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Page added on November 3, 2012
Kuwait warns of harsher crackdown on protests
Authorities in Kuwait have warned they will take a tougher line against anti-government demonstrators defying bans on protest gatherings.
Thursday’s warning came as the Gulf nation’s opposition leader Mussallam al-Barrak was released on bail after a night of violent protests against his detention that left dozens hurt, his lawyer and an AFP photographer said.
Kuwaiti media reported that al-Barrack, a former member of parliament under investigation for allegedly insulting Kuwait’s emir, paid more than $35,500 before he was granted bail.
The interior ministry said forces will “firmly” confront any new demonstrations, adding that a “number” of protesters have been arrested, including a driver who allegedly tried to run over four policemen late on Wednesday.
Opposition groups held an emergency meeting in the wake of the night-long clashes, condemning the government’s “barbaric suppression” of peaceful demonstrations.
They said Kuwait was becoming a police state.
Kuwait last week banned any public gathering of more than 20 people in attempts to quash growing protests led by opposition factions that include Islamists.
The protesters are seeking to reclaim control of parliament in elections planned for December 1.
Pivotal moment
The outcome is seen as a pivotal moment in Kuwait’s political showdowns. A victory for the Islamists and their allies could bring even more pressures on the Western-backed ruling family, which has so far turned back demands for stricter Muslim social codes in Kuwait.
Kuwait’s deepening political crisis could bring further rifts in one of Washington’s most important Gulf allies, which now hosts the bulk of US ground forces in the region following US withdrawal from Iraq.
Kuwait has the most politically empowered parliament among the Gulf Arab states, with opposition legislators often directly challenging government officials over alleged corruption and power abuses.
Activists said that dozens of people, especially children, were rushed to hospital after inhaling gases as riot police extensively used stun grenades and tear gas cannisters in their attempt to disperse the protesters.
Opposition groups are to hold an emergency meeting on Thursday following the violent clashes outside the prison, a former MP and activists said.
Oil-rich Kuwait has not faced widespread unrest since the Arab Spring uprisings erupted last year across the Middle East.
However, political battles and labour upheavals have stalled many development plans and rewritten the rules on political dissent.
3 Comments on "Kuwait warns of harsher crackdown on protests"
BillT on Sat, 3rd Nov 2012 1:34 pm
And the revolts grow. The match was lit last summer, or maybe it was in 2003. Anyway, this is the future of the Middle East until the contrived war between Sunni and Shiia is settled and all of the Western supported dictators are gone.
dissident on Sat, 3rd Nov 2012 1:52 pm
No worries. The western media will for the most part ignore these demonstrations. After all, Kuwait is in the western camp so the protesters are wrong, wrong, wrong!
Arthur on Sat, 3rd Nov 2012 2:57 pm
Remember that between 1517 (Martin Luther) and 1648 (Peace of Westphalia) Europe was war torn between catholics and protestants. Something similar could happen between sunnis and shi’ites, the ‘catholics and protestants of Islam’. The USSR had proxies in the ME and they had the Baath party (secular socialism). But the USSR died and now the Baath movement dies with it. The vacuum is now going to be filled with Islam, what else? Just like when the socialist regime in Yugoslavia evaporated, the identity underneath, catholic Croats, orthodox Serbs and muslim Bosnians, came to the surface and started to assert itself. Result: ethnic cleansing. Iraq, after the US got rid of Saddam and his Baath dictatorship, the underlying ethnic/religeous identity surfaced. Result: ethnic cleansing. Will not be different in Kuwait, Saudi-Arabia and Syria. It will result in thousands killed and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. Next will be Turkey: the Kurds from Syria and Iraq could provide enough critical mass to start a country of their own and take the Turkish Kurds with them. Turkey, which has a very mighty army, could attempt to surpress the uprising and invade Iraq and Syria. It could very well be that the Syrian sunnies decide to become sunni neo-Ottoman rather than stay Syrians. Saw a documentary on Dutch TV last week with Syrian refugees in Turkey who described themselves as Ottomans. If that confession happens on a large scale, Turkey has more than enough weight to incorporate sunni Syria and become the de facto leader of the Islam and could function like Germany in the EU: khalifat. Wonder what Israel would think of such a development. They could be missing Assad.