MANAMA, 3 January 2003 — Bahrain’s government vowed yesterday to crack down on troublemakers after hundreds of youths rampaged through downtown Manama on New Year’s Eve.
Information Minister Nabil Al-Hamar said court hearings for those involved in acts of violence and vandalism over New Year will start tomorrow.
“Four minors among those implicated in the acts of violence were freed and eight were questioned and will have to appear before the court tomorrow,” Hamar told AFP. “Other people implicated in the New Year troubles were freed on bail,” he said.
An Interior Ministry spokesman, quoted by the official news agency BNA, said Wednesday that 41 people were arrested for committing “acts of violence during the New Year celebrations.”
“We shall leave no room for saboteurs to continue to harm and damage our economy and all that we have accomplished,” warned Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa ibn Salman Al-Khalifa during an inspection yesterday of the damage. “They will be well-disciplined and we see no reason for such an act to happen,” Sheikh Khalifa said, quoted by BNA.
“We need to always maintain security and stability. We are here to assure every citizen that his security and stability and protection of his properties shall be the responsibility of the government.
“We have to leave no chance for such kind of people,” he said in reference to the rioters. “This sort of sabotage is only aimed at damaging the country and causing harm to Bahraini citizens.”
The prime minister was accompanied on his tour by Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammed ibn Khalifa Al-Khalifa and Sheikh Abdul Aziz ibn Attiyatallah Al-Khalifa, head of the National Security Bureau.
A total of 125 cars of Bahrainis and other Gulf nationals were damaged or set ablaze, the Interior Ministry official said, and the fronts of seven hotels and two restaurants ransacked. (AFP)
