requiring adequate legal assistance at all stages of the proceedings,” and that “trial sessions were held in camera.”

Qamber’s execution climaxed a three-month period of renewed civil strife in Bahrain, a commercial center of the Arabian/Persian Gulf and a principal port for the newly designated U.S. Fifth Fleet, which patrols Gulf waters. Although Americans have used Bahrain’s naval base for many years, the U.S. government increasingly is concerned not only for the safety of Americans living in Bahrain, but also about the increasingly unstable political conditions.

The intifada-style uprising in Bahrain, an island of 550,000 people, began in December 1994 when a young Shi’i cleric, Sheikh Ali Salman, was arrested after distributing leaflets allegedly signed by 20,000 citizens calling for the restoration of the elected parliament, which was dissolved in 1975.

Clashes between Shi’i youths and police began when Sheikh Salman and two other clerics were deported in January. “They thought they would silence us by expelling our leaders,” says Mohammed, a Shi’i student in the village of Ali. “The Israelis learned and now this government must also learn that a people’s yearning for freedom cannot be destroyed through expulsions and murder.”

Negotiations between the government and the opposition broke down in September.

There were clashes throughout the spring of 1995, prompting a raid on April 1 on the home of Sheikh Abdul Amir Al-Jamri which left 16 people injured and one dead. Al-Jamri and hundreds of others remained in jail until the fall, when the government began an effort to appease the opposition. When negotiations between the government and the opposition broke down in September, Shi’i leaders began a 10-day hunger strike. Bahrain again was tense and ready to explode.

“We waited for the government to analyze the situation properly and begin a reform process,” says a cleric who asked to remain unidentified. “We gave them a period of calm in April 1995 because we expected the government to begin to change. When we saw that they were only becoming more intransigent, the opposition returned to the streets.”

A new round of violence in Bahrain began with the new year of 1996, and this time it was more violent. A commercial center was bombed in Manama, the capital. No one was hurt, but the message was clear. Unless the government addressed the political and economic grievances of the Shi’i majority, there would be no peace. The government, however, saw the new wave of bombings as an Iranian-inspired effort to sabotage the country’s economy.

“These acts of sabotage are part of a criminal plan to destabilize the country and its economic interests,” said an Interior Ministry spokesman after a homemade bomb exploded during an oil conference at Bahrain’s Meridian Hotel on Jan. 19. “Members of extremist and terrorist organizations abroad are exploiting mosques and religious sanctuaries to carry out their criminal plan.”

Challenged by bombings, arson and rioting, the Al Khalifah family threatened on Jan. 20 to unleash the 3,000-strong Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) to restore order. “The BDF is in a state of top readiness to carry out its security role…by taking needed military measures to resolve the situation once and for all and put an end to all acts that violate security,” read a Defense Ministry statement.

“We are 70 percent of the population, but have no political power and are denied access to jobs,” claims Sheikh Mohammed Asfoor. “We want democracy for all in Bahrain. The government simply won’t admit this.”

At the end of January, Bahrain expelled an Iranian diplomat for carrying out “activities and practices incompatible with his diplomatic status.” Iran, in turn, expelled a Bahraini diplomat the following day from Tehran.

Violent Months

Throughout February and March, bombings rocked the tiny island, including a car bomb near a market in Isa Town on Feb. 14 and a bomb which injured three at the Diplomat Hotel on Feb. 11. On Feb. 24, the automobile of the chief editor of Al Ayaam newspaper was bombed after the newspaper published an editorial blaming “elements” from Qum (the Iranian city which was the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s residence) for the acts of terror.

On March 6, a powerful explosion ripped through a branch of the National Bank of Bahrain, killing one person and injuring two others. Bahraini police alleged that the victim was killed while planting the bomb. A week later, seven Bangladeshi workers died in a fire purposely ignited at a restaurant on the island of Sitra. The four-star Baisan Hotel was bombed on March 19, and five small explosions were set off in Baisan department stores in one day in April, but there were no injuries.

While some claim the root of the conflict in Bahrain lies in the rivalry between two branches of IslamSunni and Shi’ithere are significant economic factors as well. Following a decline in oil prices after the Gulf war, Bahrain could not provide all of the subsidies and services to which its people had become accustomed. A whole generation of Bahrainis, used to the government providing one of the world’s highest standards of living, now is experiencing economic recession for the first time. Poor and disenfranchised, the Shi’i feel the economic downturn more than others.

The government claims that unemployment is only 1.8 percent, a figure disputed as much too low by independent and opposition sources. “The government insists that we must hire more Bahrainis,” says Khalil Hakim, who owns a Manama car wash. “But, frankly, most locals want too much money, don’t want to start at the bottom or take orders. Why should I hire such a problem when I can get someone from Pakistan who will work harder and cheaper?” While unemployment increases for locals, two out of every five workers in Bahrain is a foreigner.

Unlike its petroleum-blessed neighbors, Bahrain produces only 40,000 barrels of crude oil a day. This has forced the Bahrain government to encourage other economic sectors such as banking and tourism. There are 50 offshore banks in Bahrain, the most of any Gulf state. Each weekend thousands of Saudis cross over to the island for a more relaxed social environment, filling hotels and creating a strong local tourist industry to complement Bahrain’s role as a financial center of the Gulf. By bombing hotels in the financial district, the opposition is hitting the economy in ways that will have an immediate effect. Though it is unlikely that the campaign caused any business to leave Bahrain, the government clearly is worried.

Although the opposition in Bahrain may have legitimate political grievances, the government claims that the problems arise from Iranian attempts to undermine Al Khalifah rule. Such attempts are opposed by the U.S. and the other five Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. “Member states of the GCC will not stand by as spectators and watch Bahrain crumble under Iran’s so-called religious duty,” wrote Ahmed Jarallah, the editor of the Arab Times in Kuwait.

The political demands of the opposition are to restore the parliament, release prisoners arrested during the uprising, and provide better access to jobs. As for restoring the parliament, Cabinet Affairs and Information Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Al Mutawe recently told Reuters: “Everything has its time. Once we feel we need it, when it is suitable for our development and society,” it will be restored. It was dismissed in 1975 because it “hindered the government.”

At present, however, the Bahraini government clearly is hindered by increasing instability and violence. No financial institutions have closed due to the bombings, but clearly both the business community and Bahrain’s neighbors are worried. The opposition, meanwhile, vows to continue its protests until the government begins reforms. “We expect that events will escalate more and the intifada will continue until the achievement of the Bahraini people’s aspirations,” Sheikh Mohammed al-Mahfouz, secretary-general of the Damascus-based Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain, recently told Reuters. “Big sectors of students and professionals, women and men are taking part in this in many regions.”

Calls for government reforms in Bahrain are not limited to the Shi’i majority. In February, a well-known Sunni lawyer, poet and writer, Ahmed Al-Shamlan, was arrested. He is the first prominent Sunni to be detained during the unrest.

The government’s execution of Isa Qamber and the escalation of bombings by the Shi’i opposition against civilian targets have dangerously increased the stakes in Bahrain. The efforts to democratize in a country with a Shi’i majority but a Sunni-dominated government pose uniquely difficult problems not faced by any other GCC country. Nevertheless, the problem can have a ripple effect on the surrounding Gulf emirates. The Al Khalifah family’s unwillingness to negotiate a solution and the opposition willingness to sabotage the country’s economy with its wave of terror bombings clearly are a recipe for further instability, justifying Amnesty International’s fear that Qamber’s execution marks the beginning of a new phase of great violence in Bahrain.