“On June 29, Reuters reported that Bahrain University is requiring its students to sign the loyalty pledge or give up their right to higher education. I’ve received messages from students saying they were corralled into signing, and did so, fearing reprisals if they didn’t. Among the demands: students must pledge to avoid “harming Bahrain’s domestic or international reputation.”

But it is the ruling Al Khalifas who have grievously harmed Bahrain’s reputation. Bahrain’s rulers should consider another approach. How about just pledging allegiance to the rights of citizens of Bahrain to free speech, peaceful assembly and justice?”

Pledging Allegiance in Bahrain
by Dan Williams
Published in: The Huffington Post – July 19, 2011

Since mid-April, the government of Bahrain has urged its citizens to sign pledges of allegiance to the country’s “wise leadership,” saying the signatures would be inscribed on a golden sword whose existence would then be entered in the Guinness Book of World Records, in the category of… well, “sword bearing the largest number of signatures,” according to the official Bahrain News Agency.

Allegiance “events” have been held all over the island kingdom — in stadiums, schools and, in June, at businesses where citizens lined up dutifully to sign the pledge.

No reports yet on whether the campaign includes prisons, where hundreds of political protestors and dissidents are held.

Bahrain’s serial assault on the country’s pro-democracy protest movement has been eclipsed by the violent upheavals in Syria, Libya, and Yemen. Yet, Bahrain is geostrategically important and should not be ignored. The US Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain. Bahrain’s ruling family and its main regional backer, Saudi Arabia, have positioned the small kingdom at the epicenter of a tense rivalry with Iran.

That would argue for resolving Bahrain’s crisis as a high priority both for the government and its international backers. So far, the strategy is full-tilt repression.

On July 5, Human Rights Watch issued a briefing paper detailing the systematic crackdown on critics of the government since mid-March, when government police and army troops violently brought an end to a month of mostly peaceful protests. Hundreds of prisoners remain in incommunicado detention; credible charges of torture have gone unaddressed.

At first glance, the 30 deaths at the hands of Bahrain’s security forces don’t match the scale of hundreds of civilian deaths in Libya or Syria. But the native population of Bahrain is just 525,000 and official violence has been visited almost exclusively on Shiite Muslim citizens, who make up about 60 percent of Bahrainis. Moreover, the range of repression is breathtaking: besides torture, televised confessions, midnight home raids by masked men with guns, beatings, mass firings from jobs in the private sector, withdrawal of scholarships at home and abroad from students who demonstrated.

You might not hear much about all this, and not only because media attention is elsewhere. On May 24, the government ordered Frederik Richter, a Reuters correspondent and the only resident international journalist based in Bahrain in recent years, to leave. Human Rights Watch has not been allowed in since the authorities, on April 20, gave me 24 hours to leave after I asked to extend my visa.

The government sometimes tries to put out its own version of events, sometimes quite clumsily. In early April, photos circulated on the Internet of the body of Ali Ibrahim Isa Saqer, who died in jail and whose corpse was bruised and slashed. The government threatened to jail a human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, for “circulating fabricated photos” of Saqer’s body, but the photos I saw matched the state of Saqer’s body, which I viewed when I observed the body prior to burial at its ceremonial cleansing. …more

Bahrain security forces ‘tortured patients’
By Patrick Cockburn – Friday, 22 April 2011

Bahrain’s security forces stole ambulances and posed as medics to round up injured protesters during a ferocious crackdown on unarmed demonstrators calling for reform of the monarchy, an investigation by a rights group reveals today.

The first major report on repression of the medical profession during the country’s crisis details how a doctor was abducted during an operation and injured patients lying in hospital were tortured and threatened with rape.

The investigation by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) followed a report by The Independent yesterday detailing threats faced by medical staff who treated victims of the repression. More than 30 medics have been taken away by security forces and have had little or no contact with their families.

The report said it found that security forces targeted Shia doctors in particular. The crackdown has created such a climate of fear that wounded people were too frightened to go to hospital to seek treatment.

The Bahraini monarchy responded to calls for reform by massed demonstrations starting on 14 February by calling in 2,000 troops from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Over the next two days, Bahraini security forces, backed by the Saudis, drove protesters from the streets, made arbitrary arrests of at least 500 people, systematically tortured detainees and sacked anybody who had shown sympathy for protests.

The group’s investigators said they received witness evidence that security forces stole at least six ambulances. “Police forcibly removed ambulance medics from the vehicles, made them remove their uniforms at gunpoint, and then posed as medics, reportedly to get closer to injured protesters to detain them,” the report said. It also related how “armed security forces abducted Dr Ali El-Ekri from the operating room while he was performing surgery at Salmaniya Hospital on 17 March.”

