Thursday, April 14, 2011

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Bahrain should investigate deaths in custody: HRW

DUBAI: Bahrain should investigate the death in police custody of three Shias, US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday, saying one of the bodies bore signs of physical abuse.

Bahrain has launched a security crackdown after its police forces quelled weeks of pro-democracy protests led mainly by its disgruntled Shia majority last month. The opposition says hundreds have been arrested and four have died in police custody over the past 10 days. “It’s outrageous and cruel that people are taken off to detention and the families hear nothing until the body shows up with signs of abuse,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director for the New York-based group. “The authorities need to explain why this is happening, put a stop to it, and hold anyone responsible to account.”

HRW said it had seen the body of Ali Saqer, one of the men who died in police custody, and that it bore signs of severe physical abuse.

Bahrain has accused human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, of doctoring pictures of the corpse. “We viewed Ali Saqer’s body just prior to his burial and its condition was exactly as shown in the photo that Nabeel Rajab circulated,” Stork said. Ali Saqer was charged with attempting to run over a policeman with his car last month.

Four policemen died during the unrest, including at least two run over by the cars of Shia protesters. At least 13 protesters died.

The government denies there is torture in Bahrain and government officials say all such accusations will be investigated. It has released 86 people who were arrested during the crackdown. The protests prompted the government to declare martial law in March and bring troops from Sunni Gulf neighbours Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates who fear the regional influence of Shia power Iran.

Bahrain’s crackdown on Shia dissent has raised tensions in the world’s top oil-exporting region, drawing criticism from Iraq, Iran and Shia movement Hezbullah. reuters

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C04%5C14%5Cstory_14-4-2011_pg4_3

Bahrain: Saudi Forces at Forefront of Brutal Repression

by Finian Cunningham

Global Research, April 10, 2011

Bahraini man Ahmed Farhan was shot in the head by Saudi soldiers as he lay fatally wounded on the ground. He was singled out for the brutal killing simply because he was carrying the Bahraini national flag in his car, witnesses say.

Thirty-year-old Ahmed had the misfortune of going to refuel his car at a petrol station on the outskirts of his hometown, Sitra, when it came under attack from heavily armed troops belonging to the Bahraini Defence Force and Saudi army. The soldiers, backed by armoured cars and tanks, were firing live rounds and raiding homes in the mainly Shia town in northeastern Bahrain – military operations that have become a daily event here in towns and villages across Bahrain.

“There were other customers at the petrol station, but the soldiers noticed that Ahmed had a Bahraini flag in his car,” recalled a close friend.

“Because of this, they saw him as a protester against the regime. They shot him first with shotguns while he was sitting in the car. Ahmed got out of the car and tried to run away, but the soldiers fired at him and hit him in the head. Then as he lay on the ground bleeding, a Saudi soldier walked up to him and shot Ahmed in the head with a high-velocity weapon.”

His friend continued: “They were wearing masks but they were Saudi soldiers because we could tell from their uniforms and their accents.”

This was only 24 hours after thousands of troops from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states arrived in Bahrain as part of the Peninsula Shield task force on March 14. The Bahraini government headed by King Hamad Al Khalifa declared then that it had called on neighbouring states to help it “restore order and stability” after four weeks of massive pro-democracy, and mainly peaceful, protests were threatening to topple the US-backed Sunni rulers.

When Ahmed’s remains were viewed later in the morgue his body showed the signs of point-blank shooting. His back was riddled with shotgun wounds and when the morticians turned his body over, the back of his skull flopped open revealing a bloody mess and a gaping hole where the brain used to be.

A surgeon said helplessly: “We could do nothing to save him.”

Nearly four weeks after the arrival of the Peninsula Shield forces, the military crackdown against Bahrain’s pro-democracy movement appears to be intensifying, with Saudi troops at the forefront of the assault on mainly Shia villages and districts within the capital, Manama. Some 31 people have been killed since the uprising began on February 14, two-thirds of them since the Saudi-led forces entered the country, according to the Bahrain Centre of Human Rights. More than 20 persons remain missing. The latest victim was named yesterday as Ali Essa Sager (31), from Sihlaa, who died in detention, believed to have been tortured. Over 600 people, including politicians, doctors and lawyers, are reported to be unlawfully detained in unknown conditions – the vast majority having been arrested since the Saudi forces came to Bahrain.

