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Demonstrations Intensify in Several Arab Countries

   Edward Yeranian | Cairo  March 13, 2011
   Anti-government  protesters  chant  and  wave flowers in front of riot
   police in Manama, Bahrain, March 13, 2011

Photo: AP

   Anti-government  protesters  chant  and  wave flowers in front of riot
   police in Manama, Bahrain, March 13, 2011

   Unrest  is  marking  the  beginning  of  another  week  in  some  Arab
   countries, with several governments trying to disperse protesters. Â
   An  angry crowd of protesters in Bahrainâs capital, Manama, refused to
   give up a strategic highway they were blocking, after riot police used
   tear  gas  and  rubber  bullets  to try to disperse them. Thousands of
   Shiâite demonstrators continue to paralyze the capitalâs key financial
   district.
   Another group of protesters at Bahrainâs Pearl Roundabout also refused
   to  budge  after  police  tried  to  clear  them out, using force. The
   demonstrators began blocking the roundabout in mid-February. Shiâites,
   which  make  up 70 percent of Bahrainâs population, are demanding more
   political power from Bahrain's Sunni monarchy.
   Yemeni  security  forces also fired tear gas and live ammunition for a
   second  day  in  a bid to force students to vacate a protest camp near
   Sana'a   University.   Eyewitnesses   say  police  and  pro-government
   supporters also used wooden clubs and knives to attack the protesters.
   Dozens of casualties were reported.
   Al-Jazeera  TV  reported  that  protesters in the southern Yemeni port
   city  of Aden attacked and set fire to a police station for the second
   time  in  48  hours. Al-Arabiya TV reported anti-government protesters
   also  clashed with police in the city of Taiz, north of Aden, injuring
   several.
   Yemeni  protesters  across  the  country have been demonstrating since
   mid-February,  amid calls for the resignation of veteran President Ali
   Abdallah   Saleh,   who   has  offered  sweeping  concessions  to  the
   protesters.
   In  Lebanon,  tens of thousands of supporters of the anti-Syrian March
   14th  coalition  turned out in Beirutâs Martyrâs Square to commemorate
   the  2005 Cedar Revolution that forced Damascus to withdraw its troops
   from the country.
   Caretaker   Prime   Minister   Saad   Hariri,   who  recently  lost  a
   no-confidence  vote  to the pro-Syrian Hezbollah and its allies, urged
   that the Shiâite militia of Hezbollah be disarmed.
   He says that he is calling for a state in which only the government is
   armed and a state that has only one army, rather than a state that has
   armies  outside the army, states outside the state, and people who are
   outside the law who use their arms against the people.
   Meanwhile,  in  Oman,  the  countryâs  ruler,  Sultan Qaboos, issued a
   decree offering major powers for the first time to individuals outside
   the  royal  family.  The  decision follows several weeks of scattered,
   ongoing protests that have shaken the normally stable Gulf sultanate.
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References

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