Posts from — April 2011

(Reuters) – Bahrain’s foreign minister said on Monday Saudi and UAE forces called in to help quell street unrest would leave only when “any external threat” he associated with Iran was seen to be gone.

Pro-democracy demonstrators in Bahrain have denied any link with the Islamic Republic.

Bahrain’s prime minister described the several weeks of anti-government protests by the Sunni Muslim-ruled country’s disaffected Shi’ite majority as a coup attempt and said those who took part would be held to account.

The mostly Shi’ite protesters in the outpouring of unrest in February and March demanded more freedom, an end to discrimination and a constitutional monarchy in Bahrain, a U.S. ally that hosts Washington’s Fifth Fleet. ..more

As the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters continues in the Gulf state of Bahrain, we speak with Zainab Alkhawaja, whose father, husband and brother-in-law were detained last Saturday following a late night raid at their home. Zainab is on the eighth day of a hunger strike that she vows to continue until her family members are released. We also speak with Human Rights Watch researcher, Faraz Sanei, who just spent six weeks in Bahrain. “What we’re seeing in Bahrain today is a full-scale crackdown on any sort of dissent in the country,” Sanei says. “We are now seeing an absolute slide into a police state and dictatorship in Bahrain. …more

“Bahrain is sliding rapidly towards absolute dictatorship, and the authorities seem intent on creating and deepening sectarian divisions. The Bahraini trade unions have been at the forefront of the movement for dialogue, peace and reconciliation, yet the government has clearly decided to try and destroy them. The international trade union movement will not simply stand by and allow this to happen. If the government does not change course, the global diplomatic and economic consequences will be severe,” said Wienen.

Some 2,000 workers in 30 mainly government enterprises have been sacked for joining trade union actions in support of dialogue and an end to violence, including 6 members of the Executive of the ITUC-affiliated General Federation of Bahraini Trade Unions (GFBTU) and 22 local trade union leaders. The ITUC understands that employees of the key employer body, the Chamber of Commerce, have also been dismissed.

The campaign of intimidation by government-sponsored groups has intensified in recent days, with the appearance of billboards including names and photographs of opposition leaders, calling for “no mercy and execution”. …more

Mass Hunger Strike Begins Monday in Bahrain
By: Siun Sunday April 17, 2011 6:00 pm

As the news from Bahrain continues to get worse, the opposition once more takes nonviolent action to move the world to intervene. Inspired by Zeinab Alkhawaja (@angryarabiya) hundreds of Bahrainis and their supporters worldwide will begin a four day hunger strike beginning Monday:

This peaceful civilized movement has been suppressed brutally. And that was not enough for the criminal Bahraini regime and the Saudi nasty invader… what they planned for and what they are doing now is a decadent sectarian, ethnic cleansing. More than 25 martyrs were killed; four of them were killed under the brutal torture in custody. There are more than 500 detainees that no one knows what the situation they are living in detention is, 30 of them are women, and 116 of them are kids, all of them were arrested because they had a mouth that wanted to speak for freedom…

Me, you, anyone of your family might be with them in any moment… just being one of the people who passed by a protest one day is an enough reason to be arrested, save the detainees lives and save yourself from being arrested…

One more time Bahrainis will prove to the whole world that they are peaceful civilized people; they are going to raise their demand through a hunger strike this time, join it pro-freedom protest against the unjustness in Bahrain…

Zeinab’s own hunger strike continues and her health is quickly deteriorating. When family members took her to a hospital for care, they were informed that treatment would require notification of the authorities – who are known to then arrive and kidnap the patients – so she is home without treatment and getting weaker. …more

By Fredrik Richter and Martina Fuchs

MANAMA/DUBAI | Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:54am EDT

MANAMA/DUBAI (Reuters) – Bahrain’s prime minister, who has faced calls for his ouster by street protesters, described the unrest as a coup attempt and said those who took part would be held to account.

The country’s foreign minister said Saudi and UAE troops called in to help quell weeks of pro-democracy protests by the Sunni Muslim-ruled country’s disgruntled Shi’ite majority would stay until an Iranian threat is judged to be over.

“Bahrain has witnessed a coup attempt,” Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa said in remarks carried by pro-government media on Monday. “No violators would get away with it. All co-conspirators and abettors must be held accountable.”

