Facebook Becomes Divisive in Bahrain
Phillip Walter Wellman – Dubai, United Arab Emirates
torturous
A Bahrain woman looks at pictures of victims of the February 14 uprising, displayed at an exhibition during a gathering held by the Al Fateh Youth Union in Isa Town, south of Manama, Bahrain, July 28, 2011

It has been six months since anti-government protests inspired by the successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt first erupted in Bahrain. And as in Egypt, many Bahrainis used social media Internet sites such as Facebook to help organize the protests. The Bahraini government is now using Facebook, too – apparently to track down and arrest the protesters.

It is questionable whether the Arab Spring ever would have amounted to much without social media on the Internet. In most cases, as more and more frustrated youths turned to their computers to express their discontent, an increasing number of people left their homes to publicly demand change.

The term “Facebook Revolution” was coined after the successful ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. And in Bahrain, the social networking site also played a role in encouraging people to participate in the nation’s “Day of Rage” protests on February 14, and in the pro-democracy demonstrations that followed.

Manama’s Pearl Roundabout traffic circle quickly became Bahrain’s own version of Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where protesters, made up of mostly Shi’ite Muslims, set up camp and pushed for reform.

Unlike in Egypt, however, the demands of the Bahrainis were never met. The Sunni government, with military help from neighboring Gulf States, quelled the uprising and afterwards, reportedly used access to social media to help identify and punish those who spoke out.

Rights groups say that more than 1,000 opposition supporters have been arrested since the crackdown began. Today, many Bahrainis say they are apprehensive about using social media.

A recent documentary aired on the al-Jazeera television network describes how one Facebook page helped single out a 20-year-old Shi’ite woman who allegedly was arrested and tortured. Visitors to the page were told to reveal her name and workplace on that page, “and let the government take care of the rest.”

Another page displayed photos of other demonstrators that would be checked off once a person was detained by authorities.

According to Abdulnabi Alekry, chairman of the Bahrain Transparency Society, the government’s use of social media to help identify opponents has pushed the country’s Sunnis and Shi’ites further and further apart. …more

Bahrain Shiite opposition seeks reform referendum
The Associated Press

The head of Bahrain’s main Shiite Muslim opposition party wants a referendum over whether the Gulf kingdom’s rulers should retain their wide powers.

The Associated Press MANAMA, Bahrain — The head of Bahrain’s main Shiite Muslim opposition party wants a referendum over whether the Gulf kingdom’s rulers should retain their wide powers.

The appeal by Ali Salman seeks to increase pressure for broader reconciliation efforts. Salman told reporters Wednesday the proposed referendum would ask whether the tiny island nation’s government should be elected or remain appointed by the leaders. It’s seen highly unlikely that Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy would allow such a vote, after months of crackdowns against Shiite-led protests demanding greater rights.

Salman’s Al Wefaq party has broken off talks with Bahrain’s rulers and plans to boycott parliament elections next month. Mass protests led by Bahrain’s majority Shiites began in February, inspired by other Arab uprisings. …source

Female Teacher on Hunger Strike in Bahrain Hospitalized
8-17-2011 – By Human Rights Defenders Program – Human Rights First

In July, Human Rights First profiled Jalila al-Salman, a Bahraini teacher who has been detained since March for her alleged role in coordinating a teachers’ strike. We are very concerned to hear from local human rights defenders that Jalila was hospitalized today for chest pains following 10 days on hunger strike. Among the handful of women still in detention in Bahrain, Jalila and fellow prisoner, Roula Al Saffar, the Head of the Bahrain Nursing Society, have undergone a joint hunger strike to protest their continued detention and ill treatment. There are reports that Jalila has been severely tortured.

While there were hopes that the women detainees would be released pending a transfer to civilian courts at the start of Ramadan, so far there have been no improvements to their situation.

Another female detainee told HRF staff in Bahrain what happened to her, Her account is consistent with what has happened to other female detainees:

I was taken from the hospital where I was working during the middle of the day. Four masked men came and took me for an interrogation. They blindfolded me and took me to the investigations office. They were verbally abusing me, saying the doctors at the hospital were sectarian, only treating Shiite patients.

Then they moved me to another room – I was blindfolded the whole time and a policewoman pushed me along the corridor for more questioning.

They wanted me to say that doctors took injured people for operations unnecessarily, they had very minor injuries but doctors made these injuries worse and caused death on purpose in two cases.

