Bahrain edges closer to normalcy

Manama: Bahrain is expected to edge closer to normalcy following a call by the civil service bureau to all state employees to resume their work on Sunday following days of disruption.

The call to around 34,000 people includes schoolteachers and administration staff, but not the 150,000 students who will have to wait for a clearance from the education ministry. Classes were suspended last week following unprecedented violent clashes alongside sectarian lines between students in some high schools and the University of Bahrain.

In an indication of the improvement of the situation on the ground, the Bahrain Defence Force, tasked with implementing the State of National Safety, the emergency laws, for three months, has reduced the evening curfew to eight hours alongside the main highway in the capital.

On Friday, Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, the foreign minister, said that Bahrain's top priority is to restore stability and social peace.

In Kuwait, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) said that a Kuwaiti convoy of medical aid is scheduled to arrive in Bahrain on Sunday.

Shaikh Azzam Mubarak Al Sabah, Kuwait's ambassador in Bahrain, said the convoy would include 53 doctors, 21 ambulances and other vehicles.

The Kuwaiti aid is being dispatched to Bahrain in line with instructions of the Emir, Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, to support Bahrain and assist its people, the envoy said.

Receiving members of the Shura Council, the upper house, on Friday evening, King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa said that the new promise of security and safety augured hope for a better tomorrow.

People will be able to sense the restoration of normal life and the healing of their wounds and will feel assured about their families and their livelihood, King Hamad said, Bahrain news Agency (BNA) reported.

The king said that that he would not allow the reform programme he launched as he assumed power to be stalled or to come to an end and that all issues that will “bring goodness to the people of Bahrain are invariably welcome.”

All people should join hands to assert security and restore stability, the king said, stressing that sectarian tension was alien to Bahrain, a nation known for its tolerance and the peaceful coexistence of all people on its soil, BNA reported.