Saudi Arabia: Free Woman Who Dared to Drive
May 23, 2011

(Beirut) – King Abdullah should immediately order the release of Manal al-Sharif, who was arrested on the morning of May 22, 2011, after she defied the kingdom’s de facto ban on driving by women, Human Rights Watch said today.

She had posted a video on YouTube showing herself behind the wheel and describing the inconveniences not being able to drive causes women. Prosecutors charged al-Sharif with besmirching the kingdom’s reputation abroad and stirring up public opinion, according to Saudi press reports. King Abdullah should lift the de facto ban, Human Rights Watch said.

“Arresting a woman who drove her family around in a car and then showed it online opens Saudi Arabia to condemnation – and, in fact, to mockery – around the world,” said Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The longer she stays in prison, the more the kingdom will have to answer for.”

Saudi women have begun a “women2drive” campaign, seeking the right to drive cars, and say they are planning a symbolic protest drive on June 17. Public transportation is sparse and gender segregated, and women have to rely on taxis, expensive full-time drivers, or their families to drive them around, severely impeding their ability to study, work, and participate in public life. …more

U.S. quietly expanding defense ties with Saudis

By Robert Burns – The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 19, 2011 7:46:06 EDT

WASHINGTON — Despite their deepening political divide, the United States and Saudi Arabia are quietly expanding defense ties on a vast scale, led by a little-known project to develop an elite force to protect the kingdom’s oil riches and future nuclear sites.

The U.S. also is in discussions with Saudi Arabia to create an air and missile defense system with far greater capability against the regional rival the Saudis fear most, Iran. And it is with Iran mainly in mind that the Saudis are pressing ahead with a historic $60 billion arms deal that will provide dozens of new U.S.-built F-15 combat aircraft likely to ensure Saudi air superiority over Iran for years.

Together these moves amount to a historic expansion of a 66-year-old relationship that is built on America’s oil appetite, sustained by Saudi reliance on U.S. military reach and deepened by a shared worry about the threat of al-Qaida and the ambitions of Iran.

The quiet U.S. moves in Saudi Arabia form part of the backdrop to President Obama’s speech Thursday, which is intended to put his imprint on the enormous changes sweeping across the greater Middle East. …more

Bahrain Responds to Obama Speech by Continuing Crackdown
For Immediate Release: May 23, 2011
CONTACT: Jessica Rosenblum, Human Rights First,
C: 202-279-0005, W: 202-265-3000 | Jessica@rabinowitz-dorf.com

Washington, D.C.—Bahraini authorities have reacted to President Obama’s May 19 speech, in which he urged the Bahraini government to “create the conditions for dialogue,” and made clear that “the United States opposes the use of violence and repression against the people of the region,” by continuing their brutal crackdown. On Saturday 21, the home of prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab was attacked, and the following day two death sentences were confirmed against two young Shiite men, Ali AlSingace and AbdulAziz AbdulRedha, who had been convicted in a secret military trial on April 28 for the alleged murder of two policemen.

Their trial fell far short of international standards. Bahraini TV aired video of the convicted men confessing to the murder of the policemen—confessions that may have been extracted by use of torture. Human Rights First has found many credible reports from Bahraini protesters detained by the security forces being subjected to beatings and other forms of torture. There are serious questions about these confessions and allegations.

“The U.S. should condemn these sentences and take further steps to pressure Bahrain to end its continuing crackdown,” said Brian Dooley of HRF. “It should seek to send observers to the military trials, should appoint an Ambassador to Bahrain, and should criticize specific human rights violations in Bahrain by name, including torture, arbitrary arrests, disappearances and attacks on human rights defenders.”

Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), told Human Rights First, “For the second time in a few weeks, my family’s house was attacked early morning today (Saturday) by gas bombs while the whole family was sleeping. Today’s attack was different because the gas bombs were shot by a gun into the house, purposely breaking the window of my brother’s, Nader Rajab, section where he lives with his family. We had very frightening moments rescuing my brother and his wife and his daughter as they were close to serious suffocation. This is an attempt to murder a member of my family to pressure me to stop my human rights activities. Thank God the gas bombs fell on the tile and not the carpet, which could have caused fire and could have killed the whole family while they were asleep.” …more

May 22, 2011
Saudi protesters show solidarity with Bahraini people
By staff & agencies

Saudi protesters have poured into the streets in the eastern city of Qatif, condemning Al Khalifa regime’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.

