Manama - Saturday morning

Hi Bloggers,

There was certainly plenty of action yesterday, though, myself, I only managed to capture the Sunni pro-government parade during the day. It focussed mainly around the Al Fateh mosque in Juffair, but also spread right down the highway to the Diplomatic Area. The overwhelming feeling of this demonstration was the wealth and opulence of the Sunnis. Everyone was wearing their Sunday (read Friday!) best and there were large convoys of 4W drive cars. This was in strong contrast to the more working or lower middle class feel of the Shi-ite protesters, who even had the pluck to camp out.



Tragically, I heard there were more shootings at the Pearl Roundabout in the evening. CNN is running a very graphic video, clearly showing someone being shot through the head. I went down there myself at about 11.00 pm, but it was all quiet again by the time. There was still a heavy police and army presence, so I backed off pretty quick. It's surprising how close you get on a bicycle, though, because it's a nifty, tricky and fast way of getting around.

The Crown Prince addressed the nation yesterday, but frankly I found him almost as hypocrytical as the Foregn Minister the day before. He called for calm and the recovery of our "humanity". Although superficially the right buzz words, it makes it sound like the current situation is a shared responsibility, involving two-way violence, but this is not so. The only "inhumanity" is coming from the police and army, not the protesters. The protesters who were shot at yesterday even had their hands in the air at the time.

Today is another weekend day, so there will probably be more demos. Whether the situation will calm from Sunday onwards remains to be seen.

Will contine to update,
Robert