14th March 2012

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

Tunisia only to be put down by force one month later. He was found guilty of charges including forming and organising a "terrorist group" to end the Al Khalifa monarchy and change the constitution. A founder of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, he is one of 14 protest leaders serving jail terms after controversial military trials. Read More Reprinted here:
Condition of Bahrain hunger striker seen worsening chicagotribune.com Condition of Bahrain hunger striker seen worsening - WNEP THE DAILY STAR :: News :: Middle East :: Condition of Bahrain hunger striker seen worsening

Condition of Bahrain hunger striker seen worsening - 14/03/12

The condition of a jailed Bahraini activist who has been on hunger strike for over a month is deteriorating and prison authorities may force-feed him, a lawyer who visited him this week said on Wednesday. Abdulhadi al-Khawaja is serving a life sentence for his role in a pro-democracy protest movement that erupted in February last year after uprisings in Egypt and

Hunger Striker Abdulhadi al-Khawajai Backed on Twitter 14/03/12

Bahrainis have taken to Twitter in an effort to draw attention to the hunger strike of an imprisoned human rights activist. Dr Abdulhadi al-Khawaja is serving a life sentence in Bahrain on charges of terrorism and planning to overthrow the country's government.

He was arrested last year in April as part of a governmentled crackdown on prodemocracy activists. He denies the charges and has gone on hunger strike to protest against his detention and human rights abuses in Bahrain. Supporters of Khawaja have started a Twitter campaign to raise awareness under the hashtag #KillingKhawaja, which has trended on the social network. Read More

Bahrain moves economic reformer off policymaking body 13/03/12

The man who led efforts to diversify Bahrain's oil-reliant economy has lost his job as head of the kingdom's top economic policy-making body, further clouding the future of reforms which have stalled since anti-government unrest last year.

The state news agency said on Tuesday that Sheikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa had left by royal decree his post as chief of the Economic Development Board to become a political and economic adviser to Crown Prince Salman. "Sheikh Mohammed will still be involved very closely," said a source close to the EDB, a brainchild of the crown prince. But one observer speculated it could signal the end of the EDB as the main executive body for economic policy. Read More

Bahrain opposition may be losing touch with the youth 14/03/12

Bahrain's main opposition movement Wefaq is making overtures to the monarchy on how to pursue democratic reforms but its efforts may be undermined by waning support from youth who seek more revolutionary change. Three members of Wefaq, which dominates Shi'ite politics and has taken almost half the seats in parliament in

past elections, recently met a prominent member of the ruling Sunni Al Khalifa family to discuss a way forward after a year of unrest following the bloody breakup of protests at the Pearl Roundabout. "The country is paralysed now," Abduljalil Khalil, one of the Wefaq members involved, said to justify Wefaq's move. "The country is in big trouble if you can't move your security forces from the roundabout." Read More Reprinted here:
Bahrain opposition may be losing touch with the youth chicagotribune.com

Agreement Signed by Government of Bahrain and Trade Union on Worker Reinstatement Issues: International Labor Organization Supports Effort - 13/03/12
After weeks of intense efforts by the Government to resolve the issue of worker reinstatements, a

breakthrough agreement was signed on March 11, 2012 by Minister of Labor Jameel Humaidan, the President of the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU), Salman Almahfoudh, and Othman Sharif, Vice-President of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI). The agreement was supported by representatives of the International Labor Organization (ILO) led by the Director of the International Labor Standards Department, Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry. Read More

Protests in Bahrain 14/03/12

Hundreds of antigovernment protesters walk from

local streets towards the main highway in the village of Diraz west of Manama, March 13, 2012. Demonstrators took to streets after a protester, Fadel Mirza, died from a head injury caused by a tear-gas canister fired during a March 10 clash with riot police. Read More

Authority (IAA) said Wednesday.

Bahrain to start compensating victims of unrest - 14/03/12

Bahrain's Justice Ministry will start from next week accepting compensation requests from all those affected during the unrest last year, the Information Affairs

From Sunday on, the Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry will start accepting cases as part of the Civil Settlement Initiative in line with Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) recommendations. Read More

Bahrain to Start Process to Compensate Protest Victims - 14/03/12

Bahrains Justice Ministry will start receiving on March 18 civil settlement applications to compensate victims of violence from last years mass protests.

The ministry set up the civil settlement initiative in line with recommendations from an independent international commission that investigated possible human rights abuses during the February-March 2011 protests. At least 35 people were killed during the rallies and an ensuing crackdown through April last year, the commission has said. Read More Secretary of the Association of Nursing Ebrahim alDimstani told Al Alam television on Wednesday that activities planned for ''Resistance week against Saudi invasion'' include holding nationwide protest rallies and expressing solidarity with the victims of the Saudi-backed regime crackdown. According to al-Dimstani, the anti-Saudi invasion week began on Monday, two days ahead of the rst anniversary of the Saudi invasion. Read More arrests of bloggers and Internet activists, prosecutions and defamation campaigns against free expression activists, and disruption of communications after mass protests first erupted in February 2011. It said Bahrain, where the Sunni Al Khalifa family rules a majority Shi'ite population, slowed down the Internet and increased filtering during the uprising, which was put down by force after one month in March 2011. Read More Similar articles:
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Bahrain: Mourners attacked at Bahrain funeral - 14/03/12

Mourners at the funeral of a 22-year-old man killed by security forces were attacked shortly after they buried his body on Tuesday, activists have said. Saida Fadhel Mirza alObeidi died on Saturday, nine days after being hit with a canister of tear gas red by security forces, opposition activists said.

Doctors said his skull was fractured and he died later of his wounds. Several thousand people took to the streets on Tuesday in Mirza's home town of Diraz, east of the capital Manama. Said Yousif, a human rights activist in Bahrain, said that about 3,000 or 4,000 mourners had taken to the streets but were confronted with over 100 heavily armed [members of the] security forces. Read More a condent optimism amongst the crowd. Over half the population came out on Friday the 9thMarch 2012 carrying placards which read No Dialogue with Killers, No to Dictatorship, and No to Sectarianism. Although Bahrain is the smallest Arab state, it could very well be said that the 9th March rally has been the largest Arab Spring protest in proportion to the countrys total population. Read More

Bahrain Nursing Association demands end to Saudi invasion 14/03/12

Bahrains Nursing Association has begun a week of resistance against the Saudi invasion of the country on the rst anniversary of the arrival of KSA troops to help Manama in its brutal crackdown on protests.

Bahrain resumes its long march to freedom - 14/03/12

A year has passed by since Bahrains Arab spring venture began. But February the 14thlast year was not the rst time Bahrain has been rocked by mass protests. A recent rally rightly honoured the martyrs of the 1965 March uprising. The memory of their struggle and victory offered

Bahrain rejects claim it is an 'enemy of the Internet' - 14/03/12

Bahrain rejected on Wednesday a new report by an international media watchdog describing the Gulf Arab state as an "enemy of the Internet" after it crushed a prodemocracy uprising last year. "Bahrain offers a perfect example of successful crackdowns, with an information blackout achieved through an impressive arsenal of repressive measures," the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a report published this week. The report cited exclusion of the foreign media, harassment of human rights defenders,