FT: Sitra at centre of new Bahrain uprising

[محروم.كوم]

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When Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa in 2001 initiated reforms to revive parliamentary democracy, the clearest seal of approval came from the small and restive island of Sitra. After seven years of insurgency and repression, residents lifted the visiting king’s car in the air in tribute.
The jubilation did not last long, however. The opposition claimed any real reforms were quickly watered down, the parliament merely a rubber stamp for government policy. That festering discontent exploded two years ago when the majority Shia population, inspired by the Arab spring revolutions, took to the streets in what was the most serious unrest in the kingdom’s history.

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Now as the official opposition Al-Wefaq talks to the government and its backers from the Sunni minority, Sitra is once again the heartland of a new uprising.
On Sunday, a series of explosions near the capital Manama raised security fears ahead of the kingdom’s premier international sporting event, the F1 Grand Prix motor race, scheduled for this weekend. The interior ministry has said it will boost security.
The tiny island of Sitra is home to just 40,000 people out of Bahrain’s 1.2m population and most of its residents live in just seven villages. Its youth have joined with other rebels across the country under the umbrella of the February 14 movement, a radical opposition group.
At funerals and marches, they form “holy defence” units to protect mourners and protesters from the security forces. The emergence of these quasi-militia units has fuelled fears that the Shia opposition is moving towards an armed resistance. Government loyalists fear their emergence hints at the involvement of Iran and its Lebanese ally Hizbollah. Amid daily battles with the riot police, diplomats worry the uprising will undermine the talks.
“There is no real dialogue, it’s just pressure from the US and UK to talk to the opposition for media reasons,” says Hussain, a radical Shia youth in Sitra, of the talks taking place in the barren south of Bahrain.
Hussain lives on the run, moving from house to house each night, and spoke to the Financial Times from a safe house on the island. “There is no real reform – the proof is that there are more martyrs and more repression,” he says.
Fourteen people from Sitra have died during the unrest of the past two years.

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One of the most disturbing images of the revolt, the gaping skull of Ahmed Farhan who was shot at point blank range at Sitra’s petrol station in March 2011, looms large in the room in which Hussain is staying.
“When we see brains splattered on the ground, how can we believe that this regime will reform?” he says.
The youths, who hang on Hussain’s every word as they gather on tatty mattresses in a modest home, seem in no mood for compromise. “The martyrs opened the road for us, they are our guide,” says Hussain, to murmurs of approval.
Of Sitra’s seven villages, perhaps the most rebellious is Mohazza. It was under siege for a week last December as the police blocked entrances in an effort to smoke out protesters.
Police raids are now a daily fixture of life in Mohazza, residents say. Families have installed metal doors to protect them from security force raids. “They can still break through, but at least we can hear them trying to get in,” says Hussain.
After the December siege, Hussain left Sitra. Now, he flits between friends’ houses as he goes into his 23rd month on the run since being summoned to a civil court for questioning for attacks on policemen. He has no intention of turning himself in.
“If I go back, they will force a confession on another crime, so I prefer to stay in hiding,” he says.
During a previous visit to a police station, he saw prisoners forced to recount eulogies to the king, while enduring beatings on the soles of their feet and being hanged upside down for hours.
“It was like a hospital, people were limping around, one man had his fingers cut,” he says.

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For activists in Sitra such as Hussain, the struggle against the ruling family takes on a particular resonance because the island is not only the bridgehead through which the Al Khalifa invaded in 1782, but also a long-time resistance stronghold. In the 1920s, Sitra led resistance to al-Khalifa, who ruled by taxing local fishermen and farmers.


Today, in Sitra, residents complain there is still no justice under al-Khalifa rule. Local people are arrested on little evidence while policemen guilty of brutality walk free. Zainab Juma, a 47-year-old disabled woman, died after security forces fired several volleys of tear gas into her open courtyard in July 2011, her brothers say. The authorities blamed her death on natural causes, despite the overpowering stench of tear gas in her modest dwelling when investigators visited.
“We will struggle until we meet our demands,” says Hussain. “Tyrants always fall, no matter how long it takes.”

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