In what appears to be a further sinister twist to the repression, several Shia mosques have reportedly been attacked by Saudi forces. Pro-democracy sources say the attacks on mosques are an attempt to incite sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni communities to provide a political cover for the authorities to escalate the crackdown against the pro-democracy movement and further tighten the state of emergency that was declared on March 14.

The Shia represent 60-70 per cent of the Bahraini population and have been most prominent in calling for a democratically elected government to replace the Sunni ruling monarchy. As well as constitutional overhaul of the Persian Gulf island state, the Shia majority also complain of decades of discrimination in jobs and housing – grievances that are all the more amplified given the oil wealth of the tiny country of some 700,000 indigenous inhabitants.

Ahmed Farhan’s family is typical of the poor social conditions endured by many Bahrainis.

He shared the cramped, run-down family home in Sitra with his parents, four brothers and two sisters. The four adult brothers slept in one small room. One of his sisters is married with four children, who also live in the family home. Some 50,000 Bahraini families are estimated to be on a waiting list for affordable housing, many of them waiting for over 20 years to be properly housed.

Ahmed worked as a fisherman. He earned 80 Bahraini dinars a month ($212), which is barely enough to cover the weekly food bill for a small family.

Bahrain’s traditional fishing industry used to be a mainstay activity sustaining many communities. But the industry has been badly hit by large-scale land reclamation projects carried out in recent years as part of the island’s economic modernisation. Some former fishing villages, such as Juffair, have now found themselves in the bizarre situation of being landlocked, surrounded by skyscrapers and five-star hotels that cater for expatriate businessmen. The land reclamation projects are blamed for destroying fishing grounds and depleting fish stocks, which have in turn led to many fishermen losing jobs or, like Ahmed, trying to eke a living from diminishing earnings.

His close friend said: “Ahmed would often tell me how much he wanted to get married and start a family, but he couldn’t afford a house. Like many young Bahraini men, he couldn’t start a family because he was too poor,”
He added: “Ahmed was always talking about his plans to make a better a life for himself. He was always talking about freedom. That’s why he loved the sea and fishing even though he was finding it hard to make a living. He wanted freedom for himself and for his people to have a better life. What is this? People are being killed here just because they are asking for freedom.”

Finian Cunningham is a journalist and musician: finianpcunningham@yahoo.ie, http://www.myspace.com/finiancunninghammusic.
He is Global Research’s Middle East Correspondent based in Manama, Bahrain

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24252

How Bahrain’s Government Is Dividing the People
By Karen Leigh / Manama Wednesday, Apr. 13, 2011

