DUBAI (AFP)-the Bahrain police dispersed a demonstration in the capital Manama shortly after the launch of a "national dialogue" intended to turn a deadly crackdown on Shiite-led protests, since State-run media said.
The demonstrators gathered in Sanabis neighborhood in the North of Manama after the funeral of one of those killed during February-March protests, the official BNA news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying late Saturday.
It did not elaborate on why the funeral had been so delayed.
The police spokesman said that officers scattered "unauthorized" demonstrations not far from Pearl Square, the focus of anti-Government protests earlier this year, after giving the standard warnings.
The main Shiite opposition bloc, the Islamic National Accord Association (Al-Wefaq), decided only on the 11th hour to accept the Sunni authorities invitation to join the dialogue after it withdrew its MPs from the Parliament in March in protest against the sentence.
His decision to attend was welcomed by Washington, which bases its fifth fleet in Bahrain.
"Al-Wefags participation will add an important voice of Bahrain political opposition to a process that has the potential to serve as a vehicle for reform and reconciliation ... and produce reforms which will answer the legitimate desire of the people of Bahrain," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
The small but strategic Gulf archipelago, joined by a Causeway to Saudi Arabia, have experienced repeated bouts of unrest among its Shiite majority population and a Sunni ruling family.
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