Ecclestone dismisses protests in Bahrain

FORMULA One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has dismissed concerns over this week’s Bahrain Grand Prix after pro-democracy protests escalated and a militant group blew up a car in the capital Manama.

Ecclestone said he could see “no reason” why the race, which was cancelled in 2011 after an uprising but went ahead despite demonstrations last year, should not be a success.

“Yes. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be (a success),” Ecclestone said at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Last week, police fired tear gas and sound bombs to disperse hundreds of people demonstrating against the race, witnesses said.

The mainly Shiite opposition is organising a week of protests that began last Friday to coincide with the Grand Prix.

Yesterday, authorities said a “terrorist group” used a gas cylinder to blow up a car overnight in Manama. Nobody was hurt in the explosion.

The radical youth February 14 Movement claimed responsibility for the blast on Twitter, saying it was aimed at disrupting “activity in Manama’s financial centre in opposition to holding the Formula One race”.

Authorities in the Gulf kingdom have promised “appropriate security measures” for the race. “The security situation in Bahrain is very reassuring,” a government spokeswoman told the state news agency BNA.

Bahrain “will ensure that appropriate security measures are taken during the Formula One race and will take enough measures as in all other countries which host such international sporting events.”

However, Bahrain was not a hot topic of discussion at the Chinese Grand Prix, unlike last year when the subject dominated, and Ecclestone said he was not even aware of any protests. “What’s happened? They’re demonstrating now? I didn’t know that,” he said.

He was also unconcerned about a report from Human Rights Watch that police in the Gulf state have been rounding up pro-democracy activists in the run-up to the Grand Prix. “No, they have their own politics and they are discussing this, I believe,” Ecclestone said.

Sunni-ruled Bahrain was rocked by pro-democracy protests led by the kingdom’s Shiite majority in early 2011 that were crushed with the help of Saudi-led troops. Sapa-AFP