Weeks of anti-government protests in February and March by mostly Shi’ite protesters demanded more freedom, an end to discrimination and a constitutional monarchy in the Sunni-ruled country, a U.S. ally that hosts Washington’s Fifth Fleet.

Bahraini rulers crushed the protests last month, deploying security forces in the capital and calling in troops from Gulf neighbors Saudi Arabia and the UAE under the aegis of a Gulf defense pact, a move demonstrators saw as an act of war. …more

Bahrain: New attacks on democracy movement
Sunday, April 17, 2011
By Ash Pemberton

The Bahraini government has ordered the dissolution of two opposition political parties. The move is part of its crackdown against the pro-democracy movement that broke out in February.

The al-Wefaq and al-Amal parties were ordered to dissolve for “threatening peace”. The order is in response to their involvement in the protests that called for the removal of the Khalifah royal family, which has ruled the country for more than 200 years, the April 14 Washington Post said.

Four people were killed in police custody after authorities launched a campaign of mass arrests, CNN.com said on April 13. At least two of those killed showed signs of torture.

Human Rights Watch said at least 430 people have been arrested in the crackdown.

The Bahraini government has also attacked media organisations critical of the crackdown. Three editors of the Al-Wasat newspaper have been charged with publishing “fabricated news” and “false pictures”.

The crackdown began on March 15 after troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded Bahrain to assist the government’s failing efforts to stop the protests.

More than 30 people were killed and hundreds injured since the protests began on February 15.

The US has remained silent about the repression. Bahrain has long been a key ally for the US, due to its strategic position in the Persian Gulf. It also hosts the US navy’s fifth fleet and a US airbase. …source

Bahrain to prosecute civil servants over protests
The Associated Press
Originally published Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 11:42 AM

Bahrain’s official news agency says dozens of civil servants will face “legal action” for participating in anti-government protests in the Gulf kingdom.

Bahrain’s official news agency says dozens of civil servants will face “legal action” for participating in anti-government protests in the Gulf kingdom.

The state-run Bahrain News Agency says 111 employees of the Education Ministry have been fired as part of a wide ranging crackdown on the Shiite opposition that staged street marches and strikes against the Sunni rulers calling for greater rights and freedoms.

Sunday’s report says the employees will be prosecuted for “flagrant violations” of the country’s civil service law. It also says the Teacher’s Union strike last month was politically motivated and aimed at “crippling schools.”

Bahrain imposed martial law March 15 to crush the Shiite-led uprising, detaining hundreds of protesters, political figures, doctors and activists. …source

Bahrain braced for new wave of repression
Foreign staff – guardian.co.uk, Saturday 16 April 2011 21.05 BST

Arrests and troop movements signal another government crackdown on protests in the tiny Gulf state

Bahrain is braced for a fresh bout of violent repression as new arrests and the alleged death of a female student fuel sectarian tensions in the tiny Gulf state.

Armoured vehicles and security forces were reported to be gathering in the streets of the capital, Manama, and in surrounding suburbs and villages.

Meanwhile, evidence has emerged that Saudi forces have been involved in violence against the opposition in the mainly Shia villages and suburbs around Manama. In a graphic eyewitness account of the repression given to the Observer, a Bahraini who has been caught up in the violence claimed that officers with Saudi accents, in plainclothes but armed with automatic weapons, had led attacks on members of the Shia opposition on several occasions over the past month.

When Saudi and UAE troops from the Gulf Peninsula Shield force entered the kingdom at the request of the government last month, it was said that they were there to guard strategic buildings and infrastructure. …more

[excerpt from article – Police State Terror in Bahrain – Contributed by Stephen Lendman] …source

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.” …full article

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.

Obama Weighs Deployment Of Sternly Worded Letter To Bahrain,
By: Eli Friday April 15, 2011 6:01 pm

WASHINGTON, DC – Human-rights activists have become increasingly frustrated by the Obama Administration’s inaction as Bahrain’s crackdown against pro-democracy protests continues. In an apparent response to allegations of hypocrisy, the White House has revealed that President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are considering sending a Sternly Worded Letter to the troubled Middle Eastern nation.