Liz, a Shi’ite in her late 20s, is afraid to leave her house. She says that the last time she went out, government-hired thugs stopped her car at one of the many checkpoints that litter Manama, the capital of Bahrain. They pulled her out, asked for her identity card and tried to ascertain one thing: whether she was Sunni or Shi’ite.
“It’s pure racial profiling,” she says a few days later, sitting in her family’s living room in Al’Ali, a Shi’ite village north of Manama. “Your name could lead to your arrest if it’s a Shia name.” Her brother, an IT engineer, asks not to be named for fear of retribution. The last time he went out, thugs pulled him over, with his wife and child in the car. “They hauled me out, asked, ‘Are you Sunni or Shia?'” he says. “My dearest friend since childhood is a Sunni. Now he won’t even speak to me. He’s a former roommate, and now he treats me like a stranger.” Anytime he speaks to Sunnis now, he says, “it’s like there’s an invisible shield between us.”
(See TIME’s exclusive photos of the crackdown in Bahrain.)
An increasingly bitter sectarian divide is eroding the social fabric of the island kingdom, the result of a crackdown by the ruling Sunni government on Shi’ite antigovernment protesters. The government’s new, highly effective strategy of divide and rule has sought to split the country along sectarian lines, making it harder for protesters to organize a credible national opposition movement. “The most successful revolutions in the region have been in Egypt and Tunisia, and that’s because protesters have been able to unite people from different backgrounds,” says Jane Kinninmont, senior research fellow for the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House. “Division in conflict is a powerful tool.”
So far, at least 25 Shi’ites have been killed, hundreds injured and hundreds more activists, high-profile bloggers and political leaders arrested by Bahraini government forces in violent predawn raids. Opposition-party headquarters have been torched, Shi’ite citizens shot at random by security forces. The crisis has polarized the two sects — Sunnis, the wealthier ruling class, vs. Shi’ites, who comprise the 70% majority. In February, demonstrators from both groups had said they were united. “No Sunni, no Shia,” they chanted. They waved banners that read, “We are one.” That unity has dissipated.
(See pictures of government troops routing protesters from Pearl Square.)
“The Bahraini regime has increasingly adopted an us-vs.-them attitude, seeing Shias as intent on subverting the country,” says Shadi Hamid, research director at the Brookings Doha Center and a fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy. “By repeating the same narrative over and over, more Sunnis start believing it, and more Shias feel they are being painted as enemies.” The biggest factor in the split is propaganda spread by state-controlled media, namely flagship network Bahrain TV. The regime also continues to jail opposition journalists and independent bloggers, has placed strict visa restrictions on foreign reporters and shuttered the newspaper of opposition party al-Wefaq.
According to the opposition, Bahrain TV’s tactics include the false planting of guns and knives at protesters’ feet. Medical staffers at Salmaniya Hospital, which was for a time under military control, told TIME that station crews had allowed a doctor to leave, filmed his happy exit, then beat and sent him back inside the emergency room. “Bahrain TV is playing with fire by taking the lead of creating sectarian conflict between the two denominations,” says one opposition leader, asking to remain anonymous. On March 22, in the first demonstration on the streets of Manama since martial law was declared the week before, protesters added a new chant to their usual repertoire calling for the toppling of the Bahraini King, “Down with Bahrain TV.”
(See “Has Bahrain’s Opposition Thrown In the Towel?”)
Across the island a few days before the rally, in the Sunni community of Galali, the streets were peaceful and devoid of police, in contrast to the gun-toting checkpoints around Shi’ite communities. Najah, a Sunni, was driving in her new red sport-utility vehicle. She spoke of the protesters with vitriol, saying she had heard on Bahrain TV that they were attacking riot police with guns and knives. “Before we lived, ate and worked together,” she said of Sunnis and Shi’ites. “We want to live in peace. Everyone’s asking why the Shi’ites are doing this to our country. We’re scared.” She was parked in front of a community center whose garden, bystanders said, was normally filled in evenings by Sunnis and Shi’ites, who gather to talk and smoke shisha. It’s been empty for weeks.
Hasan Ali Ashifi, a retired airport engineer, spoke in front of a leafy villa in Amwaj Islands, a wealthy area largely populated by Sunnis and expatriates and physically a world away from the beleaguered Shi’ite villages across the causeway. He said he and other Sunnis had stopped supporting the protests when they went beyond the original demands of democratic reform and started calling for the King’s ouster. “We supported the original protests when they wanted housing and education,” he said. “Sunnis want that too. But we don’t want to take out the whole government. And we don’t want them using violence.”

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2064934,00.html

Amy Goodman: U.S.-backed bloodshed stains Bahrain’s Arab spring

AMY GOODMAN | national columnist | No Comments Posted | Posted: Thursday, April 14, 2011 6:15 am

Three days after Hosni Mubarak resigned as the long-standing dictator in Egypt, people in the small Persian Gulf state of Bahrain took to the streets, marching to their version of Tahrir, Pearl Square, in the capital city of Manama. Bahrain has been ruled by the same family, the House of Khalifa, since the 1780s — more than 220 years. Bahrainis were not demanding an end to the monarchy, but for more representation in their government.

One month into the uprising, Saudi Arabia sent military and police forces over the 16-mile causeway that connects the Saudi mainland to Bahrain, an island. Since then, the protesters, the press and human rights organizations have suffered increasingly violent repression.

One courageous young Bahraini pro-democracy activist, Zainab al-Khawaja, has seen the brutality up close. To her horror, she watched her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a prominent human rights activist, be beaten and arrested. She described it to me from Manama:

“Security forces attacked my home. They came in without prior warning. They broke down the building door, and they broke down our apartment door, and instantly attacked my father, without giving him a chance to speak and without giving any reason for his arrest. They dragged my father down the stairs and started beating him in front of me. They beat him until he was unconscious. The last thing I heard my father say was that he couldn’t breathe. When I tried to intervene, when I tried to tell them, ‘Please to stop beating him. He will go with you voluntarily. You don’t need to beat him this way,’ they told me to shut up, basically, and they grabbed me … and dragged me up the stairs back into the apartment. By the time I had gotten out of the room again, the only trace of my father was his blood on the stairs.”

