By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

MANAMA: Thousands of Bahrainis took to the street Tuesday in an anti-regime protest heading to Pearl Square, the focal point of demonstrations for over two weeks.
“We are brothers, Sunnis and Shiites,” chanted the demonstrators, who were predominantly Shiite, as they marched from the Salmaniah district of the capital, a few kilometers from the square.

Protesters were segregated, with men on one side and women clad in black abaya cloaks marching alongside them, an AFP reporter said.
Handicapped protesters on wheelchairs led the procession which passed through a street where police killed two anti-government demonstrators two weeks ago.

“We are in this march to stress the unity between Shiites and Sunnis in Bahrain,” said Sheikh Mohammed Habib al-Muqdad, a cleric who was among 25 activists on trial for terrorism charges, who was freed last week in a royal pardon.
Protesters in the Shiite-majority kingdom which is ruled by the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty have been calling for the fall of the regime.

But Shiite-led opposition groups have taken a more moderate stance, demanding major reforms that would lead to establishing a “real” constitutional monarchy, as well as the resignation of the government which they hold responsible for the killing of seven protesters when security forces moved in to break up protesters on Manama’s Pearl Square on Feb. 17.

King Hamad bin Issa has entrusted his heir, Crown Prince Sheikh Salman with opening a wide-reaching dialogue with the opposition, an offer that is seen too late by hard core protesters.
The monarch had kick-started reforms with a referendum in 2001 that led to reviving the Parliament in 2002, after it had been scrapped in 1975. But the legislature remains crippled by the authorities of the all-appointed upper chamber, and the king.

Fatima al Balooshi, minister for social development, said Tuesday that the king had already made goodwill gestures but that anti-government protesters were refusing to join the “national dialogue” he has launched.
These gestures have included expressing condolences for the deaths of the seven protesters, and the calling of a dialogue, Balooshi said. – AFP, with Reuters