Patients and detainees have been targeted according to the report which says that methods used against them include “torture, beating, verbal abuse, humiliation, and threats of rape and killing.”

In one case a Bahraini called Ali was shot in the face with bird shot and was taken while unconscious to Salmaniya hospital in the capital Manama where he remained for five days. On his second day there “three armed security forces handcuffed Ali and a dozen other wounded men behind their backs with plastic wrist ties and began to beat them.”

Ali and the other patients were thrown from their beds onto the floor where they lay face first and were then dragged, leaving trails of blood, into a hallway of the hospital. An Indian nurse told the security men: “Don’t hurt them. They are our patients.” …more

Israeli Navy takes Dignite/Al Karama in international waters – CALL TO ACTION
by US Boat to Gaza
Tuesday Jul 19th, 2011 11:20 AM

Earlier today, the Israeli navy took control of the one boat from Freedom Flotilla II that had made it into international waters on their way to Gaza. The French-flagged boat – Dignite/Al Karama – carried 16 people from France, Canada, Greece, Sweden and Tunisia. They were stopped about 40 miles away from Gaza [in international waters] and after several hours the Israelis took control of the boat, bringing it to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

There are no reports of any injuries and we have heard the passengers were being arrested. We do not yet know how long they will be detained or what will happen to the boat.

We urge you to contact the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC to call for the immediate release of these people. And – most importantly – we must call on the Israeli government to end the siege and blockade of Gaza, and to treat the people of Palestine in compliance with international law!

Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC
telephone: 202-364-5500

fax: 202-364-5423

A list of the Israeli consulate offices around the U.S. will be posted our website later today. Please call any of those numbers as well. …source

Picket of Israeli owned-ship at Deltaport in response to blocking of aid flotilla to Gaza
By Canadian Boat to Gaza | July 19, 2011

Activists from throughout the Lower Mainland will gather early Tuesday morning at Deltaport for an information picket targeting a major Israeli shipping company, Zim. The action is in solidarity with the aid flotilla to Gaza, which included a Canadian Boat and which has been prevented from sailing to the occupied and blockaded Palestinian territory.

The protest will take place Tuesday, July 19, 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m., Deltaport. Returning delegates from the Canadian Boat to Gaza, the Tahrir, will be among the participants in the picket Tuesday morning. The Tahrir was stopped from sailing to Gaza by the Greek coast guard.

“The Israeli government attacked our humanitarian flotilla with sabotage, threats of violence, and a great deal of political and economic pressure — that’s ultimately why the Greek government shamefully agreed to enforce the Israeli blockade,” said Irene MacInnes, a Vancouver member of the Canadian Boat to Gaza (CBG) who was among more than 30 Canadians on board the Tahrir.

“Our Canadian Boat and the Freedom Flotilla aimed to highlight the impact of the blockade of Gaza,” added MacInnes. “While Gazans cannot travel or ship exports by sea, massive Israeli companies like ZIM are able to freely do business around the world despite their connection to the unjust policies that bring so much suffering to Palestinians.”

Zim is by far the biggest Israeli shipping company, and one of the 10 largest in the world, with 60 weekly services to 180 ports worldwide, including Deltaport. This year’s Freedom Flotilla was a follow up to a similar effort in May 2010, when Israeli armed forces raided a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, killing nine activists. …more

Israeli navy intercepts and boards Gaza-bound French boat
Published today (updated) 19/07/2011 15:34

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Israeli navy intercepted and boarded the French-flagged Dignite Al-Karame boat on Tuesday as it approached the Gaza Strip.

At least three Israeli military ships had surrounded the yacht as it neared Gaza, seeking to breach Israel’s blockade on the territory, an organizer told AFP on Tuesday.

The Israeli navy said it had “exhausted” all diplomatic channels but the vessel had ignored the calls. The navy then took control of the ship and are taking it to the port of Ashdod.

Following the seizure, the passengers’ health was examined and they were offered food and beverages, an army statement said.

The passengers will face questioning upon arrival at the Israeli port and will be referred to immigration authorities.

The Israeli army had released a statement earlier saying that ‘contact’ had been made with the boat.

“The boat is surrounded by at least three Israeli ships and since 9:06 am all the communications have been jammed. We can’t get in touch with them by phone or by Internet,” one of the organizers Julien Rivoire said by phone from Paris.

“We call on the French government to take its responsibilities and to protect the passengers, and to call on Israel not resort to violence.”

The boat set sail for Gaza after a night anchored at sea, despite Israeli warnings that it would intercept the vessel — the only boat remaining from a flotilla of 10 ships that had planned to breach Israel’s blockade this summer.

