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Shops have reopened in Bahrain and roads are busy again after weeks of protests and a state crackdown brought the kingdom to a near-standstill and led to many expats fleeing the island on the advice of their embassies.
Soldiers still guard the entrances to the GCC Roundabout, once the focal point of protests. Diggers and trucks removed the last remnants of the pearl monument there, which authorities demolished on Saturday after it became a symbol of the unrest and marked an area where protesters died along with police officers trying to restore order.
The government plans to set up traffic lights in place of the roundabout, where only days ago protesters had set up tents, were handing out food and holding political rallies late into the night.
Bahraini police and troops moved in to end weeks of protests that prompted His Majesty King Hamad to declare a State of National Safety, which stopped short of martial law and a full-scale emergency but led to troops arriving from Bahrain's neighbours under the Gulf countries' Peninsula Shield Force.
In a dusty wasteland that now surrounds the former roundabout, dozens of cars still sit, windows smashed and boots open, after police searched vehicles abandoned by protesters who fled a security sweep that drove them from the area.
In other parts of the island, life has been returning to normal. Shops and malls are now open. Only the remnants of a few makeshift road blocks, set up by vigilantes, remind Bahrainis and the expats who decided to remain at their work posts, or in their rented villas and apartments, of the tough weeks that have passed.
The malls around Seef lining the main thoroughfare from the centre of Manama and along from the financial district had been closed since protesters overwhelmed police and barricaded the road just over a week ago in what this newspaper described as 'one protest too many'.
The outlets have begun to reopen this week, but since most lie inside the curfew zone, they are closing as early as 7pm. They would normally open until 10pm on weekdays, later on weekends.
"We were closed for five days. We first tried to reopen on Friday but there was little work. Of course, there are fewer people than normal, but it is improving," said Ahmed Al Bouaini, who has a shoe shop in one of Bahrain's most popular malls.
Focused on restoring order, security forces have yet to erase graffiti sprayed around Manama calling for the end of the regime. But on some of the cars smashed up near the roundabout, someone has sprayed 'long live the king' and the armoured personnel carriers nearby bear pictures of King Hamad.
