{"id":8857,"date":"2012-04-18T06:05:45","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T13:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=8857"},"modified":"2012-04-18T06:05:45","modified_gmt":"2012-04-18T13:05:45","slug":"binge-and-purge-in-bahrain-violence-binge-by-moi-police-purging-the-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=8857","title":{"rendered":"Binge and Purge in Bahrain, Violence Binge by MOI Police Purging the Activists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Wave of arrests ahead of Bahrain Grand Prix: NGO<\/strong><br \/>\n18 April, 2012 &#8211; France 24<\/p>\n<p>AFP &#8211; Bahraini security forces have arrested some 80 leading pro-democracy activists in an attempt to contain the daily anti-government protests ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix race, a local rights group said Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;About 80 people from several villages near (the capital) Manama have been arrested since April 14,&#8221; the president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, Mohammed Maskati, told AFP, adding that the &#8220;mass wave of arrests is a preventive measure&#8221; by the authorities.<\/p>\n<p>He said most of those arrested are &#8220;protest leaders&#8221; that have been organising near-daily demonstrations against the government in the kingdom&#8217;s Shiite villages.<\/p>\n<p>Tensions have been mounting in the unrest-hit kingdom ahead of Sunday&#8217;s controversial Formula One race as the opposition and youth activists capitalise on renewed international attention on Bahrain&#8217;s year-long political and sectarian crisis.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, hundreds protested near Bahrain&#8217;s international airport as Formula One teams began arriving in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, carrying banners calling for a boycott of the race.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our demand: Freedom not Formula,&#8221; read one banner. &#8220;We are human without rights,&#8221; read another.<\/p>\n<p>Prominent Shiite activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who is on a hunger strike and has been convicted to life in prison has said that he will refuse intravenous infusions starting Wednesday and drink only water, according to his wife.<\/p>\n<p>Khawaja&#8217;s deteriorating health has raised fears that his potential death could spark a wave of violence in the already tense kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>Bahrain&#8217;s largest opposition grouping, Al-Wefaq, has called for a week of daily demonstrations and sit-ins to last through the end of the April 22 race.<\/p>\n<p>The more radical February 14 Youth Movement, however, has called for &#8220;three days of rage&#8221; to coincide with the event.<\/p>\n<p>The F1 race in Bahrain was cancelled last year in the wake of the Shiite-led uprising and the brutal government crackdown that followed in which 35 people were killed, according to an independent probe.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/20120418-wave-arrests-ahead-bahrain-grand-prix-ngo?ns_campaign=editoria\" target=\"_blank\">&#8230;source<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D8857&amp;text=Binge+and+Purge+in+Bahrain%2C+Violence+Binge+by+MOI+Police+Purging+the+Activists&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wave of arrests ahead of Bahrain Grand Prix: NGO 18 April, 2012 &#8211; France 24 AFP &#8211; Bahraini security forces have arrested some 80 leading pro-democracy activists in an attempt to contain the daily anti-government protests ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix race, a local rights group said Wednesday. &#8220;About 80 people from several <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=8857#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">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":[2481],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8857"}],"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=8857"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8859,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8857\/revisions\/8859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}