Abolish Bahrain's monarchy, chant Shia Muslims

Riot police pull out as Bahraini protesters rush to celebrate at the Pearl roundabout in Manama, Bahrain. Photo / AP

BAHRAIN - Chanting, singing and waving roses, Bahrain's Shia Muslims ran in their tens of thousands back into Pearl Square in the centre of Manama after two days of bloodshed as police and soldiers battled to keep them from the streets of the capital.

The army tanks withdrew from the area - Bahrain's version of Cairo's Tahrir Square - in the morning, and then more than 1000 riot police, standing in ranks before the democracy protesters, suddenly retreated. Several of them ran away, pursued by women in chadors waving flowers.

Just why the Bahraini military, after firing live bullets into the crowds 24 hours earlier, allowed the protesters to take back the square yesterday was a mystery to many of them.

Perhaps Crown Prince Salman ben Hamad al-Khalifa, who appealed to the protesters and his own soldiers and police to show restraint, believed that a return to the mini-insurrection in the square would persuade the Shia opposition to open negotiations with the royal family.

Indeed, Prince Salman appeared on television to say talks with the opposition had begun and that "a new era" had started in the history of Bahrain.

Perhaps the Crown Prince was forced to end the brutality of the security forces after more calls from the White House.

"This nation is not for only one section - it is not for Sunnis or Shias," he said. "It is for Bahrain and for Bahrainis."

Opposition MPs had demanded a withdrawal of army tanks from the square, and police units, as a condition of opening talks with the royal family. Yesterday, many of those who stormed joyously towards the giant concrete pearl monument had gone much further in their aspirations, wanting the abolition of the monarchy itself.

Many held posters bearing the faces of Saddam Hussein, ex-Egyptian President Mubarak and former Tunisian dictator Bin Ali, all of the portraits crossed out alongside a picture of King Hamad and the words "Down, Down Hamad". Crowds sang "go away Khalifas" and said that only a new constitution and the trial of police and soldiers who had fired at them with live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear-gas grenades would satisfy them.

There was also a distinct note of anger with America when Shia men and women found - amid the debris of the protesters' camp destroyed by the police last week - dozens of tear-gas and baton rounds imported from the United States.

One rubber-bullet cartridge - and Bahrainis have died from these weapons - carried its American manufacturer's identity and military codes. It was unclear from coding from a stun gun whether it was made in the US, Britain or France - all major arms suppliers to Bahrain.

Many of the protesters who "re-took" the central square yesterday were still asking how Bahraini troops could have shot at their own citizens. But it is now clear that many soldiers in the "Bahraini" army are Pakistanis.

Yesterday, the Shias appeared to have won the right to occupy the square again; but whether the police will allow them to keep their encampment, which was being resupplied with tents, is another matter.

- Independent