In Bahrain, Democracy Activists Regret Easing of U.S. Pressure

"How can you arrest people distributing leaflets in the year 2006?" he asked, referring to the recent detention of two activists from Haq, an opposition group that boycotted the elections. "We call for their release."

Abduljalil al-Singace, a university professor and head of Haq, said he had felt the sting of the U.S. "change of heart" in actively supporting democracy in the region. Singace has visited Washington five times in the past two years to lobby members of Congress to press the Bahraini government for more democracy. The reception on the Hill, he said, has grown colder and colder.

Singace said he believed that the country's rulers have used the enmity between the United States and Iran to their advantage. Because of Bahraini Shiites' historical religious and social ties with neighboring Iran, the United States "was convinced by the regime that empowering Shiites here means empowering Iran," he said.

Haq boycotted the elections, he said, because the parliament is ineffectual. "Even if you win a majority of seats in parliament, you can't make any changes," Singace said, leaning on crutches because of a disability caused by polio when he was a child. "Whether you're a rabbit or a lion, entering that parliament is like entering a cage."

Bills initiated by the elected assembly must be approved by the appointed upper house and by the king himself.

At a polling station set up at the Jid Hafs Girls' Middle School, Sayed Mahmood, a 24-year-old telecommunications student, waited more than an hour to vote, in lines that snaked over a hundred yards. In a refrain echoed by many young men here, Mahmood said one of the biggest problems in Bahrain was the unequal distribution of land and wealth.

Mahmood, who lives in a house with his parents, four siblings and their children, said he became even more frustrated when he looked up Bahrain on Google Earth and saw vast tracts of empty land, while tens of thousands of mainly poor Shiites were squashed together in small, dense areas.

"We are 17 people crowded in one small house, like many people in the southern district," he said. "And you see on Google how many palaces there are and how the al-Khalifas have the rest of the country to themselves."

Bahraini activists have encouraged people to take a look at the country on Google Earth, and they have set up a special user group whose members have access to more than 40 images of royal palaces.

At a demonstration last week, human rights activist Nabeel Rajab stood on a sidewalk as thousands of people, including clerics, women and students, streamed by carrying large banners.

The protesters marched near the Rass Ruman mosque here in the capital, demanding that Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, in office since the early 1970s, leave his post. "Enough, Khalifa. Step down, step down, step down Khalifa," the crowd chanted.

"If the international media weren't here, the riot police would have been beating the demonstrators," said Rajab, who has documented police assaults on activists, including himself.

Rajab heads the banned Bahrain Center for Human Rights, which was shut down and its Web site was blocked after the group issued reports documenting widespread poverty and discrimination in government jobs.

But the government has accused the opposition of exaggerating and has said it is openly criticizing the government with impunity. "In a dictatorship you can't speak. In a democracy you can speak," said Information Minister Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar Abdulla. "We are in the process of democratization, and we are strengthening this process day by day."