The deployment of a Sternly Worded Letter (or SWL) would be a very serious action, and some foreign policy experts fear that it could destabilize an already-delicate region even further. Adding to the uncertainty, it is not yet known whether the President would seek congressional or United Nations approval before taking action, and legal scholars are split on whether such approval would be necessary. Some believe that the 2003 AUMF grants him the necessary authority, others believe he needs a separate AUSWL, while still others believe that it is an inherent executive power. …more

Saudi protests against Bahrain invasion, repression
By Bill Van Auken
16 April 2011

Hundreds protested in Saudi Arabia Friday demanding an end to the Saudi occupation of Bahrain and the release of the dictatorial kingdom’s political prisoners.

It was the second day of mass protests, which have been concentrated in the predominantly Shiite eastern region of the country, the center of Saudi Arabia’s oilfields and refineries.

Friday’s demonstrations also saw protesters rally outside the interior ministry in Riyadh in support of individuals they referred to as the “forgotten political prisoners,” who in some cases have been imprisoned for as long as 16 years without charges or trials for daring to demand political rights.

The larger demonstrations took place in the eastern city of Qatif and nearby villages, where demonstrators marched through the streets carrying banners and candles to denounce the Saudi military’s intervention in neighboring Bahrain and to demand the release of over 100 people, including children, who have been arrested in the area during protests over the last month.

In the village of Awwamiya, near Qatif, scores of women demonstrated, chanting for the release of political prisoners and denouncing the regime’s suppression of women’s rights. The monarchy has rejected widespread demands that women be allowed to vote and run in municipal elections set for next September.

While massed security forces closed in on the demonstrators, there were no reported clashes.

“Bahrain, we will respond to your call,” the demonstrators chanted in solidarity with Bahrain’s predominantly Shia population, which is facing intense repression, with scores having been killed, at least 800 imprisoned, and several detainees tortured to death. The ruling Sunni Al-Khalifa monarchy has seized the only opposition newspaper and on Thursday moved to outlaw the largest political group in the country, Al Wefaq, together with another Shiite political formation.

(Reuters) – Bahrain has detained a human rights lawyer and at least two doctors as part of a crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in the Gulf Arab kingdom, campaigners said Saturday.

The Sunni-led state saw the worst sectarian clashes since the 1990s last month after mainly Shi’ite protestors, emboldened by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, took to the streets.

Manama imposed martial law and invited in troops from Saudi Arabia and other Sunni allies to keep order.

Security forces arrested lawyer Mohammed al-Tajer on Saturday, the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights and Wefaq, the biggest opposition party, said.

“Security forces stormed his home… (at) 2 a.m.,” the rights group said in a statement.

Tajer represented Hassan Mushaimaa, leader of the Bahraini opposition group Haq, who returned from exile in London in February and was arrested last month.

At least two doctors were also detained, said Wefaq politician Mattar Ibrahim Mattar.

Opposition activists have accused the government of trying to intimidate medical staff to discourage them from treating protestors.

“Two doctors were detained,” he said. “They arrested Mohammed al-Tajer to put fear also into lawyers.” …more

Health of Bahrain hunger striker slumps as regime comes under pressure
By Robert Booth The Guardian (UK) Thursday, Apr 14, 2011

Mother of Zainab al-Khawaja – a 27-year-old protesting against treatment of father – says she is struggling to stand up. Zaynab al-Khawaja – a Bahraini woman on hunger strike – is vomiting and unable to breastfeed her daughter, according to her mother. Photograph: Hasan Jamali/AP

Britain and the EU have heaped diplomatic pressure on Bahrain over the alleged killing of pro-democracy activists in custody, while the health of a hunger striker protesting against the beating and arrest of her dissident father has deteriorated markedly.

In a meeting with interior minister Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, the British ambassador to Bahrain, Jamie Bowden, raised concerns over the deaths of four dissident prisoners in the last week. Catherine Ashton, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, speaking through a spokesman also called on the Bahrain regime to immediately release all those who have been detained for peacefully expressing themselves. Ashton announced she is to visit Bahrain next week and her spokesman called on the authorities to “investigate all recent events which have resulted in loss of life and injuries”. …more

Bahrain’s athletes behind bars
Barack Obama has maintained a shameful silence about repression by a Gulf ally.
April 14, 2011 By Dave Zirin

A’ALA HUBAIL is a legend in the world of Bahraini soccer. In 2004, along with his brother Mohamed, he led the national team on a rollicking VCU-esque run into the Asian Cup semifinals. Hubail then became the first Bahraini player to win the prestigious Golden Boot Award after scoring five goals against the continent’s best team.

