Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20201112

A30 world news
Diahuebs 12 November 2020

Bahrain's long-serving prime minister dies at age 84

remained a British protector- Those corruption allegations security forces beating de-
ate. fueled discontent, particu- tainees and forcing them to
larly among Bahrain’s Shiite kiss pictures of King Hamad
Prince Khalifa’s brother, majority who still today com- and Prince Khalifa.
Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al plain of discrimination by the
Khalifa, took power in 1961 government. In February Low-level unrest continued
and served as monarch when 2011, protesters inspired by in the years that followed,
Bahrain gained its indepen- Arab Spring demonstrations with Shiite protesters fre-
dence from Britain in 1971. across the Mideast filled the quently clashing with riot
Under an informal arrange- streets and occupied the capi- police. Shiite militant groups,
ment, Sheikh Isa handled the tal Manama’s Pearl Round- whom Bahrain’s government
island’s diplomacy and cer- about to demand political re- allege receive support from
emonial duties while Prince forms and a greater say in the Iran, planted bombs that
Khalifa ran the government country’s future. killed and wounded several
and economy. members of the country’s se-
The years that followed saw While some called for a con- curity forces.
(AP) — Bahrain’s Prince rooted in royal privilege and Bahrain develop rapidly as it stitutional monarchy, many But while other hard-line
members of the Al Khalifa
Khalifa bin Salman Al expressed through personal sought to move beyond its others pressed for the remov-
Khalifa, one of the world’s patronage.” Bahrain's Royal dependence on dwindling al of the long-ruling prime family actively pushed for a
longest-serving prime Court announced a week oil reserves. Manama at that minister and other members confrontation with Shiites,
ministers who led his is- of official mourning, with a time served as what Dubai of the Sunni royal family al- Prince Khalifa maintained
land nation’s government burial coming after the return in the United Arab Emir- together, including King Ha- contacts with those the gov-
for decades and survived of his body. State television ates ultimately became, a re- mad. ernment opposed. Even with
the 2011 Arab Spring pro- aired a recitation of Quranic gional financial, service and his influence waning, he
tests that demanded his verses, showing a black-and- tourism hub. The opening At one point during the called Qatar’s ruling emir,
ouster over corruption al- white image of the prince. of the King Fahd Causeway height of the unrest in March Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
legations, died on Wednes- in 1986 gave the island na- 2011, thousands of protest- Al Thani, in 2019 during the
day. He was 84. Late on Wednesday, au- tion its first land link with its ers besieged the prime min- holy month of Ramadan de-
thorities announced Crown rich and powerful neighbor, ister’s office while officials spite Bahrain being one of
Bahrain's state-run news Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Saudi Arabia, and offered an met inside, demanding that four Arab nations boycotting
agency announced his death, Khalifa would lead the Coun- escape for Westerners in the Prince Khalifa step down Doha in a political dispute.
saying he had been receiving cil of Ministers, typically the kingdom who wanted to en- over corruption allegations
treatment at the Mayo Clinic job of the island’s prime min- joy Bahrain’s alcohol-soaked and an earlier, deadly crack- “Khalifa bin Salman could
in the United States, without ister. The succession process nightclubs and beaches. down on the demonstrations. and did work with both Sunni
elaborating. The Mayo Clin- however wasn’t immediately Protesters also took to wav- and Shia, especially through
ic declined to comment. clear as Prince Khalifa’s death But Prince Khalifa increas- ing one Bahraini dinar notes his relations with Bahrain’s
means the country would get ingly saw his name entangled over allegations Prince Khal- business community,” Di-
Prince Khalifa’s power and only its second premier since in corruption allegations, ifa bought the land on which wan said. “He brought this
wealth could be seen every- its 1971 independence. such as a major foreign cor- Bahrain’s Financial Harbour same personalistic approach
where in this small nation ruption practices case against development sits for just a to relations with other Gulf
off the coast of Saudi Ara- The crown prince had been aluminum producer Alcoa single dinar. monarchs, and was genuinely
bia that is home to the U.S. trying to strip away Prince over using a London-based uncomfortable with the new
Navy’s 5th Fleet. His official Khalifa’s control of Bahrain’s middleman to facilitate bribes Robert Gates, a former U.S. politics exemplified by coarse
portrait hung for decades on economy for years prior, with for Bahraini officials. Alcoa secretary of defense under attacks on the Qatari leader-
walls alongside the country’s the apparent approval of his agreed to pay $384 million in President Barack Obama, ship.”
ruler. He had his own private father, King Hamad bin Isa fines to the U.S. government wrote in his memoirs that he
island where he met foreign Al Khalifa. to settle the case in 2014. urged the king at the time to Slowly though, Prince Khal-
dignitaries, complete with a Prince Khalifa was born into force Prince Khalifa from the ifa’s influence waned as he
marina and a park that had the Al Khalifa dynasty that for The U.S. Embassy in Mana- premiership, describing him faced unexplained health
peacocks and gazelle roam its more than two centuries has ma similarly had its own sus- as “disliked by nearly every- problems. He was admit-
grounds. ruled Bahrain, an island in picions about Prince Khalifa. one but especially the Shia.” ted to hospital in November
The prince represented an the Persian Gulf whose name “I believe that Shaikh Khalifa 2015 but was later released.
older style of Gulf leadership, in Arabic means the “two is not wholly a negative influ- Bahraini officials soon He also traveled to southeast
one that granted patronage seas.” The son of Bahrain’s ence,” former U.S. Ambas- crushed the protests with Asia for medical appoint-
and favors for support of the former ruler, Sheikh Salman sador Ronald E. Neumann the backing of troops from ments. In late November
Sunni Al Khalifa family. That bin Hamad Al Khalifa who wrote in a 2004 cable released neighboring Saudi Arabia and 2019, he traveled to Germa-
style would be challenged ruled from 1942 to 1961, the by WikiLeaks. “While cer- the United Arab Emirates. A ny for undisclosed medical
in the 2011 protests by the prince learned governance at tainly corrupt he has built government-sponsored re- treatments, remaining there
island’s Shiite majority and his father’s side as the island much of modern Bahrain.” port into the protests and for months.
others, who demonstrated crackdown later described
against him over long-run- In September, a U.S. Air
ning corruption allegations Force C-17 flying hospital
surrounding his rule. flew from Germany to Roch-
ester, Minnesota, following
Though less powerful and by a royal Bahraini aircraft.
frailer in recent years, his While U.S. and Bahraini of-
ficials declined to comment
machinations still drew atten-
tion in the kingdom as a new on the flights, it came just af-
ter America offered the same
generation now jostles for
power. “Khalifa bin Salman care to Kuwait's ruling emir
just before his death.
represented the old guard
in more ways than just age Prince Khalifa was married
and seniority,” said Kristin
Smith Diwan, a senior resi- and has three surviving chil-
dren, sons Ali and Salman
dent scholar at the Washing-
ton-based Arab Gulf States and daughter Lulwa. Another
son, Mohammed, died previ-
Institute. “He represented
an old social understanding ously.