Richard Sollom: The shocking thing is that Bahrain abuse is systematic
Thursday, 21 April 2011

In two decades of conducting human rights investigations in more than 20 countries, I have never seen such widespread and systematic violations of medical neutrality as I did in Bahrain.

Bahrain’s ambulances, hospitals and medical clinics as well as its physicians, nurses, and medical staff are all being targeted. It’s pervasive and ongoing. These attacks violate the principle of medical neutrality and are grave breaches of international law.

Doctors have a special role in society and have an ethical obligation to treat all people equally. In Bahrain, as they treat protesters and wounded civilians, they have borne witness to incredible human suffering. Treating these patients has provided physicians with unparalleled evidence of the atrocities committed by the authorities, the security forces and riot police. Their knowledge of these atrocities has also made them targets. At least 32 healthcare professionals have been abducted over the past two months and are being held incommunicado by security forces. …more

April 21, 2011

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has received new information and requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Bahrain.

New information:

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the ongoing incommunicado and arbitrary detention of Mr. Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, former Regional Protection Coordinator at Front Line and former President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).

On April 20, 2011, Mr. Abdulhadi Al Khawaja was allowed to make a one-minute phone call to his wife. He informed her that he was supposed to appear on April 21, at 8.00 am before the military court. Before this call, Mr. Alkhawaja’s daughter received a call from the military asking her to bring clothes for him.

When his lawyers presented themselves before the military court, they were advised that the hearing will not take place on that date. They could not get any further information nor have access to their client.

The Observatory recalls that Mr. Abdulhadi Al Khawaja is being detained incommunicado since his brutal arrest on April 9, 2011 and that the charges pending against him remain unknown.

The Observatory firmly denounces the violation of his right to due process and fair trial by the Bahraini authorities, his arbitrary detention and the judicial harassment against him which seem to merely aim at sanctioning his human rights activities. The Observatory is also deeply concerned for his physical and psychological integrity.

The Observatory urges the Bahraini authorities to take the necessary measures to guarantee the safety of Mr. Abdulhadi Al Khawaja and all human rights defenders in Bahrain and, more generally, to comply with the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted on December 9, 1998 by the United Nations General Assembly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as international and regional human rights instruments ratified by Bahrain, including the International International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Background information:

On April 9, 2011, Mr. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who has been organising peaceful awareness-raising and human rights education activities for protesters in the recent weeks, was arrested at his daughter’s house, along with two of his sons-in-law, Messrs. Wafi Almajid and Hussein Ahmed, by masked policemen who forced entry to the building. The three men, and Mr. Al-Khawaja in particular, were severely beaten up before being taken to an unknown destination. Moreover, Mr. Mohammad Al-Maskati, another Mr. Al-Khawaja’s son-in-law as well as President of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYHRS), who has been monitoring human rights violations committed since the protest movement began, and who was also present in the house, was severely beaten during the raid but not arrested. …more

Bahrain: 102 Human rights defenders express support for Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja
Posted on 2011/04/21

Today 102 human rights from across the Middle East and North Africa region issued a statement of support for imprisoned human rights defender Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja in Bahrain.

Full Text of Statement:

We condemn in the strongest terms the use of excessive violence during his arrest, without a judicial warrant, along with his two sons in law, Mr. Wafi Almajid and Mr. Hussein Ahmed, followed by their detention in an unidentified location and to trial Mr. Al-Khawaja before a military court. We strongly emphasize that the arbitrary measures taken against him are a direct result of his human rights work. We believe that these massive violations constitute strong evidence that the government of Bahrain works contrary to all human rights laws.

Al-Khawaja is not only a distinguishable and well-respected human rights figure in our region, but rather on the international level as well. Consequently, the way in which the authorities in Bahrain have treated Al-Khawaja reflects their disregard for human rights values and their adoption of hostile measures against the work that HRDs contribute to human rights in general, and the work which Al-Khawaja contributes, being one of the most prominent HRDs, in particular.

We hold the authorities in Bahrain responsible for all these blatant violations of human rights and demand that the perpetrators be referred to the competent courts immediately. We further hold the authorities responsible for ensuring the safety of Al-Khawaja and we call for his immediate release along with the detained members of his family. …more

21 April 2011 – A senior United Nations official today called for an investigation into the deaths of two media professionals in Bahrain who died earlier this month while held in detention.

Karim Fakhrawi, the co-founder of the country’s only independent newspaper Al-Wasat, died in custody on 12 April, one week after he was arrested.

The non-governmental group Reporters without Borders (RSF) quotes the authorities as saying that Mr. Fakhrawi died of kidney failure, but this has been contested by his family, who claims he had been in good health at the time of his arrest.

Online writer Zakariya Rashid Hassan died in detention on 9 April, according to RSF. He had been arrested a week earlier allegedly on charges of inciting hatred, disseminating false news, promoting sectarianism and calling for the regime’s overthrow.

His family has reportedly rejected the official claim that he died as a result of complications from sickle cell anaemia.

“The circumstances surrounding their deaths are indeed troubling and I urge the authorities of Bahrain to carry out a thorough investigation into these incidents,” said Irina Bokova, the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). …more

Bahrain: International pressure needed now to halt spiralling human rights crisis
21 April 2011

More than 500 people, the vast majority Shi’a Muslims, have been arrested in the last month.