The Israel navy earlier warned the Dignite Al-Karame that it is on route to “an area under a maritime security blockade” and told them that any supplies they carry can be transferred through land crossings and the Ashdod port.

Organizers of the ship had said they expected it to arrive in Gaza on Tuesday.

“This ‘little’ boat symbolizes the determination of the international solidarity movement to break the blockade on Gaza and express its support for the 1.6 million Palestinians imprisoned there since 2007,” a statement from the boat said Monday.

“The fact that the Dignite Al Karama is at sea is a setback for the Israeli government which by force or by pressure is trying to perpetuate an illegal and criminal blockade and to silence civil society movements around the world,” it said.

The French-flagged vessel had managed to escape the clutches of the Greek coastguard on July 5, but two days later, it was blocked by the authorities in Crete when it stopped to refuel.

A 10 ship Freedom Flotilla had been due to sail from Greece at the end of June but was hit by a wave of red tape and technical faults which organizers blamed on Israel.

Israel has vowed to prevent any attempt to reach Gaza by sea in defiance of its naval blockade which was first imposed in 2006 after militants there captured an Israeli soldier.

Rights groups have the condemned the blockade as a form of collective punishment of the 1.6 million Gaza residents.

AFP contributed to this report …source

Bahrain: Systematic Attacks on Medical Providers
Stop Targeting Medics, Patients, Health Facilities
July 18, 2011

(Beirut) – The Bahraini government should immediately end its campaign of arrests of medical professionals and attacks on injured patients linked to recent anti-government protests, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch called on authorities to investigate the violations against medical personnel and patients who exercised their rights to freedom of expression and assembly, hold those responsible to account, and allow unhindered access to medical treatment for all.

The 54-page report, “Targets of Retribution: Attacks against Medics, Injured Protesters, and Health Facilities,” documents serious government abuses, starting in mid-February 2011. These include attacks on health care providers; denial of medical access to protesters injured by security forces; the siege of hospitals and health centers; and the detention, ill-treatment, torture, and prosecution of medics and patients with protest-related injuries.

“The attacks on medics and wounded protesters have been part of an official policy of retribution against Bahrainis who supported pro-democracy protests,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Medical personnel who criticized the severe repression were singled out and jailed, among the more than 1,600 Bahrainis facing solitary confinement and ill-treatment in detention and unfair trials before a special military court.”

The government violations were part of the violent response by authorities to largely peaceful pro-democracy and anti-government demonstrations that began in February and continued months after military and security forces began a massive crackdown in mid-March, which led to the armed occupation of Bahrain’s main public hospital, the Salmaniya Medical Complex, on March 16.

Beginning on February 17, Human Rights Watch documented attacks by security forces on paramedics, doctors, and nurses who were providing urgent offsite medical care to wounded protesters and bystanders. Sadiq Alekry, a 44-year-old doctor, volunteered his services at the Pearl Roundabout on the evening of February 16, prior to the attack by security forces after midnight that resulted in the deaths of four protesters. Shortly after 3 a.m. Dr. Alekry said, riot police confronted him with sticks and guns, handcuffed him and began punching, kicking, and beating him with sticks. …more

After Opposition’s Withdrawal, U.S. Urged to Declare its Position on National Dialogue in Bahrain
For Immediate Release: July 19, 2011

Washington, D.C.—The U.S. government should immediately and publicly declare whether it still supports the Bahraini government’s National Dialogue after the country’s main opposition party, Al Wefaq, has officially withdrawn, said Human Rights First today.

“A wide range of human rights defenders in Bahrain told us last week the dialogue is cosmetic, and the U.S. government is losing credibility by being associated with it,” said Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley, who just returned from a fact finding mission in Bahrain. “Even as the dialogue sessions meet, the Bahraini government continues to shoot at civilians, detain opposition members, torture human rights defenders and intimidate all those who speak out.”

Last week, Human Rights First released a new report on the continuing human rights crackdown in Bahrain. The report is based on eye-witness testimonies and in-country interviews with human rights defenders, and includes recommendations for the U.S. and Bahraini governments.

The complete report and recommendations can be found here.

“Human rights defenders told us the Bahraini government must rebuild community trust before any dialogue can be real,” added Dooley. “They argue that the U.S. government has influence it can use in persuading the Bahraini government to take necessary confidence-building steps. These steps include: stopping all violence against peaceful protesters, ending the abuse and torture of all detainees –and giving them medical attention and visits from their families–and releasing all political detainees and members of the opposition. It’s time the U.S. government uses that influence.” …more

Remember 1973. Hold Torturers Accountable.
Americas, Amnesty Members, Torture, USA | Posted by: The Editors, July 19, 2011 at 10:06 AM
By Kalaya’an Mendoza, Field Organizer for Amnesty Western Region

On July 15th a group of activists from Amnesty International USA and Survivors of Torture International held a protest on board the Chilean vessel “La Esmeralda” as it docked in San Diego Harbor.