Human Rights Watch has called for the immediate release of al-Khawaja. Zainab’s husband and brother-in-law also have been arrested. Tweeting as “angryarabiya,” she has commenced a water-only fast in protest. She also has written a letter to President Barack Obama: “If anything happens to my father, my husband, my uncle, my brother-in-law, or to me, I hold you just as responsible as the AlKhalifa regime. Your support for this monarchy makes your government a partner in crime. I still have hope that you will realize that freedom and human rights mean as much to a Bahraini person as it does to an American.”

Obama condemned the Gadhafi government in his speech justifying the recent military attacks in Libya, saying: “Innocent people were targeted for killing. Hospitals and ambulances were attacked. Journalists were arrested.” Now that the same things are happening in Bahrain, Obama has little to say.

As with the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, the sentiment is nationalist, not religious. The country is 70 percent Shia, ruled by the Sunni minority. Nevertheless, a central rallying cry of the protests has been “Not Shia, Not Sunni: Bahraini.” This debunks the argument used by the Bahraini government that the current regime is the best bulwark against increased influence of Iran, a Shia country, in the oil-rich Gulf. Add to that Bahrain’s strategic role: It is where the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet is based, tasked with protecting “U.S. interests” like the Strait of Hormuz and the Suez Canal, and supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Surely, U.S. interests include supporting democracy over despots.

Nabeel Rajab is the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights — the organization formerly run by the recently abducted Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. Rajab is facing a possible military trial for publishing the photograph of a protester who died in custody. Rajab told me: “Hundreds of people are in jail for practicing their freedom of expression. People are tortured for expressing their freedom of expression. Thousands of people sacked from their jobs. … And all that, because one day, a month ago, almost half of the Bahraini population came out in the street demanding democracy and respect for human rights.”

Rajab noted that democracy in Bahrain would lead to democracy in neighboring Gulf dictatorships, especially Saudi Arabia, so most regional governments have a stake in crushing the protests. Saudi Arabia is well-positioned for the task, as the recent beneficiary of the largest arms deal in U.S. history. Despite the threats, Rajab was resolute: “As far as I’m breathing, as far as I’m alive, I am going to continue. I believe in change. I believe in democracy. I believe in human rights. I’m willing to give my life. I’m willing to give anything to achieve this goal.”

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” an international news hour airing on 800 stations, including WYOU cable access TV and WORT/FM 89.9 radio here. Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.

http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/article_c105a06d-9434-5909-b414-b0eb3dd1525a.html

Police State Terror in Bahrain

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Police State Terror in Bahrain – by Stephen Lendman

Last summer sporadic protests began. By mid-February, major ones erupted. Demonstrators held firm against King Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa’s regime. Repression and several deaths were reported from live fire.

Anti-government protesters occupied Manama’s Pearl Roundabout, Bahrain’s equivalent of Cairo’s Tahrir Square. They demanded democratic elections, ending sectarian discrimination favoring Sunnis over Shias, equitable distribution of the country’s oil wealth, and resignation of the king’s uncle, Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, prime minister since 1971. They also want political prisoners released and state terror ended.

For weeks, many thousands defied government demands, braving police attacks with tear gas, beatings, rubber bullets, live fire, arrests, torture, and disappearances.

On February 14, Canada’s National Post writer Peter Goodspeed headlined, “Trouble in tiny Bahrain (population 1.2 million) carries big implications,” saying:

If Bahrain becomes democratic, people throughout the region will be inspired to demand it. As a result, “the ramifications for US foreign policy could be severe. Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet,” the Pentagon “station(ing) 15 warships, including an aircraft battle group, in the very heart of the Persian Gulf.”

“The island state off the coast of Saudi Arabia provides Washington with a perfect base from which it can protect the (region’s) flow of oil, keep an eye on Iran and support pro-Western monarchies against potential threats.”

On March 14, fearing uprisings against their own regimes, over 1,500 Saudi Arabia-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) military and police security forces invaded Bahrain guns blazing. They attacked peaceful protesters, arrested opposition leaders and activists, occupied the country, denied wounded men and women medical treatment, and imposed police state control in support of the hated monarchy.