Now, the winner of the Golden Boot has gotten the boot–he was expelled from the national squad and arrested after news cameras caught him at an “anti-government” protest aimed at Bahrain’s royal family. His soccer-playing brother, who stood alongside him at a peaceful protest across from Bahrain’s shoot-first army and the imported armed forces of Saudi Arabia, was also sacked from the team and put in custody. Both brothers, along with two other players, were handcuffed and frog-marched off the practice field in front of shocked teammates. …more

Bahraini woman continues hunger strike even at the cost of her own life!
10-14 Nisan, 2011 | 12:10

After her father, a well-known human rights activist, being seized by masked soldiers, beaten unconscious and then taken into custody, a Bahraini woman has told to an english newspaper that she is willing and ready to die on hunger strike unless he is released from Bahranian prison.

Zainab al-Khawaja, 27, entered her fourth day without food inprotest at the violent arrest and following disappearance of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, 50, along with her husband and brother-in-law. The three arestees are known for their dissenting opinions on the ruling government in Bahrain.

Zainab, now in exile in Denmark, is taking only water, although she is breast-feeding her 18-month-old child, which causes her strength being sapped faster than she had expected. She says she will leave her with family members if she dies.

A group of a dozen masked and heavily armed soldiers from Bahrain’s special forces, stormed her apartment in Manama, capital of Bahrain in the early morning hours at Saturday. Her father had previously called for Bahrain’s king to face trial for murder, kidnappa-ing, torture and corruption.

“I am willing to go all the way,” she stated. “Either they come out or I will not eat.”
…more

Washington wrong to endorse suppression of democracy in Bahrain
By Husain Abdulla, March 18, 2011

It is shameful of the Obama administration to acquiesce in the brutalization of the people of Bahrain.

When peaceful protesters gathered in the country’s capital for weeks and demanded democracy, Washington continued to back the monarchy. When security forces and gangs sent out by the monarchy engaged in bloody attacks on demonstrators, Washington barely said a peep. And the day before Saudi Arabia invaded Bahrain to help the Bahraini ruling family suppress the protests, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates actually visited Bahrain. The Saudis would not have made this incursion into their neighboring country if they had sensed that the Obama Administration, a close ally of Saudi Arabia, would disapprove.

Once the Saudis invaded, the State Department urged only that they show “restraint.” That’s not the usual way the United States responds to foreign invasions. The Obama administration won’t even call it an invasion, for some reason.

Meanwhile, appalling repression continues in Bahrain. …more

by Marian Wang — ProPublica, April 12, 2011, 9:52 a.m

“No leniency.” That was the warning from Bahrain’s crown prince last week as government forces continued cracking down on protesters, activists, journalists and doctors. It was issued alongside yet another promise of reform by the Bahraini government.

The warning was also met with silence from the United States. The U.S., which has long considered Bahrain a key ally in the region, condemned the violence in mid-March, and two weeks later noted that arresting bloggers “doesn’t help” promote an inclusive national dialogue.

But so far this month—as reports of increasing intimidation, censorship and brutality emerge—the U.S. doesn’t seem to have had a public response. In one of the State Department’s last statements, spokesman Mark Toner told reporters on March 22, “Our position towards Bahrain is crystal clear. We’re going to continue to work with the Bahraini Government.”

We called the State Department to ask why the violence in Bahrain hadn’t been broached in recent press briefings. “We respond to reporters’ questions,” a State Department spokesman told me, noting that “there’s a lot going on throughout the entire Middle East.”

Human rights groups have reported that at least 26 people [6] have been killed since the Bahraini government declared martial law in mid-March. At least three activists have also died in police custody. More than 400 have been detained and dozens are missing.
…more

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The Gulf nation of Bahrain is intensifying its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. On Saturday, masked police offers broke into the home of Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, a prominent Bahraini human rights activist. He was beaten and detained. We speak to his daughter, Zainab Alkhawaja, who witnessed the attack and is now on a hunger strike. Her husband and brother-in-law were also beaten and arrested in the pre-dawn raid. We also speak to Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. He is facing a possible military trial for publishing the photograph of Ali Sager, a protester who died while in Bahraini custody. …source Democracy Now

The Pentagon and murder in Bahrain
by Nick Turse*

U.S. Defense Departments documents, scrutinized by TomDispatch, reveal that as far back as the 1990s the United States has been supplying vast quantities of military equipment to Bahraini security forces, which have currently unleashed a bloody repression against thousands of peaceful demonstrators demanding an end to the corrupt Al-Khalifa dynasty.