Bahrain’s allies must take stronger action to address the rapidly worsening human rights crisis in the small but strategic Gulf state, Amnesty International said today as it released a new briefing paper on the continuing suppression of peaceful protest.

In Bahrain: A Human Rights Crisis, Amnesty International calls on governments with close ties to Bahrain to press for an end to the crackdown on those calling for change.

“North American and European governments, so vocal recently in espousing the cause of human rights in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, need also to speak out loudly about what is going on in Bahrain” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“To avoid the charge of double standards, they must be much more robust in pressing the Bahraini authorities to uphold their international human rights obligations.” …more

Bahraini Rulers Play Sectarian Card in Bid to Trump Pro-democracy Movement
by Finian Cunningham — Global Research, April 19, 2011

Increasing attacks on Shia mosques in the Bahraini state’s withering crackdown against the pro-democracy movement is a deliberate attempt to isolate the political opposition and amounts to a campaign of “sectarian cleansing”, say human rights groups.

Over the past four weeks since the Saudi-led Gulf Peninsula Shield military intervention in Bahrain, there appears to be a concerted drive by pro-state Sunni forces to target repression at the Shia population and in particular Shia mosques and other religious sites, such as cemeteries and meeting places known as Mattams.

Some mosques have been vandalized, with their doors, windows and the PA systems used in the call to prayer having been smashed. More recently, other mosques, such as the 800-year-old Al Shaboor, near the capital, Manama, have in the past week been razed to the ground with bulldozers. A similar fate was met by five mosques in Hamad Town, about 15km south of Manama.

The pro-democracy uprising that began on February 14 rocked the US-backed Sunni rulers for almost a month before the other Gulf states sent in heavily armed contingencies to quell the protests. But the nature of the military intervention has evidently gone beyond its initial avowed remit of restoring “security and stability”. Over 34 unarmed civilians have been killed, two-thirds of whom since the Saudi-led forces arrived. The latest victim is a 24-year-old woman, Azeeza Ahmed, who was shot dead when army and police raided her home in the village of Belad Al Qadeem on April 16. Up to 600 people, including medics, lawyers and academics, have been unlawfully detained, their whereabouts unknown. At least four people have died while in custody, their released bodies showing signs of torture. Some 1,000 workers have been sacked from jobs in major state-owned industries, accused of participating in anti-regime protests. And the vast majority of these victims of repression are Shia.

Nabeel Rajab, of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, describes the ongoing repression by the Sunni rulers as a “campaign of sectarian cleansing” against the Shia population. The upsurge in seemingly wanton attacks on Shia mosques and religious sites is clearly demonstrative of this, he says. Such attacks, as with the previously mentioned violations, Rajab points out, constitute crimes against humanity – crimes that the governments of the six Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, are in effect party to. …more

Posted on 2011/04/21

Front Line Deputy Director Andrew Anderson who is currently on mission in Bahrain was this morning (21st April) refused access to the hearing of imprisoned human rights defender, and former Front Line Regional Protection Coordinator, Abdulhadi Al-khawaja at the Military Court in Rifaa.

On 9 April 2011, human rights defender Mr Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja was arrested and beaten unconscious by police in Al-Manama, Bahrain. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja is a former Protection Co-ordinator for Front Line and former President of the Bahrain

Centre for Human Rights (BCHR). The arrest of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja is an indication of the increasingly hardline being taken by the Bahraini authorities which has resulted in a recent spate of arrests.

At approximately 03.00 am on 9 April 2011, masked police forced entry to the home of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja’s daughter, where he was present at the time. Upon entry, the police officers – one of whom reportedly spoke English, and no Arabic – proceeded to assault Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, along with human rights defender Mr Mohammed Al-Maskati, President of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR), who was present at the time.

Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja was dragged down the stairs of the house by the neck, and beaten by five officers, who refused to stop despite his claims that he could not breathe. His daughter, Zainab Al-Khawaja, was assaulted when she attempted to intervene. The women present in the house were then locked in a room and prevented from leaving.

Speaking from the capital Manama Andrew Anderson said “The Bahraini Defence Force officer to whom I spoke this morning said that he was not even in a position to confirm whether the hearing was taking place and that this was a matter for the office of the Military Prosecutor. The authorities stated that Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja had been arrested by the judicial police for his involvement in ‘crimes against the security of the Kingdom of Bahrain’ and that he will be able to meet with his lawyer as soon as the case is referred to the Military Prosecutor.”

Front Line thanked the authorities for allowing Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja to speak by phone with his family on 20th April and for allowing the family to deliver clothes and medicines for Abdulhadi on the morning of the 21st. “The family told me that they were very concerned by the fact that when they spoke with Abdulhadi he sounded very weak, had trouble speaking clearly and was unable to confirm that he had been treated properly, saying only that his ‘spirit was strong’”, said Mr Anderson.

Front Line is calling on the authorities to authorise the family to meet Abdulhadi and that Abdulhadi should be given free access to his lawyer. Furthermore Front Line is reiterating its request to the authorities to observe the hearing against Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and for permission to meet him. …source