"We are still evaluating the situation there. However, we will soon conduct an evacuation if things are getting worse there."
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry Kusuma Habir on Friday said the government is not yet planning to evacuate Indonesians living in Libya and Bahrain in view of the rising tension in the two countries.

"We are still evaluating the situation there. However, we will soon conduct an evacuation if things are getting worse there," she said.

At least 12 people were killed on Thursday (Feb 17) and dozens injured in anti-government protests in Libya`s northeastern city of Al-Baida and eastern city of Benghazi.

Inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, Libyan protesters also called for a "Day of Rage" on Thursday in a bid to challenge the 41-year rule of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi, who has been accused of human rights abuses.

A Facebook group calling for the "Day of Range" had 4,400 registered members on Monday, but the number more than doubled to some 10,000 following Wednesday`s clashes in Benghazi.

Qadhafi, who came to power on the back of a 1969 coup, is the longest-serving leader in both Africa and the Arab world.

The protest was believed to have sparked by the detention of human rights lawyer Fathi Terbil by the Libyan security forces. Terbil was reportedly later released.

Local media reported that pro-Gaddafi demonstrations were held on Wednesday in several cities across the country following the Benghazi protest.

Meanwhile in Bahrain, a crowd estimated at more than 1,000 people on Wednesday joined a long and winding Shi`ite funeral procession for the man, shot dead the other day when fighting erupted at the burial of another protester.

Around 2,000 others were camped out at a junction in the center of the Gulf island kingdom`s capital, hoping to emulate the rallies on Cairo`s Tahrir Square. They demanded a change of government in Bahrain, where a Sunni family rules over a Shi`ite majority.

Three people were reportedly killed and 195 wounded when police launched a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters in Manama on Thursday, the health minister said, after the opposition reported four deaths.

"The health ministry has counted three dead and around 195 wounded," Faisal al-Hamr was quoted by the official BNA news agency as saying.

Hamr said most of those injured had returned home, but 43 people were still being treated, including one whom doctors were trying to resuscitate.

The recent protests are some of the most serious since widespread Shi`ite unrest of the 1990s, and appear to be driven by familiar complaints of economic hardship, lack of political freedom and sectarian discrimination.

"The people demanded the fall of the regime" protesters chanted as men pounded their chests in rhythm, a mourning gesture which is distinctive to the Shi`ite branch of Islam.

King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa has expressed condolences to relatives of the two dead men, and said a committee would investigate. The Interior Ministry has promised legal action if it finds police used unjustified force.

In the Sunni town of Riffa, home to many members of the ruling family, at least 1,000 pro-government demonstrators waved flags and held pictures of King Hamad in a show of support.

Though itself only a minor oil exporter, a stable Bahrain is important for neighboring Saudi Arabia, where oilfields are home to an oppressed Shi`ite minority.

Bahrain is also a hub for banking and financial services in the Gulf and home to the U.S. Navy`s Fifth Fleet.
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Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011