According to Press TV, expressing solidarity with Bahraini people, Saudis on Friday urged the government to stop helping Manama government in suppressing the uprising in the neighboring country and immediately withdraw its troops.

Since the deployment of Saudi troops in mid-March, Bahrain has launched a harsh crackdown on the protesters, rounding up senior opposition figures and activists in dawn raids and arresting doctors, nurses, lawyers and journalists who voiced support for the protest movement.

Last week, Bahraini authorities announced that Saudi troops would remain in the Persian Gulf nation even after emergency is lifted in June.

Despite international condemnation of Saudi occupation of Bahrain, a Saudi official said, “This is the initial phase and Bahrain will get whatever assistance it needs. It’s open-ended.”

Saudi demonstrators also called for human rights reform, freedom of expression and the release of political prisoners some held without trial for more than 16 years.

Saudi Arabia’s eastern region has been the scene of anti-government protests over the past months and authorities have arrested scores of people, including bloggers and independent writers, for participating in protest rallies.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 160 dissidents have been arrested since February as part of the Saudi government’s crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Bahrainis want detained activists freed

Hundreds of protesters have take to the streets in Bahrain, demanding the immediate release of detained anti-government activists.

Anti-regime protesters in the village of Sanabis near the capital, Manama, demanded an end to the rule of Al Khalifa family, Press TV reported.

Similar anti-regime protest rallies were also held in the village of Boori.

Meanwhile, Saudi-backed Bahraini troops rolled into Sitra and detained two teenagers.

According to witnesses, riot police and pro-government thugs also stormed the villages of Hamala, Daih and Diraz.

The Manama government has arrested hundreds of protesters, opposition activists, bloggers and doctors since the beginning of anti-regime protests in Bahrain in mid-February.

Rights groups and the families of those arrested during the government crackdown on protesters have blamed Bahraini security forces of mistreating anti-government protesters, saying they are being physically and mentally abused. …source

Egypt, Bahrain, London, Spain?– Tahrir Square as a meme
Posted on May 21, 2011 by deterritorial

As in the early days and weeks of what have become known as “The Arab Spring”– a series of insurrections against long-established regimes across North Africa– the British mainstream media seem to have missed the boat on the current “May 15th” movement currently filling the streets and squares of cities and towns across Spain. The basis of the Spanish protests bear more similarities with those insurrections- anger at soaring youth unemployment, political corruption and, like much of Europe, huge social and financial restructuring plans in the name of “austerity”. But there are now interesting examples of how the shared causes of these grievances are having a feedback effect on the tactics of popular protest being used, and how certain tropes of “struggle” are spreading memetically between movements against poverty, corruption and austerity measures. Not least of these is the potent symbol of Tahrir Square, the hub of dissent during the uprisings in Egypt this year, which we are seeing in an entirely new incarnation in Puerta Del Sol in Madrid this week.

The relationship between the North African and Middle-Eastern uprisings and the problems of Europe is highly symbiotic, although rarely flagged up by much of the media on the conservative right and liberal left. Whilst they have tried to diffuse the anger and it’s repercussions by portraying the insurrections as part of a cultural “quest for democracy”, the Arab Spring is, quite plainly, the result of the economic forces of the global downturn and the financial crisis that precipitated it. Faced with already high graduate unemployment and rocketing food prices, the collapse of their export economies were the straw that broke the working-classes back in North Africa– the ensuing crisis of legitimacy, industrial actions and massive street violence (also completely downplayed by the European media) may have then been painted as a political crisis, but they were only the symptoms of a financial crisis with which working people had been lumbered, and could no longer sustain.

It’s perhaps understandable why the west has sought to play down the economic and class nature of the uprisings. It may well seem crass for young westerners to compare, for example, the student and EMA protests of last year with the oppression faced by Egyptian, Bahrainian and Libyan youths and rebels, but the fundamental issues that cause the discontent have similar roots and manifestations– very high graduate unemployment, a rising cost in living (food and, in Europe, rent) and collapsing legitimacy of traditional political structures, both of those in office and opposition- in short, a crisis of trust in the ideology of a social contract. For those involved to start drawing international and class comparisons and links, and for the street protests and direct actions to be generalised across Europe, would not suit the established Western democracies at all well. It’s against this attempt to distance these shared struggles that workers, demonstrators and anti-austerity activists are fighting, because the inevitable realisation would be made, sooner or later, that the problems of each country are not due to, for example, an overbureaucratic welfare state or mismanagement by a particular tyrant, but due to international issues of capital.