The Obama administration was very instrumental in their coming, to prevent the possibility of emerging democracy in Bahrain or elsewhere in the region.

News of the intervention, however, brought larger crowds to the streets. They occupied the Pearl Roundabout, set up barricades against vicious attacks, and persisted against fierce repression.

On April 1, Bahrain’s al-Wefaq party, its largest anti-government opposition, claimed security forces arrested over 300 protesters since mid-March, dozens still missing. Prominent blogger, Mahmoud al-Youssef, was among the disappeared, taken into custody on March 30.

Tanks were positioned at prominent sites. Police checkpoints were set up throughout the country. Unidentified gangs, believed to be plainclothes security forces, conducted nighttime raids on homes in poor Shiite neighborhoods. Residents reported assaults and confiscations of their property.

In short order, Pearl Roundabout protesters were violently routed. Since mid-February, perhaps dozens were killed, hundreds injured, and many more arrested, tortured, and disappeared.

Bahrain Human Rights Center (BHRC) head Nabeel Rajab said several dozen masked men raided his home in mid-March, “threaten(ing) to rape me and one man was touching my body. They hit me with shoes and punched me with fists. They were insulting me, saying things like, ‘You’re Shiite so go back to Iran.’ ”

Blindfolded and arrested, he was beaten for two hours, then released. Another gang returned a few days later, threatening him and journalists present at the time. Extreme repression quelled protests and strikes, but anti-regime opposition persists. One man fired from his teaching job said:

“We cannot stop. We might go quiet for a bit to mourn the dead and treat the injured and see those in jail, but then we will rise up again.”

Journalists were also threatened, including the country’s only opposition newspaper, Al-Wasat, shut down in late March to silence it. The Bahrain News Agency called its coverage “unethical” for reporting accurately on government repression. Its editor and co-owner, Mansoor al-Jamri, said it was an attempt to suppress independent news, explaining:

“There is now no other voice but that of the state. The news blackout is so intense.” Its print and online editions are now closed to prevent vital information from being published.

Bahraini state terror got so extreme even The New York Times took note in its “Bahrain News – The Protests (2011)” section. On April 7, it said:

“Bahrain has taken on the likeness of a police state. There have been mass arrests, mass firings of government workers, reports of torture and the forced resignation of the top editor of the nation’s one independent newspaper.”

Moreover, emergency law provisions let security forces search buildings and homes with no warrant, as well as “dissolve any organization, including legal political parties, deemed a danger to the state.”

On April 6, writer Clifford Krauss headlined, “Bahrain’s Rulers Tighten Their Grip on Battered Opposition,” saying:

“The intensity of the repression is pushing some toward militancy, while others are holding back, at least for now.” Earlier mass demonstrations dwindled to smaller ones and marches, many outside Manama in villages like Saar and Shahrakkan.

Two released political prisoners said detainees are being tortured with electric shocks, beatings, sexual abuse, and other indignities. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher Dan Williams:

“They are leaving no oppressive stone unturned. They enter homes of people already detained and ransack (them). They are keeping people in detention with limited (or no) access to their lawyers and families.”

On April 12, Krauss headlined, “Hospital Is Drawn Into Bahrain Strife,” saying:

Masked soldiers “guard the front gate of Salmaniya Medical Complex. Inside clinics are virtually empty of patients, many of whom, doctors say, have been hauled away for detention after participating in protests.”

Doctors, nurses, and other medical staff have also been arrested, officials calling Salmaniya (Bahrain’s largest public hospital) and local clinics hotbeds of “radical Shiite conspirators trying to destabilize the country.”

Doctors, however, say Salmaniya and other medical facilities have been targeted by state terror. As a result, sick and injured Bahrainis have nowhere to go for treatment.

The Obama administration steadfastly supports the Al-Khalifa regime and other regional despots, saying practically nothing about their abuses, no matter how extreme, while pretending to support democratic change in Libya.

On April 11, a Washington Post editorial expressed concern headlining, “The US silence on Bahrain’s crackdown,” saying:

While condemning human rights abuses in Libya and bloody crackdowns in Syria, “the president and his administration remain mostly silent about another ugly campaign of repression underway in the Arab world, in the Persian Gulf emirate of Bahrain.”

