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.”
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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