These are, indeed, international issues of class vs capital. But what has also been fascinating is the way certain tropes, tactics and symbols of these protests have spread across the continents memetically, not because of any specific tactical or political efficacy relevant to each individual location, but as an only semi-conscious, infectious “linking” of different “struggles”. As an example, the image of Tahrir Square has now become a fundamental core feature linking many of these movements. When tens of thousands of Egyptians headed for the Square on the days following their “day of rage” against the government, they did so for practical reasons relevant to their very specific social and geographic conditions– the need to coalesce for self-defence reasons, to gain a certain communal courage, to keep out in the open and in the eye of the international media, expecting a brutal repression from the Egyptian state security services. But the idea of Tahrir– a central encampment, held for as long as possible, acting as a hub for the worlds media, has since become more than a practical development. It has become a meme of the social movements.

To give a brief overview, memetics is a theory of how information and ideas transfer within and between social contexts. Originally posited by Richard Dawkins in his book “A Selfish Gene”, the theory contends that ideas pass through populations in much the same way as genes do, adapting and evolving according to the conditions they inhabit, with versatile and strong ideas thriving and spreading whilst ossified and unsubstantial ones die of, or perhaps only thrive within a very specific environment and are able to spread outside that environment. Dawkins used the analogy of genetic mutation to explain his basic outline of a theory of ideas, but it remained very much a creative analogy.

With the development of sophisticated communicative technologies, not least the internet, the idea of memetics soon found a fertile breeding ground itself. A meme is no longer a theory of ideas, but an object in itself. There’s much, much more to be said on this than could possibly be included in this article, but today meme can be a self-aware, self-referencing idea, joke or image that finds resonance within a culture or cultures online and in real life, and spreads, changing constantly on it’s journey. It’s even possible for the meme to become a proverbial dustmans broom, with signifiers and content changing until it is almost totally empty of it’s original form, but retains enough generalised understanding to be able to function, for the idea or joke to continue. And this is an important point– a meme doesn’t have to resonate in exactly the same way with all participants to take off. A single idea or image can be read and reflected on by many different audiences. …more

Bahrain halts gas deal with Iran

MANAMA – Bahrain Minister of Foreign Affairs Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa said on Saturday that his country has frozen the gas import agreement with Iran until further notice.

According to a statement in the Bahrain News Agency, Shaikh Khalid attributed the decision to troubled political relations between the two countries.

Shaikh Khalid said the gas import project was stopped because of Iran’s blatant interference in the kingdom’s domestic affairs. He said Iran’s successive provocative statements will affect agreements between the two countries, stressing that such projects require more suitable political atmosphere.

However, the foreign minister denied reports that the agreement was cancelled altogether, asserting that the kingdom is looking forward to setting up better relations with Iran and other neighbourly countries.

The agreement was signed between the two countries in 2008 to import one billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, but the project, according to the minister, was delayed because of Iran’s interference in Bahrain’s internal affairs.

© Khaleej Times 2011

Amnesty International: Bahrain must commute protesters’ death sentences

23 May 2011
The Bahraini authorities must overturn death sentences imposed on two activists for the alleged killing of two police officers during anti-government demonstrations earlier this year, Amnesty International said today.

Bahrain’s National Safety Appeals Court confirmed the death sentences against ‘Ali ‘Abdullah Hassan al-Sankis and ‘Abdelaziz ‘Abdelridha Ibrahim Hussain on Sunday. The court commuted the death sentences of two other men accused with them to life imprisonment.

“The confirmation of the death sentences imposed on these two men is nothing short of alarming. While the Bahraini government has a responsibility to protect the public and bring to justice those responsible for committing violent crimes, the government must not let these executions go ahead.

“The death penalty is the ultimate form of cruel and inhuman treatment and ought not to be used under any circumstances”

“We are urging King Hamad bin ‘Issa Al Khalifa not to sign the execution order for these two protesters, and to commute their sentences without delay”, said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“To execute these two men would represent an irrevocable step and it would plunge Bahrain into an even deeper human rights crisis than it is experiencing now.”