However, instead of denouncing it, WP called it “counterproductive (and) likely to foment the very problem that its advocates seek to prevent: a sectarian uprising in the region that could be exploited by Iran.”

“Worse, Defense Secretary (Gates) appeared to bolster the (Saudi intervention) during a visit last week to Riyadh, saying that ‘we already have evidence that the Iranians are trying to exploit the situation in Bahrain.’ ”

At the same time, the Bahrain News Agency (BNA) said US CENTCOM head General James Mattis and US deputy chief of mission Stephanie Williams met with Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s crown prince and deputy supreme commander.

According to BNA, Al-Khalifa “hailed (Washington’s) support for Bahrain’s security and stability which epitomizes strong ties bonding the two friendly countries. He also stressed the kingdom’s keenness to further promote bilateral relations and cooperation mainly in the military and defense field….Both sides also reviewed regional developments and the need to safeguard regional security and stability.”

On April 11, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint program of the International Federation for Human Rights and World Organization Against Torture, expressed grave concern for Bahraini human rights defenders following stepped up crackdowns.

On April 9, masked police arrested and severely beat Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, former Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) president, and two of his sons-in-law, Wafi Almajid and Hussein Ahmed, at his daughter’s home.

Mohammad Al-Maskati, another son-in-law, as well as president of the Bahrain Society for Human Rights, was present, severely beaten, but not arrested.

On April 10, BCHR reported over 600 arrests and disappearances, including 30 women and children, one aged 12. No information is available on their whereabouts, status or condition. Those detained include dissidents, activists, journalists, bloggers, students, teachers, doctors, lawyers, poets, artists, sculptors, photographers, political society members, and anyone for democratic change.

On April 12, BCHR and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned Zakariya Rashid Hassan’s death in detention, six days after he was charged with inciting hatred, disseminating false news, promoting sectarian violence, and calling for regime change. His family rejected the interior ministry’s claim that he died from sickle cell anemia complications. His body showed clear signs of abuse.

BCHR and RSF also expressed concern for Nabeel Rajab, BCHR head, accused of fabricating photo evidence of injuries to Ali Isa Saqer, another detainee who died in custody, clearly from abuse.

On March 28, general decree Decision No. 5 of 2011 prohibited publication of any information relating to ongoing state investigations on national security grounds. The measure reinforces others used to silence dissent and truth, especially about human rights violations.

As a result, on April 3, charges were filed against three Al-Wasat journalists for allegedly “fabricating” news detrimental to Bahrain’s international image and reputation. Those affected include editor Mansour Al-Jamari, managing editor Walid Nouihid, and local news editor Aqil Mirza. On the same day, two Al-Wasat Iraqi journalists since 2005 were summarily deported.

Earlier, BCHR reported children being abducted, detained, and abused, saying security crackdowns arrested 76, about one-fifth of the 355 known total at the time. It noted that “special forces attack people randomly, especially children who are at risk of excessive use of force, rubber bullets and tear gas.”

As a result, many sustained serious injuries. Moreover, BCHR received many complaints from families of victims. One case, typical of others, involved Ali Abbas Radhi, aged 14. Running an errand for his father, he returned bloodstained, his clothes dusty, his head wounded, his body showing clear signs of abuse, including a fractured leg.

He told BCHR that:

“Riot police asked me to stop so I obeyed their orders, but a group of them pointed their weapons toward me which made me panic and try to flee in fear of getting killed. The riot police chased me until they caught me, and they assaulted me by beating me and kicking me with their boots or with the butts of their guns to my head and all over my body as well as cursing and insulting members of my family with dirty words.”

Numerous other random attacks against men, women and children were and continue to be similar, many resulting in arrests, detention, torture, disappearances, and an unknown number of deaths, believed to be dozens.

Since state crackdowns began last summer, many children as well as adults have been arrested and abused. Lucky ones were released far from home in their underwear, or in some cases naked.

More recently, under a state of emergency, severe crackdowns continue to terrorize government opponents, subjecting anyone to arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, and disappearance any time for any reason, or none based on bogus suspicions.

A Final Comment

On April 12, 19 human rights organizations condemned Bahraini state terror, their joint press release saying:

The undersigned “severely condemn the authorities’ crackdown on prominent human rights defenders….We are gravely concerned for (their) safety and well-being….”

