CNN March 18, 2011
Hard-line approach to Arab unrest intensifies
By Phil Gast
Determined to hang on to power, governments in Arab countries have turned to mercenaries, allies and even the destruction of a giant monument as means of quelling public demands for change.
And while Yemen, Bahrain and Libya have vastly different circumstances, the growing crackdowns share some characteristics, experts said Friday.
"What they have in common is that they are autocratic regimes not responsive to popular input," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a public policy organization.
Another analyst said the strong use of force may reflect an even more primal reality.
"The Middle East has no model of people losing power and staying alive in their country," said Daniel Serwer, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
In Bahrain, the Sunni royal family has turned to the Gulf Cooperation Council, an association of six Gulf Arab states, to assist its crackdown on protesters.
The kingdom and Saudi Arabia are worried about the potential for Iran to influence Bahrain's Shiite Muslim majority. And the Saudis worry that unrest could encourage its Shiite minority, which lives among its vital oil fields.
"The Gulf Cooperation Council has been transformed into a regime protection organization," says Christopher Boucek, an associate in the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank.
"The Saudis think this [unrest in Bahrain] is a threat to their stability," Boucek told CNN Friday.
Serwer said he does not believe the Iranians are actively fomenting trouble in Bahrain, an island nation east of Saudi Arabia.
Security forces in Bahrain on Friday demolished the Pearl Monument, a landmark that had been the site of massive recent anti-government protests.
The government explained the demolition by saying it was done "out of the government's keenness to optimize services and improve the infrastructure" and that it would "boost flow of traffic in this vital area of the capital," according to the state-run Bahrain News Agency.
The U.S. State Department Friday called on Bahraini security forces to cease violence and protesters to "engage peacefully and responsibly."
"As we have previously noted, a solution to Bahrain's problems will not be found through security measures," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner. "We reiterate our call for a peaceful and broadly inclusive political dialogue."
© Copyright 2011, Cable News Network
