Until 1971, Britain remained a presence in the Persian/Arab Gulf, defending the small Shaykhdoms of the region, at the same time, of course, protecting British economic and political interests. It was inevitable, therefore, that as the Shaykhdoms developed and their populations benefited from education, conflicts between competing interests occurred, conflicts that led to perplexing problems for the Rulers of these small states and for the British Government. Such was the case in Bahrain, where in the decade of the 1950s, Bahraini nationalists seeking modernization collided with their Ruler. As a result, three Bahrainis were imprisoned on the British Island of St. Helena. The British role in the exile of the Bahraini three embarrassed Her Majesty’s Government and served to illustrate the archaic nature of Britain’s role in the Gulf.

In March 1956, demonstrations and a general strike disrupted the British protected state of Bahrain. On 2 March, the Bahraini public heard news reports stating that Jordan’s King Husayn had fired his long serving British military adviser, Lieutenant General John Bagot Glubb (Glubb Pasha). That day, British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd arrived in Bahrain for what was initially planned as a brief visit. At 7:00 p.m. Minister Lloyd and his party landed at the RAF/BOAC airport in Muharraq. The Ruler, Shaykh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, was present to greet him. Lloyd’s entourage consisted of 28 persons, among them 13 women. The male members of the group left the airport in a line of cars; the visiting women followed in taxis. The procession traveled from the airport via a road along the sea-front. Crowds lined the route, shouting anti-British slogans. Some in the crowd began to throw sand; others threw rocks. “The mob, though behaving riotously, did not appear particularly menacing.”1

Bahrain commission to investigate army, torture claims
July 25, 2011

MANAMA, July 25 — A commission tasked by Bahrain to investigate weeks of protests that rocked the Gulf island kingdom said yesterday it would look at the role of the security forces in the unrest and examine charges of torture.

At a news conference marking the launch of the five-member panel’s investigation, chairman Cherif Bassiouni said his team would look at 30 police officers being investigated by the Interior Ministry for allegedly not following procedures.

He said the army would also be investigated.

“We will investigate the role of the army. The army is not above the law and not beyond the law,” Bassiouni said, adding most of the incidents under investigation happened while the military was in charge.

Bahrain’s Sunni rulers imposed martial law and crushed weeks of pro-democracy protests led mostly by the Shi’ite majority in March, lifting the state of emergency some four months later.

During the crackdown, hundreds of people were arrested, most of them Shi’ites, and some 2,000 who were sacked.

Tensions are still simmering in the Gulf Arab state, with small protests erupting daily in Shi’ite villages ringing the capital since emergency law ended on June 1.

King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa set up the panel of human rights and legal experts in June after facing international criticism for the crackdown, including from long-time ally the United States, whose strategic Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain.

Panel chief Bassiouni is an Egyptian-American law professor and U.N. war crimes expert who was involved in the formation of the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) and recently headed a UN inquiry into events in Libya.

The commission also includes Canadian judge and former ICC president Philippe Kirsch, British human rights lawyer Nigel Rodley, Iranian lawyer Mahnoush Arsanjani and Kuwaiti Islamic law expert Badria al-Awadhi.

TORTURE CLAIMS

Bahrain has said it will give the commission access to official files and allow it to meet witnesses in secret. But opposition groups have argued bias may mar a mission set up by the government.

Bassiouni said the panel was investigating the 33 deaths recorded during the protests and crackdown, as well as 400 cases of injuries. He also said the commission would investigate claims of torture in detention, including of several medical workers.

“(The mandate) also includes a number of allegations of torture including that of the offences which occurred against medical personnel, which are well documented by international human rights groups,” Bassiouni told reporters.

Bahrain denies any systematic abuse by police and has said all charges of torture will be investigated.

The government has accused protesters of a sectarian agenda backed by Shi’ite power Iran, just across Gulf waters.

Despite the opposition’s denials, such suspicions linger among the Sunni population and highlight sectarian tensions that continue to divide the kingdom.

Bassiouni told reporters the panel would hand over its report to the king in October but said the real task would be to act on the commission’s recommendations.

“The risk is that there are too many high expectations of what we may be able to accomplish,” he said. “It becomes a matter of internal significance to act on the recommendations … this crisis had a traumatic effect on the people of Bahrain.” — Reuters …source

UK parliamentary panel calls for ‘end to torture and politically motivated arrests’ in Bahrain
Wednesday, 20 July 2011 – By RAY MOSELEY – Al Arabiya

A British parliamentary committee called on Wednesday for immediate action to ensure an end to torture and politically motivated detentions in Bahrain and accused Iraq of widespread human rights abuses, including torture and poor conditions in prisons.

The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee also said it plans to launch in inquiry in the autumn concerning aspects of British foreign policy and the Arab Spring.

In a report on human rights around the world, the committee said events of the Arab Spring should remind the Foreign Office that there are risks for the United Kingdom in failing to take a stronger and more consistent stance against rights violations by foreign regimes.

It said the committee was less confident than the Foreign Office that there is little conflict between Britain’s simultaneous pursuit of commercial interests and improved human rights standards abroad.

The Foreign Office, it recommended, should take a more robust and consistent position on human rights violations in the Middle East and North Africa. It said the Foreign Office should have treated Bahrain as a “country of concern” in its 2010 annual human rights report.

The committee welcomed the Bahrain government’s establishment of a commission to investigate recent events involving protestors but said: “We remain concerned that immediate action is needed to ensure an end to torture and politically motivated detentions.”

