Bahrain Freedom Movement

The citizens of Bani Jamra, a village in the northwest of this Gulf island state, stood on the main road to their settlement holding placards that said there was no military training camp in their area. The pro-government newspaper Akhbar Al-Khaleej published a story Tuesday saying there was such a camp in Bani Jamra.  It was illustrated with a photograph, which appeared simultaneously in two other pro-government newspapers, that was supposedly taken at the training camp.  Taken outdoors, the photograph showed no people, but a box of bottles that the caption claimed to be molotov cocktails. On Wednesday, the independent newspaper Al-Wasat published a story saying it had investigated the Akhbar Al-Khaleej story, but had failed to find any evidence of a military training camp in the village. Al-Wasat also said that the photograph had been distributed to the press by the Interior Ministry in January 2006.

The ministry did not deny Al-Wasat’s charge, but it issued a statement yesterday saying that Molotov cocktail bottles had been found in the vicinity of Bani Jamra early this week. Reports making false claims about Bahrain’s Shiite community have regularly appeared in newspapers close to the government during the past two years.  Shiite Muslims make up an estimated 60 percent of Bahrain’s 700,000 citizens, but the ruling family belongs to the Muslim Sunni sect. Shiites have long complained that they suffer discrimination in seeking jobs in the higher echelons of the civil service and that their political parties have been kept out of the Cabinet.  Also yesterday, Shiite youths continued a two-week campaign of burning tires on the main highways in and around the capital, Manama, slowing and blocking traffic.  The youths are demanding the release of two men who were imprisoned last month after being convicted of “damaging the public interest” by distributing anti-government leaflets. A Shiite cleric, Sheik Isa Qassim, denounced the campaign in his Friday prayers sermon. Speaking at Al-Sadiq Grand Mosque in Duraz, a Shiite village next to Bani Jamra, Qassim said: “We are against the burning of tires, the blocking of highways or the creation of traffic jams. I call on all youths to stay away from these deplorable actions.” _