The two men were convicted, with three others, of the premeditated murder of two policemen by running them over with a vehicle on 16 March.

That day, the security forces launched a fierce new crackdown on anti-government protests following the King’s declaration of a state of emergency, termed the State of National Safety – on 15 March, after bringing in Saudi Arabian troops to help quell the protests.

Although they are civilians, the five accused were tried in closed session before the National Safety Court, a special military court.

The two men could be executed within days if their sentences are upheld by Bahrain’s Court of Cassation, which considers only procedural technicalities, and ratified by the King. …more

Bahrain court upholds death sentences
Special court upholds death sentences for two men convicted of killing policemen during anti-government demonstrations.
Last Modified: 22 May 2011 12:09

The death sentences are only the third in more than 30 years issued against Bahraini citizens [Al Wefaq Party]

A Bahrain emergency appeals court has upheld death sentences for two men found guilty of killing police officers during recent unrest in the island kingdom. Human rights activists said that punishments given to Ali Abdullah Hassan al-Singace and Abdul Aziz Abdul Redha Ibrahim Hussein in Sunday’s court rulings were designed to prevent more protests.

Qasim Hassan Mattar Ahmed and Saeed Abdul Jalil Saeed, two other men who were among the four initially sentenced to death on April 28, had their sentences reduced to life imprisonment, the Bahraini state news agency said.

The report did not say when the two executions would be carried out, but Mohammed Ahmed, a Manama-based legal expert, said they would first need to be approved by Bahrain’s king. The appeals, like the trial before it, were heard in a special security court presided over by civil and military judges. It was set up under emergency laws implemented in March during a government crackdown on the Shia-led protests.

Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, questioned the ruling.

“This is a political case and it is aimed at stopping the protests,” he said by telephone. “It is believed that they were targeted because of their (political) activities.”

He said one of the two people sentenced to death had a full-length cast on his left leg when the killing took place.

“The man had a broken leg and was moving with crutches, how could he drive a car?” he added.

A hospital source said in March that at least two of four Bahraini policemen killed during the protests had been run over by cars.

The security court is separately trying 21 mostly Shia opposition leaders and political activists accused of plotting against the state. It last week sentenced a prominent Shia cleric and eight others to 20 years in prison for the alleged kidnapping of a police officer. …more

Bahrain says 500 protesters freed
Published: May 23, 2011 at 8:14 AM

MANAMA, Bahrain, May 23 (UPI) — Bahrain says it has released more than 500 political dissidents since the State of National Safety was declared in March.

Sheik Fawaz bin Mohammad al-Khalifa, head of the Bahrain media authority, said in a Gulf News report Monday some of the detainees were permitted to return home on humanitarian grounds.

He said others were freed after spending time in police custody for their part in the uprisings that began earlier this year. Six women are among the dissidents being held for trial.

Some international organizations accused Bahrain of arresting doctors for treating injured protesters and for using Salmaniya Medical Complex, the country’s largest hospital, as bait to round up injured demonstrators.

Bahrain denies the allegations, saying it only arrested demonstrators for “criminal” actions.

Officials Monday lifted the nighttime curfew imposed in March, citing normal security levels.
…source

Palestinians condemn latest Israel settlement plan
RAMALLAH, West Bank | Fri May 20, 2011 5:36am EDT

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian officials Friday condemned an Israeli plan to build 1,550 housing units on annexed land around Jerusalem, authorized the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left for talks in Washington.

An Israeli Interior Ministry spokeswoman said a planning committee had approved two building projects in Pisgat Zeev and Har Homa. These urban settlements were built on land that Israel annexed after a 1967 war, in a move not recognized internationally, and that it sees as Jerusalem neighborhoods.

The spokeswoman did not say when construction was expected to start.

Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the Israeli move further hampered U.S. efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which collapsed last year shortly after they began because of settlement building. …more

Egypt: Victims of protest violence deserve justice
The report provides damning evidence of excessive use of force
© Demotix / Nour El Refai
19 May 2011

The Egyptian authorities must provide justice to all of the victims of violent repression that took place during mass anti-government protests earlier this year, Amnesty International said in a comprehensive report into abuses that led to at least 840 deaths.

