MANAMA: Bahraini authorities are brooking no dissent even after the suppression of a Shia-led pro-democracy movement, with activists arrested, strikers fired and offers of a national dialogue muted.

Tanks remain deployed at entry points to the financial district, though a curfew in Manama has been rolled back and some semblance of normality returned to the Gulf kingdom's capital.

Security forces razed the monument in Pearl Square where demonstrators were camped before being violently evicted on March 16, erasing what had become a symbol of protests held in the heart of Manama.

The protesters have sought varying degrees of political reform, with some calling for sweeping change but within the current system and hardliners demanding the fall of the Al-Khalifa monarchy.

The calls for a republic proved to be a red line for Manama and neighbouring monarchies, notably Riyadh and Abu Dhabi which spearheaded the deployment of a joint Gulf contingent to free up Bahraini forces to crush the uprising.

Events in the tiny kingdom have exacerbated Sunni-Shia tensions, both within the country and in the region at large.

The Gulf intervention sparked a crisis with Iran. Tehran and Gulf states have since traded accusations of meddling, while Shias across the Middle East held demonstrations in support of their co-religionists in Bahrain.

Bahraini authorities said 24 people were killed in the month-long unrest in the only Shia-majority Arab state of the Gulf. Although the protest movement on the streets was eradicated, the crackdown on dissent has continued.

Security forces have arrested 400 people, including 15 women, in a series of raids, according to Khalil al-Marzuk, an MP with main Shia opposition group Al-Wefaq which resigned en masse in protest at violence against demonstrators.

And about 800 people have been fired from both government and private sector jobs for responding to a call for a general strike in mid-March, he said.

Newspaper reports say those who stayed at home during the strike have been dismissed. Some 750 employees have been sacked, including 190 from the national oil company and 111 education ministry staff, said independent daily Al-Wasat.

TV images of protests in March have been used to identify participants.

At the height of the protest movement, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, tasked by King Hamad to open a dialogue, appealed for talks. Such calls, however, have grown silent since the March 16 crackdown.

On Friday, Prince Salman underlined his willingness to pursue reform, while issuing a stern warning against any attempt to divide the country.

“I will continue to be firm on the principle that you cannot be lenient towards those who seek to divide our society into two camps,” he said, with any mention of dialogue.

Prominent Sunni cleric Sheikh Abdul Latif al-Mahmud said: “Before, we called for dialogue first. But now, we call for security first and foremost.”

The remaining MPs in Bahrain's 40-seat house, with the departure of Al-Wefaq's 18 members, have said in a statement there will be “no dialogue except in parliament.”

“This is a meaningless statement, and shows that the authorities want neither dialogue nor reforms. Additionally, how can the opposition talk under the threat of tanks,” Marzuk said.

An International Crisis Group report on the situation in Bahrain emphasised that a third party may need to facilitate dialogue in the kingdom, given the high level of mistrust on both sides.

“It is unclear how meaningful, peaceful dialogue can be resumed, but it ... remains absolutely necessary. Given the level of distrust, involvement of a credible third party facilitator appears to be both essential and urgent,” it said.

“If authorities continue to opt for repression, things will start to fall apart” which could lead “to new violence like that experienced in the country in the 1990s,” said Michael Shmidmayr, an expert on the Gulf countries.

The country was plagued by a wave of Shia-led unrest that had abated after 2001 reforms restored its elected parliament, which was dissolved in 1975, and turned the emirate into a kingdom.—AFP