{"id":7344,"date":"2012-03-16T15:30:21","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T22:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=7344"},"modified":"2012-03-16T15:30:21","modified_gmt":"2012-03-16T22:30:21","slug":"protest-marks-anniversary-of-military-massacre-on-pearl-square","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=7344","title":{"rendered":"Protest marks anniversary of Military Massacre on Pearl Square"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bahrain opposition supporters rally to mark anniversary of army raid on Pearl Square<\/strong>
\nAssociated Press – 16 March, 2012 – Washington Post<\/p>\n

MANAMA, Bahrain \u2014 Thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Bahrain on Friday to mark the one-year anniversary of the military raid on the capital\u2019s Pearl Square, the epicenter of last year\u2019s Shiite uprising in the Gulf kingdom.<\/p>\n

Thousands of protesters waved Bahraini flags, chanted anti-government slogans and demanded the release of political prisoners during the opposition rally in Mahooz, a western suburb of Manama.<\/p>\n

Pearl Square in central Manama had served as the opposition\u2019s headquarters during the first weeks of the Shiite majority\u2019s campaign to loosen the Sunni dynasty\u2019s grip on power in the strategic island that is the home of the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet.<\/p>\n

Security forces stormed the protesters\u2019 encampment at the landmark square, after authorities imposed martial law last March and tore down the pearl sculpture that marked the site of unprecedented political upheaval in the island nation.<\/p>\n

The protests were inspired by other Arab revolts in Tunisia and Egypt against autocratic rulers.<\/p>\n

At least 45 people have been killed in the Bahrain unrest, and hundreds have been arrested and tried on anti-state crimes.<\/p>\n

The now heavily-guarded Pearl Square holds great symbolic value for Bahrain\u2019s opposition movement, and protesters have repeatedly tried to retake it. But the capital has largely been off limits to demonstrators in the past year.<\/p>\n

Street battles between security forces and protesters still flare up almost every day in the predominantly Shiite villages around the capital.<\/p>\n

Shiites account for about 70 percent of Bahrain\u2019s population of some 525,000 people, but say they have faced decades of discrimination and are blocked from top political and security posts.<\/p>\n

The kingdom\u2019s ruling dynasty has promised reforms to end the upheaval, although it refuses to make the far-reaching changes the protesters and the country\u2019s biggest opposition movement, Al Wefaq, have demanded. These include ending the monarchy\u2019s ability to select the government, set key state policies and appoint most of the parliament members. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Bahrain opposition supporters rally to mark anniversary of army raid on Pearl Square Associated Press – 16 March, 2012 – Washington Post MANAMA, Bahrain \u2014 Thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Bahrain on Friday to mark the one-year anniversary of the military raid on the capital\u2019s Pearl Square, the epicenter of last year\u2019s Shiite uprising more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[2518],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7346,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7344\/revisions\/7346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}