Human rights, it said, should be at the heart of Foreign Office work in implementing its so-called Arab Partnership program. The government recently announced a four-year, £110 million partnership fund to support political reforms, give economic aid and carry out public finance reforms. …more

The European Role and the Aspirations of the Arab People
Posted: 7/22/11 06:12 PM ET

For Europe, both the declining U.S. interest in international affairs and the fact that Russia’s approach to international diplomacy has reverted to the Soviet mentality, represent an opportunity for the continent to play an exceptional and effective role, both internationally and regionally. In truth, the Middle East, the Gulf region and North Africa are all geographically proximate to Europe, in addition to being the theater where many European strategic and economic interests come together. In the past few decades, the European role was merely that of a proxy, in the era of the American and Soviet superpowers during the Cold War, despite the historical relations between Europe and the Arab region, stretching from the Middle East to the Gulf and North Africa.

However, this decade has seen a shift in the relations with Europe, with the wave of change that swept the region with the beginning of the year. Yet the sovereign debt and Euro-zone crises have both held back the European Union, and brought many European countries into a shortfall of, or even to reneging on, the promises and pledges they had made.

The idea of applying the principle of a Marshall Plan-like initiative, in order to ensure the success of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, has regressed, leaving only promises behind and an absence of the means to execute them. But the European interest in the events of Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Iran and Lebanon, as well as in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, has not regressed. On the contrary, every time the United States has lagged behind in Libya or in Syria for example, the European countries have helped resuscitate American interest, so that it may not fall into the slumber that usually comes when it fixates itself upon its domestic affairs, especially during an elections period.

For instance, when the Obama Administration made a faux pas two weeks ago, which could have otherwise come at an exorbitant cost, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union — Catherine Ashton — took charge and succeeded at reversing a terrible draft statement by the Quartet on the Middle East. Further, Europe plays an equally important role in light of that played by Russia in the Security Council and at the regional level, providing, for example, absolute protection for the regimes in Tripoli, Damascus and Tehran, with total disregard for the demands of the people in those countries. …more

Scores hurt as protesters and military loyalists clash in Cairo
By MUSTAPHA AJBAILI – Al Arabiya And Agencies

More than 200 people were wounded in Egypt’s capital Cairo on Saturday during clashes between pro-democracy protesters angry at the ruling military council’s handling of the transition period and army loyalists.

The military has been traditionally regarded with respect in Egypt. The fact that protesters marched to convey their displeasure was in itself a highly significant matter.

The two sides pelted each other with stones and Molotov cocktails, prompting the army to fire in air to disperse the crowds.

“Down with the military,” the protesters chanted, branding its leader Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi “an agent of America.”

Such chants were regarded by veteran analysts as signifying overt disrespect toward the country’s highest military leader – again, a most unusual occurrence.
An Egyptian army officer shakes hands with a protester. (REUTERS Photo)
An Egyptian army officer shakes hands with a protester. (REUTERS Photo)

Ambulances were seen tending to the injured, as an army helicopter flew overhead shining its spotlight into the crowd.

Marshal Tantawi vowed on Saturday to build “the pillars of a democratic state which promotes freedom and the rights of citizens.”

Marshal Tantawi, whose military council took over after a popular uprising forced President Hosni Mubarak to step down in February 2011, was seen leaving the compound before the protesters arrived.

Egyptian youth protesters vowed to remain in Tahrir Square until their demands are met, after violence broke out in a number of Egyptian cities between military police and protesters on Friday, in which up to 10 people and four policemen were hurt.

The army denied using force against demonstrators.

Protesters now in their 15th day of demonstrations have been camped in Tahrir and other squares across the country to back demands for more freedom for the civilian government, led by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, an end to military trials and setting a time frame for the completion of the demands for reform.

In his speech to mark the anniversary of the 1952 revolution that overthrew the debauched King Farouk in a bloodless coup, Marshal Tantawi said his mandate was to deliver an elected government to Egypt.

“We are committed to pressing ahead in turning Egypt to a modern civilian state,” Marshal Tantawi said in his speech.

“We are moving forward on the path to entrenching democracy that upholds freedoms and the rights of citizens through free and fair elections,” he added in a pre-recorded speech, his first address to the public since Mr. Mubarak was ousted. …source

Bahrain Regime Thugs to attack Peaceful Protesters next to released Mohammed Al Buflasa Home.
iReport – CNN 25 July, 2011

Bahrain faces a serious development in events at the first night the “International Committee” (to investigate human right violations) announced its kickoff in a press conference.

In the evening of 24th of July, the government released the first detainee in the protests that kicked off in Bahrain back in 14th February. A sunni protester, Mr, Mohammed Al Buflasa, who was kidnapped in the 17th of February just 2 nights after the protests started. Mohammed is an ex. military member who resigned few years back. He has ran for Parliment Elections before.

Al Buflasa was senteced for 3 months in jail, though he has not been released as his sentence ended. He has been prisoned in multiple locations as many unconfirmed reports, and for some time in solitary confienment. Many reports spread throughout his period in jail that he has been severly tortured.

A week ago, many unconfirmed reports were raising concerns that he had suicidal thoughts in prison.

Al Buflasa has grown up as a hero as he symbolizes that the protests in Bahrain are not sectarian driven. His name would be chanted alongside with a popular slogan “Brothers Sunni and Shia, this Land is not for Sale” in almost every gathering or a protest the pro-democracy would plan.

At the night of his released he was received in a huge crowd cheering him up and raising victory signs as he arrived home. He gave a brief speech from the roof of his home.

Moments later thugs led by an ex. MP (Mohammed Khalid – A pro-Government) carrying spades, swords, bongs and knives rallied towards the crowd cheering Al Buflasa. Many reports about serious injuries, nothing confirmed yet. Roads towards that location are blocked at the moment. Many reported seeing Ambulances rushing towards that area. Heavy tear gas was used to disperse the crowd next to Al Buflasa home (Pro-Democracy crowd).

Bahrain is the home of the US Navy Fifth Fleet, and a strategic alliance with US Government. …source