Bahrain Security Forces Step Up Arrests of Protesters

MANAMA—Bahrain's security forces have arrested nearly 20 people, including doctors and youth activists, as the government ratchets up its efforts to silence the protest movement on the strategic Gulf island state.

The authorities have moved beyond the well-publicized arrests Thursday of seven senior members of the opposition, who were rounded up in dawn raids on their homes. The latest sweep by police includes a number of lower level political activists and even medical staff accused of criticizing the regime, according to human-rights groups, doctors and the mainstream opposition Al Wefaq group. Some 18 arrests have been confirmed by those groups.

Al Wefaq drew up a longer list of 90 Bahrainis it said had gone missing since the government crackdown began on Wednesday, and said it assumed "a large proportion" of them also have been arrested.

The roundup by police has drawn strong protests from human-rights groups.

"The arbitrary arrest of opposition members, doctors and activists is intolerable and totally unacceptable, and we demand the government immediately release them," said Faraz Sanei, researcher on Bahrain and Iran for the international group Human Rights Watch.

On Thursday, police detained seven prominent members of the opposition, including Hassan Mushaima and Abdul-Jalil Alsingace, members of the hard-line Haq movement, as well as Ebrahim Sharif, leader of the moderate Sunni group the National Democratic Action Society.

On Friday Bahrain's foreign minister said the reason for those seven arrests was because they had "refused the concept and the principle of dialogue." In the case of Ebrahim Sharif, he said he also was suspected of having "relations and doing work with foreign countries."

The arrests came the day after Bahraini security services, backed by the Saudi army, swept protesters from the capital's financial district and from their encampment at Pearl roundabout, later fanning out across the island, imposing a curfew and banning all public gatherings and marches. Last Tuesday, the king of Bahrain declared a three-month state of emergency.

According to medical sources and human-rights groups, others arrested since the crackdown include four doctors, who the authorities believe were sympathizers with the pro-democracy cause, and several youth activists from the February 14th movement, which was one of the leading forces behind the massive antigovernment protests launched in Bahrain last month.

Government officials have declined to comment on the number of arrests. "I have no clear number to tell you the truth," Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said Friday, when asked about the round ups. "It's a number that hasn't been announced by the police."

Al Wefaq said the 90 people it listed as missing include patients taken from the capital's main hospital, the Salmanyah Medical Center. Doctors say many are now being held in a Bahrain army hospital on the outskirts of the capital. "We fully condemn these measures," said Khalil Almarzooq of the Al Wefaq party. "They can't just pinch people from homes, hospitals and streets and arrest them without reason."

Family members of those missing have trawled city's police stations and hospitals to no avail. Fahmi Hassan, 47 years old, a human-rights campaigner, said he last heard from his brother, Mahmood, who was a photographer for the opposition group, the Islamic Action Society, last Tuesday evening in Salmanyah hospital.

"We rang his mobile and there was no answer and now the telephone is switched off," said Hassan.

Despite the regime's escalating efforts to halt activity, pressure from opposition also is rising. Bahrain's largest trade union called for nationwide strikes to be extended until foreign troops are withdrawn from the kingdom and pro-government militias are disbanded, posing another threat to Bahrain's fragile economy.

Speaking after a meeting Sunday of the General Federation for Bahrain Trade Unions, which represents more than 60 trade unions across Bahrain, secretary-general Sayed Salman said unions wanted to avoid causing lasting damage to the economy, but were left with no choice but to extend the general strike that began a week earlier in response to a government crackdown on protests.

He said foreign-troop intervention and mounting attacks on Bahraini workers by armed government loyalists are "unacceptable."

"As of now, 70% of Bahraini workers are on strike and in this situation we cannot call our people back to duty. We hope that it won't be a long time as our workers are also suffering, but we want all the militias and foreign forces to be taken off the streets. ... The situation here is unacceptable," Mr. Salman said in an interview.

The trade-union group represents workers from across Bahrain's services and construction sectors, including Gulf Air, the national carrier, and Bapco, the island's largest oil company.

An official from the Bapco trade union said the refinery, which has the capacity to produce more than 250,000 barrels a day of crude, has partially shut down production owing to staff shortages.

"Only 10% is working properly at Bapco. …80 to 85% of production and distribution is now affected," the union official said.

Bahrain's government has urged employees to return to work after days of closures and shortened hours. But the announcement of persistent large-scale strikes could aggravate the problems facing Bahrain's economy. Over a month of antigovernment protests has seen hotels and restaurants report a collapse in bookings, and has fed fears about Bahrain's status as a financial center.

Those fears are growing despite a move by Gulf Arab oil producers earlier this month to launch a $10 billion aid package for Bahrain to bolster its government against protests.

The union's move also comes as opposition groups have been thrown into disarray by this week's government crackdown.

The presence of military forces has heightened opposition fears that mass demonstrations could lead to spike in casualties, while the arrest of several high-profile opposition leaders has compromised the antigovernment movement's ability to organize and coordinate policy.

In an effort to reduce tensions, Bahrain's main opposition groups late on Saturday announced they would ease their conditions for direct talks with the government, stressing in a statement that political leaders should be freed and that Gulf Arab troops should leave the kingdom so talks could begin.

Jawad Fairooz, a senior lawmaker with Al Wefaq, the country's main opposition bloc, said in an interview Sunday that the impact of the crackdown on the opposition had been "dramatic," but stressed that protests would continue and that dialogue could begin promptly if the government ordered the pullout of foreign troops and the withdrawal of the Bahraini military from the streets.

"We think dialogue is the only solution, but with the presence of foreign troops this is not a possibility. We are asking for a pullout of the foreign troops, and the militia, who are directed by the government and the interior ministry, and Bahraini troops should go back to their base," he said.

He added, "Sometimes you have to change your tactics, but still we will find a way to demonstrate."

Munira Fakhro, a leading Sunni opposition leader who wasn't arrested during recent crackdowns, says rallying the moderates is now increasingly difficult given that the government has captured many of the main politicians who speak for them. She says arrests of moderates such as Ebrahim Sharif, the leading antigovernment Sunni, was a deliberate move to destroy the middle ground and turn the sects against one another.

"The goal from now on is to divert all uprisings into Sunni-Shia fighting," she said.

Ms. Fakhro added that without the ability to protest, she is throwing her weight behind a general strike. "I hate to see our economy collapse," she said. "But if there is pressure from the business community [created by a strike] this could be bigger than anything yet."