The release of Egypt rises: killings, detentions and torture in the ’25 January Revolution’ comes two days before former Interior Minister Habib El Adly goes on trial on charges arising from the killings of protesters.

The organization said that while the Egyptian authorities have begun holding accountable some of those accused of responsibility for serious human rights violations, many victims of security forces’ brutality are at risk of being excluded from efforts to deal with the legacy of the violence.

“The trial of the senior figures suspected of being responsible for the outrageous use of excessive force against peaceful protesters is an essential first step,” said Amnesty International. “But the authorities’ response to victims must go much further than this.”

“Families of those who were killed, as well as all those who were seriously injured or subjected to arbitrary detention or torture, including at the hands of the military, should expect that the authorities will prioritize their needs.”

“That means giving them the truth about what happened, providing them with appropriate reparation, and making sure that all those responsible are brought to justice.”

Amnesty International’s report provides damning evidence of excessive force by security forces to try to disperse and suppress protests against former President Hosni Mubarak, showing flagrant disregard for life. Many protesters died as a result of shots to the upper body, including the head or chest, pointing to deliberate targeting of protesters posing no threat, or at the very least to reckless use of firearms.

Over 6,000 people were also injured in protests, some of them permanently. The co-ordinator of the field hospital in Tahrir Square told Amnesty International delegates he dealt with around 300 cases of shotgun wounds to the eyes, leading to loss of vision. …more

Bahrain : calls for establishment of “armed groups” : a dangerous precedence and a violation of the international Conventions
May 23rd, 2011

The King of Bahrain issued a decree cancelling the emergency law in 1st of June 2011.

concurrently several invitations were promoted for the formation of armed groups supported by governmental institutions.

On the 27th of April 2011, the Governor of the “Southern Governorate” stated that the governorate will evaluate a program that aims to “protect the people of the “Southern Governorate” from the outlaws following the tragic events that our beloved Kingdom has experienced in the recent period and the initiative shown by volunteers from the local community to preserve their areas from all mischief, and we have seen the Peoples’ Committees for the protection of their areas out of fear and concern over their areas”, and ensured that the volunteers will be trained and rewarded financially. (Ref: http://www.bna.bh/portal/mobile/news/454495)

Between the 14th of February and the 16th of March, many residents of some areas have complained the attack of armed groups “with knives, swords and sticks” on their areas to target them.

One of the protesters – against the government – pointed out to the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights: “that through the 14th of February to the 16th of March armed groups have attacked their area “with knives, swords and sticks” which led the residents to place barriers preventing strange cars from entering their area”.

On the 11th of March 2011, hundreds of protestors – against the government – participated in a march towards the Royal court, and the riot police prevented the protesters from reaching the court (a metal barbed wire was placed near the Clock Roundabout in Riffa), following the march, an armed group attacked “with knives, swords and sticks” the protestors, the groups were situated behind the riot police.(Ref: http://www.alwasatnews.com/3109/news/read/531930/1.html) …more

Bahrain:The Bahraini Military court of appeal confirm the Death penalty for 2 demonstrators
May 22nd, 2011

Today 22th May 2011 , The verdict of the Bahraini Military court ” Lower National Safety Court” of appeal in the case of the four death sentences and three life imprisonment. ( Ref: http://byshr.org/?p=391 )

1-Ali Abdulla Hassan Al-Sankis ( Death penalty) Confirm the sentence

2- Qassim Hassan Matar Ahmed ( Death penalty) change to “life imprisonment”

3-Saeed Abduljalil Saeed ( Death penalty) change to “life imprisonment “

4-Isa Abdulla Kadhim Ali ( life imprisonment) Confirm the sentence

5- Abdulaziz Abdulridha Ibrahim Hussain ( Death penalty) Confirm the sentence

6-Sadeq Ali Mahdi ( life imprisonment) Confirm the sentence

7-Hussein Jaafar Abdulkarim ( life imprisonment) Confirm the sentence

Accusation: Murder of policemen Kashef Ahmed Mandhour and Mahmoud Farooq Abdulsamad.

The defendants may face the death penalty which is shooting with live ammunition.

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights rejected the trial because special courts “Lower National Safety Court” violate international standards and BYSHR demands the international community and organizations for urgent action to stop the trials against demonstrators. ( Ref : http://byshr.org/?p=383) …source