Bahrain at impasse five years after failed uprising

Five years after Sunni-ruled Bahrain crushed a popular uprising by the Shia majority, the kingdom is locked in a political impasse exacerbated by an economic crisis, analysts say.

They see an urgent need for a compromise between the rulers and the opposition, after the Arab Spring touched the small Gulf state on 14 February 2011.

"Hopes for progress on human rights and accountability for past and present abuses have faded," Amnesty International said ahead of Sunday's anniversary.

Echoing protests against longstanding rulers elsewhere in the region, Bahrain's Shia demanded a more representative government and a constitutional monarchy in the archipelago kingdom ruled by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty.

Demonstrators camped at the symbolic Pearl Square roundabout until security forces dispersed them a month after the uprising began.

Troops from Saudi Arabia, the region's dominant Sunni power, moved in from across the causeway to support their ally.

Dozens of dissidents have since been jailed or stripped of their citizenship.

Sheikh Ali Salman, leader of the main Shia opposition bloc Al-Wefaq, received a four-year sentence last June for inciting disobedience.

Scores have died in periodic unrest which has flared despite the suppression of the original uprising in Bahrain, home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.

Despite the Amnesty report, Bahraini Information Minister Isa bin Abdulrahman al-Hammadi insisted his country has made progress on the political front.

Dozens of dissidents have since been jailed or stripped of their citizenship.

'Government has accelerated reforms'

"The government has accelerated reforms," he said, and elections held in November 2014 - boycotted by the opposition - "saw a clear majority of Bahrainis vote in favour of positive progress by a parliament with enhanced powers".

On the economic front, the minister said Bahrain's target was a balanced budget "within three budgetary cycles".

"The plan aims to create a balance between revenues and expenditure by increasing non-oil revenues, redirecting subsidies and reducing recurrent expenditure along with restructuring government departments," he said.

However, with tensions still running high, police have warned that any calls to protest on Sunday, the uprising's anniversary, will be considered "a criminal infraction punished under the law".

Witnesses said security forces had increased the number of checkpoints around Shia villages where there had been demonstrations over the past two nights, and also made arrests.

Late Friday, the interior ministry said a "terrorist" explosion lightly damaged a police vehicle at the entrance to the Shia village of Diraz near Manama.

The government denies any discrimination against Shia and regularly accuses Iran - located 200 kilometres (124 miles) away across the Gulf - of meddling in Bahrain's internal affairs.

Manama also frequently announces the dismantling of "terrorist" cells that it says are linked to Iran, which the Shia power denies.

"Today in Bahrain, anyone who dares to criticise the authorities... risks punishment," said Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, James Lynch.

For Emirati analyst Mohammed Baharoun, "the events of 14 February 2011 shook the trust in the political class".

Baharoun, deputy director of the Dubai-based B'huth research centre, said the political situation "remains tense, but the current economic crisis offers an opportunity to consider a common platform to address this challenge that affects the lives of all citizens".

An 'unmanageable' crisis

In a bid to reduce its budget deficit Bahrain has cut subsidies on fuel and meat, with electricity and water to follow.

Bahrain was traditionally a centre of pearl diving, but oil has dominated the kingdom's economy in recent decades.

It now produces around 190,000 barrels per day of crude, most of which come from an offshore field shared with Saudi Arabia.

But after oil prices collapsed from above $100 a barrel in early 2014 to around $30 now, Bahrain has been forced to cut costs, as have its larger Gulf neighbours.

According to economist Jaafar al-Sayegh, Bahrain derives 86 to 88 percent of its revenue from oil.

The kingdom's growth is projected to slow this year to 2.25 percent, compared with 3.2 percent last year and 4.5 percent in 2014, the International Monetary Fund said.

In a bid to reduce its budget deficit Bahrain has cut subsidies on fuel and meat, with electricity and water to follow.

However, such austerity measures "will not solve the economic problem", said analyst and former government minister Ali Fakhro.

"The political crisis has reached a level where it has become unmanageable" with both the government and the opposition hitting a dead end, said Fakhro.

"The alternative is to reach a compromise through dialogue," he said.

The opposition appears ready.

Such a dialogue "would pave the way to ending the thorny political and constitutional crisis and help curb the deterioration in the citizen's living standards", four opposition groups including Al-Wefaq said in a joint statement last month.

Earlier efforts at dialogue after the 2011 uprising failed.