Bahraini workers protest dismissals

Hundreds of fired Bahraini workers have held a demonstration outside the Ministry of Labor to protest their dismissals, Press TV reports. On Wednesday, demonstrators called on the US-backed Bahraini government to reinstate them immediately. They also demanded compensation for the period they have been out of work. The protesting workers were fired for their participation in anti-regime demonstrations that began in Bahrain in February. The demonstrators were carrying loaves of bread as a symbol of the hardship their families were going through. The Bahraini regime has fired hundreds of people, including civil servants, teachers and medical personnel, since the beginning of the popular revolution against the Saudi-backed authoritarian rule in the country. A similar demonstration outside the labor ministry was also held in August. The Wednesday protest comes days after the release of a report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) about months of regime crackdown on protesters. On November 23, the BICI charged that the ruling Al Khalifa regime had used “excessive force, including the extraction of forced confessions against detainees,” in their efforts to crush the protest rallies in Bahrain. According to the BICI report, the commission had received 1,624 complaints from individuals, saying that they had been dismissed or suspended from their jobs. The three major grounds used for firing employees in the public sector were absence from work, involvement in demonstrations, at times occurring on work premises, and the public display of opinions incompatible with internal regulations of the ministries involved. Since the beginning of the popular uprising in Bahrain, dozens of people have been killed, some under torture, and many others injured. Hundreds of protesters have also been detained by the US-backed dictatorship. The Bahraini interior ministry and security services “followed a systematic practice of physical and psychological mistreatment, which amounted in many cases to torture, with respect to a large number of detainees,” the BICI report said.