By Ian Black
February 17, 2011
Bahrain's security forces are the backbone of the Al Khalifa regime, now facing unprecedented unrest after overnight shootings. But large numbers of their personnel are recruited from other countries, including Jordan, Pakistan and Yemen.
Tanks and troops from Saudi Arabia were also reported to have been deployed in support of Bahraini forces.
Precise numbers are a closely guarded secret, but in recent years the Manama government has made a concerted effort to recruit non-native Sunni Muslims as part of an attempt to swing the demographic balance against the Shia majority - who make up around 65% of the population of 1 million.
Bahrainis often complain that the riot police and special forces do not speak the local dialect, or in the case of Baluchis from Pakistan, do not speak Arabic at all and are reviled as mercenaries. Officers are typically Bahrainis, Syrians or Jordanians. Iraqi Ba'athists who served in Saddam Hussein's security forces were recruited after the US-led invasion in 2003. Only the police employs Bahraini Shias.
The secret police - the Bahrain national security agency, known in Arabic as the Mukhabarat - has undergone a process of "Bahrainisation" in recent years after being dominated by the British until long after independence in 1971. Ian Henderson, who retired as its director in 1998, is still remembered as the "Butcher of Bahrain" because of his alleged use of torture. A Jordanian official is currently described as the organisation's "master torturer".
"Now they recruit young Bahraini Sunnis to open Twitter accounts to give the government point of view in the social media battle," a local journalist said.
The large-scale naturalisation of foreign Sunnis has been described by analysts as a "clear political strategy to alter the country's demographic balance in order to counter the Shia voting power."
Al-Wifaq, the leading Shia party, has long criticised these "political naturalisations". The government claims few foreigners are being naturalised, but it has convinced few Bahraini Shias. "This is in part because hardliners grouped around the royal court minister, Khalid bin Ahmad, and cabinet minister, Ahmed bin Atiyatallah, have successfully resisted calls for a transparent naturalisation system," the US embassy in Manama reported in December 2009, according to a cable released by WikiLeaks.
But the chief of public security, Major General Abdul Latif al-Zayani, was praised for blocking his subordinates' efforts to naturalise the mostly Pakistani special forces company that was due to deploy in support of US troops in Afghanistan. "Zayani reportedly cited the political sensitivity of naturalising Sunni expatriates and wanted to avoid provoking the opposition," the embassy said.
Opposition groups have protested that people chosen for naturalisation are not just Sunnis but religious fundamentalists who have strong anti-Shia feelings.
