In Bahrain, a candlelight vigil can land you in jail
By ROY GUTMAN
McClatchy Newspapers

SITRA, Bahrain — In the back alleys and streets of this Shiite Muslim town, a police crackdown looms at any hour of the day, but never more so than at nightfall, when even innocuous civil disobedience can lead to jail and perhaps torture.

The angry young men here know from experience that the police will use helicopters, blunderbuss rifles and tear gas to confront them, but they plot their next nighttime protest march nevertheless, in what’s become a cat-and-mouse game under Bahrain’s state of emergency, imposed to crush what remains of the country’s protest movement.

The police, mainly Sunni Muslims recruited from Pakistan’s Baluchistan province as well as Yemen, Syria and other Muslim countries, deploy three or four vans at the entrances to this town’s residential neighborhoods. Inside are 12 to 20 men ready to pounce the first moment they hear of a demonstration – even a candlelight vigil – against the government.

They chase the protesters down the streets and alleys, firing birdshot from blunderbusses, while other protests spring up not far away. A visitor driving through Sitra one recent evening saw police chasing and firing in one quarter, and young men marching and chanting in another nearby.

The slogans aren’t ambiguous. “Down with the king,” a group of about 30 young men chanted as they marched about with small tea candles, referring to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the head of the Al Khalifa dynasty.

This is what passes for normal now in Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled island nation that’s home to the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet and where most people follow the Shiite branch of Islam.

For the past two months, the country’s rulers have imposed a harsh crackdown on a protest movement that was among the first to spring up after Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak was pushed from that country’s presidency in February.

The crackdown has included bulldozing Shiite mosques, arresting mainstream opposition politicians and closing the country’s main opposition newspaper. …more

Bahrain announces elections to replace 18 Shia MPs
Zoi Constantine
Last Updated: May 12, 2011

Lebanese doctors, supporters of Hezbollah, carry placards, one reading in Arabic ‘Why keeping silence about arrests of doctors in Bahrain’ and wave Lebanese and Bahrain flags during a demonstration in solidarity with the doctors and nurses arrested in Bahrain in Beirut yesterday. Lebanese doctors, supporters of Hezbollah, carry placards, one reading in Arabic ‘Why keeping silence about arrests of doctors in Bahrain’ and wave Lebanese and Bahrain flags during a demonstration in solidarity with the doctors and nurses arrested in Bahrain in Beirut yesterday.

BEIRUT: The Bahraini government announced yesterday that parliamentary elections will be held in September to replace members who resigned in protest in February after the start of a crackdown on pro-reform demonstrations. Sheikh Khaled bin Ali al Khalifa, Bahrain’s justice minister, announced that a by-election would be held on September 24, according to the state-run Bahrain News Agency, with a second round scheduled for October 1. Eighteen MPs from Al Wefaq, the main Shia opposition group, resigned after the government’s violent response to demonstrations that began in mid-February, inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

Since then, more than 30 people have been killed, mostly protesters but also policemen, and hundreds more arrested as the government moved to quell protests. It declared a state of emergency in mid-March which is due to end, it announced this week, on June 1. …more

Bahrain: Award and prize winning photographer arrested
May 11th, 2011

On 11 May 2011, Mr.Mohammed Salman Al-Sheikh – Head of the Bahrain Society of Photography- arrested early morning from his apartment in Sanabis village. He is a prominent freelance photographer. A winner of more than 13 world Photography prize and member of international organizations of Photography.

Most important prize : Silver medal in international competition “Slovenia” 2009 “Exposed”

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) is deeply concerned about Mr.Mohammed Salman Al-Sheikh and calls on international organizations to act urgently to protect him. ..source

Bahrain Human Rights Hearing Includes PHR Testimony

By Megan Prock on May 11, 2011

On Friday, PHR’s Richard Sollom will testify before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for a hearing on the current human rights situation in Bahrain. Since mid-February, reports of human rights violations in Bahrain have increased significantly as Bahraini authorities have attempted to suppress anti-government protests. The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission works to promote, defend and advocate internationally recognized human rights norms in a nonpartisan manner, both within and outside of Congress.

Last month, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) released an emergency report which documents and decries systematic human rights abuses in Bahrain. For the first time, the report, “Do No Harm: A Call for Bahrain to End Systematic Attacks on Doctors and Patients,” provided forensic evidence of attacks on physicians, medical staff, patients and unarmed civilians with the use of bird shot, physical beatings, rubber bullets, tear gas and unidentified chemical agents.

Friday’s hearing will focus on human rights aspects of the Bahraini government’s response to the February protests. Specifically, the hearing will examine the targeting of medical professionals and reports of extrajudicial killings, indiscriminate shootings of unarmed peaceful protesters, torture, beatings, arbitrary and warrantless arrests and detentions, and general harassment. The hearing will take place at 10 AM on Friday, May 13, 2011 in B-318 Rayburn House Office Building. The Hearing is open to members of Congress, congressional staff, the media and the interested public. …more

Bahrain denies abuse of schoolgirls
Officials deny Al Jazeera report that police raided girls’ schools and beat them during its crackdown on protesters.
Last Modified: 11 May 2011 23:22

Officials in Bahrain have denied an Al Jazeera report that police carried out raids on girls’ schools, detaining them and beating them, during its crackdown against pro-democracy protesters, Bahrain news agency reported. “The allegations made by Al Jazeera English are totally baseless and without credibility”, the sources were quoted by the agency as saying.

“Reports that police have targeted students or beat them or threatened them are a blatant and malicious fabrication,” they said. Bahraini authorities were responding to secret filming conducted by Al Jazeera correspondent, Charles Stratford, that revealed shocking evidence of the brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protesters in the Gulf state, including that police carried out periodic raids on girls’ schools since the unrest began. …more

May 11, 2011
Bahrain should set up torture investigation body: HRW
Al-Khawaja is now facing military trial Thursday April 21, 2011, in connection with recent protests against the Bahraini regime. — PHOTO: AP

DUBAI – BAHRAIN should suspend prosecution of civilians in military courts and set up an impartial commission to look into allegations of torture during a clampdown on those involved in street protests, a US-based rights group said.

Human Rights Watch said Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a prominent rights activist who appeared before a special military-style court on May 8, a month after he was arrested, bore visible signs of ill-treatment and perhaps torture. ‘It appears that Abdulhadi al-Khawaja’s jailers tortured him during the month they held him in incommunicado detention,’ said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director for the New York-based group.Government officials were not immediately available to comment.

Human Rights Watch said Khawaja, who it said was maltreated, was among a group of opposition activists charged with attempting to topple the government ‘in collaboration with a terrorist organisation working for a foreign country’. The government denies there is torture in Bahrain and officials say all such accusations will be investigated. The trial is due to resume on Thursday after being adjourned to allow defence lawyers to meet with clients and in some cases to appoint lawyers. — REUTERS …more

Police buy software to map suspects’ digital movements
by Ryan Gallagher and Rajeev Syal
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 May 2011 12.00 BST

Geotime software, bought by the Met, collates data from social networking sites, satnavs, mobiles and financial transactions

Police have bought software that maps suspects’ movements in space and time, in a step towards the futuristic crime detecting imagined in Minority Report. Britain’s largest police force is using software that can map nearly every move suspects and their associates make in the digital world, prompting an outcry from civil liberties groups.

The Metropolitan police has bought Geotime, a security programme used by the US military, which shows an individual’s movements and communications with other people on a three-dimensional graphic. It can be used to collate information gathered from social networking sites, satellite navigation equipment, mobile phones, financial transactions and IP network logs.

Police have confirmed its purchase and declined to rule out its use in investigating public order disturbances. …more