Activist Hannah Bogen in front of La Esmeralda in San Diego Harbor.

In 1973, after former Chilean General Augusto Pinochet seized power in a military coup, the ship served as an interrogation center for political prisoners. Survivors described torture that included beatings, electric shocks and sexual assault.

Currently, the Esmeralda is traveling around the Americas acting as a roving ambassador for Chile on a mission of “goodwill.” The crew invited happy families, wide-eyed tourists and, unbeknownst to them, a small group of human rights activists ready to unfurl signs on board that read: “Remember 1973. Hold Torturers Accountable.”

This protest follows the recent decision by a Chilean judge to drop charges against most of those implicated in the historic case of a priest believed to have died aboard the Esmeralda in 1973. Father Michael Woodward was arrested in September of that year, and taken to the Esmeralda, where he was interrogated and tortured. He was pronounced dead in a naval hospital six days after his arrest, but his body has never been recovered.

Twenty-nine former naval and police officials were initially indicted in the case. Last week, charges were dropped against nineteen of them. The remaining former low-ranking officials facing charges are now being prosecuted only for Father Woodward’s abduction, rather than for his torture and disappearance, which are crimes under international law. Guadalupe Marengo, Amnesty International’s Deputy For the Americas, sums it up:

“It is bitterly ironic that the Esmeralda is still going from international port to international port as a so-called ambassador for Chile, even as those involved in this infamous case of torture below its decks seem to be getting away with murder.”

Amnesty activists boarded the ship on behalf of the survivors and victims of the torture that was committed beneath its decks over 30 years ago. We wanted to remind the Chilean government of their responsibility to ensure that all those responsible for these heinous crimes, including those who gave the orders, are brought to justice. You can watch video footage of our protest here.

No matter where “La Esmeralda” goes, we shall follow. …source

Bahrain says talks to continue despite opposition walkout
Isabel Coles, Reuters July 18, 2011, 11:47 pm

DUBAI (Reuters) – Bahrain’s government expressed regret Monday that the country’s largest Shi’ite opposition group Wefaq planned to pull out of a national dialogue, but said political talks would continue with or without the influential group.

The Gulf kingdom’s Sunni rulers launched a national dialogue on July 2 to discuss reforms and address grievances, after a four-month crackdown that began in March and crushed weeks of pro-democracy protests led by the Shi’ite majority.

A walkout by the largest opposition group could damage the dialogue’s chances of reaching national consensus as sectarian tensions continue to simmer in kingdom.

Protests have erupted almost daily in Shi’ite villages ringing the capital Manama since Bahrain lifted emergency law in June, and tension had been rising as demonstrators increasingly demanded that the opposition quit the talks.

The National Dialogue’s spokesman, Isa Abdul Rahman, said Wefaq could rejoin the talks if it changed its mind.

“Should any participant choose to exclude themselves from the process, the door will remain open for them to return to the talks. Regardless of any participant’s decision to leave the Dialogue will continue,” he said.

Wefaq said Sunday it would withdraw because its views were not being taken seriously in talks it accused of being dominated by pro-government representatives. That decision still has to be ratified by the movement’s higher council.

Wefaq and six other political opposition groups, which were invited to take part in talks, have complained their proposed political reforms would never be put into effect because the opposition received only 35 out of 300 seats at the talks.

Wefaq, which held over 40 percent of seats in the country’s elected lower council before it resigned in protest in February, was given five seats at the talks.

The government has defended its apportioning of representatives, saying it wants the dialogue to include all Bahrainis, whether they are involved in politics or not.

Bahrain is seen as a fault line for tensions between Iran and Sunni Gulf Arab countries that are wary of protests spreading to their own Shi’ite minorities. The government has accused the opposition of pursuing a sectarian agenda with backing from nearby Shi’ite power Iran, charges the groups deny.

Mainstream opposition groups such as Wefaq have called for a more representative parliamentary system and greater powers for the elected lower council, whose powers are neutered by the upper Shura council, appointed by the king.

But hard liners calling for the abolition of the monarchy have gained popularity since the crackdown.

Dialogue spokesman Abdul Rahman said he was disappointed Wefaq had not stuck with the talks.

“It is sometimes harder to stay and help shape the solution than to walk away. Now is the moment to heal divides and unite behind a shared vision of Bahrain’s future,” said spokesman Isa Abdul Rahman. “We consider al-Wefaq’s contribution to the dialogue as central to its success thus far.” …source