They said we wanted to make Bahrain look bad, to hurt its international reputation. I said no, patients were really bleeding badly, some from live ammunition wounds, and we didn’t make their wounds worse. …more

[cb Editor Note: The balance of this article has not been seen here so it’s conclusion and analysis are unknown. It does seem an article of significance. It would be good to see it published without profit motive from JAMA. It’s viewing in entirity is contingent on subscription to JAMA. ]

Human Rights Report Details Violence Against Health Care Workers in Bahrain
M. J. Friedrich – Journal of American Medical Association

When antigovernment protesters marched in February and March of this year on the streets of Manama, the capital of Bahrain, peacefully calling for political and economic reforms, a brutal response by the country’s security services followed.

The majority of the injured and dead were brought to Salmaniya Hospital in Manama. Rather than being a safe haven for the wounded, however, this facility, the largest modern medical facility in the country, was declared by the government to be a stronghold of opposition protesters. Security forces occupied the building. According to human rights organizations such as Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), patients were beaten and abused. Physicians, nurses, and other health care workers who treated the civilian protesters were systematically abducted, detained, and interrogated, and many now are facing trial for allegedly using the hospital as a base to try to overthrow the royal government. …more

[cb editors note: ..it comes to notice that had Bissiouni sought integrity for the investigation he is currently pursuing for the al Khalifa regime, he would have spent significant time with the offended parties and opposition to insure participation without prejudice and barring adequate assurance of participation across the spectrum a nonacceptance of the position. All parties would have been subscribers to the Investigation and consequently serve to sanction it. This was never in the design of the Investigation or it’s Committee and since Bissiouni has made repeat prejudicial statements and statements that can serve no other end except agitation, he has doomed his effort and it has gone down in the flames of al Khalifa disingenuity. Meanwhile al Khalifa continues it’s daily routine of Human Right violations and systemic assault and repression of those who would oppose the regime. Mr. Bissiouni you sir are al Khalifa’s lie and charade. al Khalifa has once again discredited himself and he has unmasked Mr. Bissiouni as a fake and a man of dishonor and dubious character. ]

Bahrain: Independence Day celebrated with protests as Bissiouni’s mission doomed
15/08/2011 – 2:03 am

The past few days have witnessed dramatic escalation in demonstrations and protests in most towns and villages. Yesterday Bahrainis held a big rally in Sitra to mark the 40th anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain.

On 14th August 1971 the British signed the document granting Bahrain full independence following decades of struggle by Bahrainis that eventually led to a UN fact finding mission in 1970 to evaluate what the Bahrainis wanted. The mission confirmed to the UN General Assembly that the people wanted full independence and a new government in which they would be full partners. Bahrain became independent on 15th August only to enter into the black era headed by the notorious dictator, Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa who would stay at the helm of power until today. It has been one of the bleakest period of Bahrain’s history with thousands of Bahrainis detained, tortured or killed. Despite the independence, British legacy has survived through Ian Henderson, the notorious torture architect, the unwavering British support to the Al Khalifa hereditary dictatorship and clandestine security and military support from both USA and UK to this murderous regime.

Over the past few days, Bahrainis have been preparing to mark the anniversary through nightly protests. The revolutionaries had announced a week-long programme of activities to mark the independence. At Sitra’s festival yesterday, the people power was exhibited through the speeches, poems, slogans and dedication to the cause of freedom and liberation. The day before (Saturday 13th August), several demonstrations and protests took place in several places. There was a big protest at Dair town in which men and women participated. They were attacked by the regime’s Death Squads and mercenary forces and the skirmishes continued during the night. The aggressors used excessive amounts of tear gas and chemical weapons against the unarmed civilians and there were several casualties. The people were entrenched near the Zakariya Al Ashiri roundabout and would not be dislocated by the aggressors. A similar protest took place at Sitra, Al Ekr and elsewhere. The night before there were demonstrations in many places, led by the peoples’ night march in Sanabis. It was one of the most memorable encounters between the people and the mercenaries. It continued throughout the night, but it was a testimony to the bravery of the Bahrainis and the cowardice of the Al Khalifa forces who targeted women and children inside their homes with tear gas and chemical weapons.

Meanwhile, calls have been made to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to dispatch its long-awaited fact-finding mission to investigate the Al Khalifa crimes against Bahrainis. This has followed the disastrous failure and the near-collapse of the Bissiouni royal commission which had been formed and financed by the dictator. Mr Charif Bissiouni gave his commission the kiss of death when he pre-empted its finding by absolving the regime of responsibility for the crimes committed against Bahrainis. More seriously, Bissiouni has been accused of passing information from the victims to the dictator that led to immediate revenge from those who have been languishing In jail for months under torture. The commission has failed to stop torture and sought to flatter the regime by not asking for the immediate repeal of the notorious Decree Law 56 that is at the source of the ongoing torture and abuse. Mr Bissiouni had earlier praise the dictator and his son of being “democratic” and “against torture” while the attacks on peaceful demonstrations continued unabated.

