This month, the Bahraini monarchy stopped
permitting political protests as it continues to respond to unauthorized
rallies with brutal force. The act of rejecting permits to protest -- and thus closing
off this peaceful channel of dissent -- threatens to drive Bahrainis away from
the moderate camp. Closing political
space to legally protest is creating a volatile environment, where both police
and demonstrators are increasingly resorting to violent means. Without a
reversal of this policy, the Prime Minister and his hardline allies within the
government will get just what they want -- an excuse to crack down on a violent
opposition that has no peaceful outlet to express its political grievances.
In the first six months of this year, opposition parties in Bahrain documented at
least 20 requests for peaceful protests that were rejected. According to the
government, 88 peaceful protests were also allowed
during the same period. Throughout this time, formal political opposition
parties played by the government's rules, applying 72 hours in advance to the Ministry of Interior for permits to protest and accepting de facto bans on any
demonstration inside the capital of Manama. But in the last month, Bahrain's
Ministry of Interior has rejected all
opposition applications for planned protests pending further study, citing the
need to end street violence and prevent the disruption of traffic. Before the
end of July, frustrated opposition parties defied the ban, holding widespread
demonstrations across the country and declaring a march in Manama. These
unauthorized rallies were met
with the same type of excessive force the island has witnessed for the past 18
months: protests across the country were attacked
with a flood of tear gas, birdshot, beatings, and raids. According to the
largest opposition party, al-Wefaq, the number of rallies denied permits has
now reached 30 in July alone.
One lesson to be learned from the Arab Spring is that repressing peaceful
protests by force does not make people go home -- it angers and emboldens them.
Young activists, beaten down and humiliated, return more determined and
potentially more radicalized. When pressed on the excessive use of force by
riot police, Bahraini officials regularly point to the increased use of Molotov
cocktails and protesters attacking police with iron rods, and warn of foiled
terrorist attacks and bomb plots.
For the past year, the U.S. government has implored al-Wefaq and other
opposition leaders to keep the streets calm to ensure space for political
dialogue with regime moderates. Opposition leaders have repeatedly issued
public calls to maintain a nonviolent approach. But, as the government's progress
toward reform has stalled, the moderate opposition's ability to ensure that
protesters remain patient appears to be eroding. Former al-Wefaq member of parliament (MP) Matar Matar
has described the new policy as the government "encouraging the people to
disobedience." The February 14th Youth Movement, an anonymous youth group that
organizes unauthorized and often confrontational political protests via Facebook,
was able to gather 5,000 people in a recent rally -- the movement's largest in months.
As the government of Bahrain moves to eliminate any space for peaceful
political protest, the opposition is tasked with an impossible order: in the face of excessive force by police,
maintain an environment of total nonviolence while awaiting reforms from the
government. For a frustrated population accustomed to weekly protests and
violent crackdowns in the absence of meaningful political reform, this approach
has little appeal.
As dialogue has reached a year-long standstill, people on the streets have
grown increasingly frustrated with the Bahraini government's political
runaround. Meanwhile, the U.S. government seems to have lost its voice
extolling the universal principle of peaceful assembly in Bahrain. Ever-present
in public statements are condemnations of
violence by protesters and excessive force by police, but these have been too
rarely accompanied by support for the basic freedom to protest in the first
place.
In response to the recent moves by the Bahraini government to curtail its
citizens' right to assembly, the U.S. government has registered no
public objection, despite expressed
U.S. support for the right of assembly before this policy was implemented.
With frustrations in Bahrain mounting, the
United States needs to publicly convey to our Gulf ally that peaceful assembly
is a universal right and that policies that prohibit it represent a red line in
the bilateral relationship. U.S. silence in this regard will be perceived as continued
support for government actions which are marginalizing moderates and undermining
peaceful voices for reform. Sidelining such moderates would fulfill the hard-liners'
image of violent protesters bent on the overthrow of the regime and justify a vicious
crackdown. The United States must clearly and
unequivocally take a stand in support of the
universal right to peaceful assembly, or else be seen as complicit in the bloodshed
that would follow.
Cole
Bockenfeld is director of advocacy at the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED).
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