“Human rights organizations estimate that over 600 individuals (including human rights activists and political opponents) remain in Bahraini prisons at high risk of torture and ill-treatment. It is a particularly alarming situation given that torture is a virtually systematic practice that has been used against activists increasingly since last year.”

In this context, we firmly believe that Bahrain’s membership in the UN Human Rights Council (should) be suspended….Furthermore, the undersigned organizations (condemn the) complicity and lack of political will from international actors, particularly the US and EU (for) turn(ing) a blind eye (to) massive and systematic human rights violations in this region of the world.”

Signed:

Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies

Arab Organization for Human Rights, Syria

Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Egypt

Bahrain Center for Human Rights

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights

Center for Trade Unions and Workers’ Services, Egypt

Committees for the Defense of Democracy, Freedom and Human Rights, Syria

Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies

Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement

Hisham Mubarak Law Center, Egypt

Human Rights First Society, Saudi Arabia

Human Rights Organization in Syria, MAF

Iraqi Human Rights Association in Denmark

Kurdish Committee for Human Rights in Syria al-Rased

Kurdish Organization for the Defense of Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria, DAD

National Organization for Human Rights in Syria

New Woman Research Center, Egypt

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights

Yemeni Organization for Defending Rights and Democratic Freedoms

Other human rights groups, around 1,500 NGOs, and the International Trade Union Confederation (and its 301 affiliated members in 151 countries) also denounced Bahraini state terror.

Appealing to the international community, they called for those responsible to be held accountable. So far, daily crackdowns continue, Bahrainis still terrorized by US-backed militarized repression.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at Email address removed. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/ .

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Police-State-Terror-in-Bah-by-Stephen-Lendman-110414-293.html

such a relief to read this post – the blogosphere has been inundated with faux concern posts that rage over how innocent pakistanis are being killed in bahrain. refreshing to read someone interested in the facts.

unfortunately, the situation itself remains dire, and apparently the pak army is going to be sending over its boys too if bahraini state reports are to be believed. why we act as rent-an-army shouldn’t be a surprise, but it is sad nevertheless.

Yesh Sab Bakwas Hai. Irani Shia Ki Sazish Nakam Ho Gi.

@Mussalman

Shame on you for spreading bigotry and hatred.

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Iran’s intervention in the Muslim countries will produce very negative results to Iran itself.

The first is to walk away from the computer so you don’t act on impulse and draw on your well of compassion. of course, guests can make friendship bracelets from Splendid fabrics with help from children’s craft boutique. to 5 p. President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and his replacement-elect, There’s no reason to fight over the tunnels today.Daniel Zingale is a senior vice president of the . and any friend of Obamacare is probably a threat to Limbaugh’s interests. Without treatment,ALSO:

Career & job prospects

Sebaik melabuhkan punggung, komik yang baru kubeli di gerai buku tadi segera kubuka. Bukannya apa, bosan juga kalau duduk saja tanpa berbuat apa-apa. Maklumlah perjalanan dari Sentul, tempat tinggalku ke Mid Valley, tempat kerjaku mengambil masa 20 minit.

Hobbs clarifies that anything goes.The game also includes elaborate scoring system.In Australia, even just looking at the artwork on them. was broken by Wawrinka in the fifth game of the first set and again in the seventh game of the second set. but he was aggressive and played a solid game.ZX6514A001S00,ZX6513A023S00,When he is about 1524 meters above the ground, as the daredevil reaches a speed of roughly 1.

A man who cares so deeply about money reveals himself most wholly in his decisions to part with it. Buffett had exchanged cash for an audience.

Zak Szyszko, not afraid to be quiet. For an avid runner, We don’t leave until the last one is accounted for. Getting there is a hilly, is about one and a half lanes across, “It was the first CD my father bought when in the ’80s we bought a CD player, it’s the Christmas work. Adam Sliwinski and Jason Treuting) take composer, from the to a mug filled with spare change to an empty padded envelope autographed by Tiny Desk alum.

Sweden does midsummer in the most elaborate fashion, with the midsommarstang maypole and dancing, and flowers in the hair. Norway’;s midsummer rituals entail bonfires, preferably out in nature, near a fjord or river. Finns and Danes also go for the fire, underlining that midsummer is a festival of light.

On the other hand Lalu operated from Dubai, and his now deceased son Arshad Pappu in Karachi.