Among the most dramatic cases that had been presented to Bissiouni’s doomed commission are two testimonies by senior figures who had been severely tortured since their arrest in mid-March. Both have accused Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the dictator’s son, of personally administering torture on them. These are among the most damaging to both the dictator and his newly-recruited ally. To stop torture immediately, Bissiouni has to order the immediate arrest and trial of this torturer, a step that is unlikely to be taken by the commission which is financed by the despot himself. This makes it a priority for Navi Pillay to request the immediate dispatch of her mission to Bahrain.

Bahrain Freedom Movement
15th August 2011 …source

This is what David Cameron got wrong: you can’t cut police budgets at the same time as you cut everything else. Because when you rob people of what little they have, in order to protect the interests of those who have more than anyone deserves, you should expect resistance—whether organized protests or spontaneous looting.

Daylight Robbery, Meet Nighttime Robbery
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 – The Nation – by Naomi Klein

I keep hearing comparisons between the London riots and riots in other European cities—window smashing in Athens, or car bonfires in Paris. And there are parallels, to be sure: a spark set by police violence, a generation that feels forgotten.

But those events were marked by mass destruction; the looting was minor. There have, however, been other mass lootings in recent years, and perhaps we should talk about them too. There was Baghdad in the aftermath of the US invasion—a frenzy of arson and looting that emptied libraries and museums. The factories got hit too. In 2004 I visited one that used to make refrigerators. Its workers had stripped it of everything valuable, then torched it so thoroughly that the warehouse was a sculpture of buckled sheet metal.

Back then the people on cable news thought looting was highly political. They said this is what happens when a regime has no legitimacy in the eyes of the people. After watching for so long as Saddam and his sons helped themselves to whatever and whomever they wanted, many regular Iraqis felt they had earned the right to take a few things for themselves. But London isn’t Baghdad, and British Prime Minister David Cameron is hardly Saddam, so surely there is nothing to learn there.

How about a democratic example then? Argentina, circa 2001. The economy was in freefall and thousands of people living in rough neighborhoods (which had been thriving manufacturing zones before the neoliberal era) stormed foreign-owned superstores. They came out pushing shopping carts overflowing with the goods they could no longer afford—clothes, electronics, meat. The government called a “state of siege” to restore order; the people didn’t like that and overthrew the government. …more

Article 23 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Geneva Convention IV, Article 33 – No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.

Interview: Abdulla Alderazi, Bahrain Human Rights Society

August 16, 2011—Abdulla Alderazi, a longtime defender of civil rights and a university professor, has joined the growing ranks of men and women sacked from their jobs for calling for peaceful change in Bahrain.

Shortly after pro-democracy demonstrators gathered in Pearl Roundabout in February, the government launched a violent crackdown and a campaign to “purify” Bahrain of dissenters. The process has included summary firings of workers who participated in the demonstrations or in a general strike, or were alleged to have done so. More than 2,400 people have lost their jobs in the last six months, many in recent days.

This latest round of dismissals at the University of Bahrain comes on the heels of a “national dialogue,” organized by the government to “present the people’s views and demands for further reform…” and concluded in late July. The ongoing firings and other reprisals belie government assertions that it is working toward reconciliation.

Alderazi, who also is secretary general of the Bahrain Human Rights Society, said he and 18 other academics at the University of Bahrain—where he has taught for more than 20 years—were suspended in April and dismissed on Thursday, August 11. The accusations against him include: going to the Pearl Roundabout, talking to foreign media, and engaging in civil disobedience.

“When I was being interrogated (by an internal university committee), they asked me if I was teaching human rights principles. I said, ‘No. I teach English,’” he said, adding that many of the accusations against him—such as publicly expressing his views—are protected by Bahrain’s constitution.

University officials skipped all the normal disciplinary procedures to fire Alderazi and his colleagues. They referred all 19 professors to the public prosecutor, accusing them of taking part in peaceful protests. The university also has dismissed hundreds of students over recent months.

“We (the Bahrain Human Rights Society) have been working to raise awareness about human rights and, since February, we have been defending the civil rights of the detainees and demanding more reform and respect for human rights,” he said.

With so many people out of work, many of them family breadwinners, Alderazi said, people are surviving through solidarity, sharing what they have. He also said many still hold out hope that, despite the firings and continued violence in the streets, reconciliation and reform will come to Bahrain.

As secretary general of the Bahrain Human Rights Society, a non-governmental organization established in 2001 and recognized by the government, Alderazi said he will still speak out for the rights of others. ….source