The men walking down the street looked ordinary enough. Ordinary, at least, for these days of tumult and protest in the Middle East. They wore sneakers and jeans and long-sleeved T-shirts. Some waved the national flag. Many held their hands up high. Some flashed peace signs. A number were chanting, “Peaceful, peaceful.”

Up ahead, video footage shows, armored personnel carriers sat in the street waiting. In a deadly raid the previous day, security forces had cleared pro-democracy protesters from the Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain’s capital, Manama. This evening, the men were headed back to make their voices heard.

The unmistakable crack-crack-crack of gunfire then erupted, and most of the men scattered. Most, but not all. Video footage shows three who never made it off the blacktop. One in an aqua shirt and dark track pants was unmistakably shot in the head. In the time it takes for the camera to pan from his body to the armored vehicles and back, he’s visibly lost a large amount of blood.

Human Rights Watch would later report that Redha Bu Hameed died of a gunshot wound to the head. …more

Shenaz Kermalli

HAVANA TIMES, April 8 (IPS) — Salmaniya Medical Complex, once one of the most renowned medical facilities in the Gulf and a jewel in the crown of Bahrain’s public healthcare system, has been transformed into a virtual ghost town.

Its gates and front entrance are barricaded with checkpoints and masked military officers, armed with rifles. Its emergency room, once the busiest in the country, is empty.

And, according to eyewitness reports collected by Human Rights Watch, hospital staff say security and military forces have sought out and threatened, beaten and detained patients with protest-related injuries.

These patients are then systematically segregated from the rest of the patient population and transferred to the sixth floor, where they are virtually inaccessible to anyone, including family.

“There are more military officers in the hospital than patients,” says Faraz Sanei, a Human Rights Watch observer who has recently been inside Salmaniya. “It is not a normal environment or safe haven for patients. Patients and staff have told us there’s a security lockdown and doctors from there are very frightened to speak.

“The fact that it’s empty means there’s not much of an inflow of patients going in. People don’t want to go there because they’re afraid,” he adds. …more

U.S.-Backed Bloodshed Stains Bahrain’s Arab Spring
By Amy Goodman

Three days after Hosni Mubarak resigned as the long-standing dictator in Egypt, people in the small 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.” …more

By David Walsh
13 April 2011

The regime of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in Bahrain, which the Obama administration backs to the hilt, is continuing its violent repression of political opposition. The Khalifa regime imposed a state of emergency, after its security forces, backed by troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, violently cleared protesters from Pearl Square in Manama, the kingdom’s capital, on March 16.

More than 400 people have been arrested, including human rights activists, doctors, bloggers and oppositionists. Twenty-seven political opponents and protesters are officially reported dead and dozens are missing. A leading newspaper has been shut down and its editors and reporters threatened with imprisonment.

Two Shiite activists have been murdered in prison, according to human rights organizations and the families of the victims. The Bahraini interior ministry claimed that Ali Issa Saqer, 31, died when guards tried to restrain him for “causing chaos.” According to news reports, however, Saqer’s corpse showed telltale signs of torture and abuse. …more

By Jim Lobe*

WASHINGTON, Apr 13, 2011 (IPS) – If President Barack Obama wanted to place Washington “on the right side of history” during the ongoing “Arab Spring”, his reaction to recent events in Bahrain will likely make that far more difficult, according to a growing number of analysts and commentators here.

While his administration has become ever more outspoken against repression in Syria and Yemen – not to mention Libya, where Obama has called for regime change – it has remained remarkably restrained about the escalating crackdown by the Sunni monarchy against the majority Shia population and prominent pro-democracy figures.

The strongest criticism in weeks came from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday night at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum here when she appealed for a “political process that advances the rights and aspirations of all the citizens of Bahrain” and asserted that “security alone cannot resolve the challenges” facing the government.

More than two dozen people have been killed by security forces since the government declared martial law Mar. 15, while more than 400 others have been arrested or are otherwise unaccounted for, according to international rights groups. Three detainees have died in custody, at least one apparently from “horrific abuse”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday.

Last weekend, HRW accused the regime of creating a “climate of fear”, particularly in Shia neighbourhoods and villages where night-time raids appear designed mainly to instil terror among the mostly poor residents. …more