Posts from — January 2012

Saudi Arabia: Women’s bodies used in ‘war’ to halt reform
4 January, 2012 – Safe World for Women – by Rob L. Wagner

As Saudi women celebrate their progress in gaining voting rights and expanded employment opportunities, conservatives have intensified their campaign to marginalize those achievements in a new round of attacks targeting liberal Saudi writers and thinkers sympathetic to the women’s movement.

Saudi newspaper columnist Saleh Al-Shehi made a vague critical comment on Twitter at the Saudi Intellectual Forum at Riyadh’s Marriott Hotel that men and women were behaving “shamefully” by socializing during breaks. He implied Saudi men are aiding and abetting the corruption of women in the name of progress. One leading woman writer described the tweet as opening “the gates of hell.”

Saudi Arabia’s internal cultural and religious wars over the last decade have focused on women’s rights issues almost to the exclusion of everything else. Voting, running for public office, employment, education and women’s bodies rarely go unmentioned among religious conservatives railing against the perceived corrupting influences of the West. In essence, the female body has become the battleground in an ongoing war to stem reform.

Saudi women activists and Islamic feminists over the past year have aggressively pursued male allies to help advance their cause. And many forum participants offer varying levels of support to better integrate women into society.
Threat to stability of society

Conservatives, however, see the changing role of women a threat to the stability of society, especially considering that gender segregation is ingrained in the daily lives of all Saudis.

Al-Shehi’s Twitter shot heard throughout the kingdom took on a life of its own on Facebook and the online Saudi newspaper Mmlkah (Kingdom), which reported the incident. The coverage gave conservatives ammunition that Saudi Arabia’s liberal writers and intellectuals crossed the line with flagrant immoral behavior.

Saudi authors Abdo Khal and Badriah Al-Bishr confer at the Saudi Intellectual Forum in RiyadhSaudi authors Abdo Khal and Badriah Al-Bishr confer at the Saudi Intellectual Forum in RiyadhThe Saudi Intellectual Forum was the second conference held in eight years to bring together more than 1,000 writers and thinkers. A key speaker was Princess Adela Bint Abdullah, daughter of King Abdullah and the wife of the kingdom’s education minister, Prince Faisal Bin Abdullah Bin Muhammad Al-Saud. Among the attendees were author Abdo Khal, winner of the 2010 International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his book “She Throws Sparks.” Khal often writes about individuals living on the margins of Saudi society, which led the Saudi government to ban some of his work as un-Islamic. Also participating was Saudi novelist Badriah Al-Bishr. The conference concluded Dec. 29. …more

Lockheed Martin goes to bat for oppressive regime
A top executive for the military contractor worked with lobbyists for Bahrain to publish Op-Ed defending the regime
By Justin Elliott – 4 January, 2012 – Salon

A top executive at Lockheed Martin recently worked with lobbyists for Bahrain to place an Op-Ed defending the nation’s embattled regime in the Washington Times — but the newspaper did not reveal the role of the regime’s lobbyists to its readers. Hence they did not know that the pro-Bahrain opinion column they were reading was published at the behest of … Bahrain, an oil-rich kingdom of 1.2 million people that has been rocked by popular protests since early 2011.

The episode is a glimpse into the usually hidden world of how Washington’s Op-Ed pages, which are prized real estate for those with interests before the U.S. government, are shaped. It also shows how Lockheed gave an assist to a major client — Bahrain has bought hundreds of millions of dollars of weapons from the company over the years – as it faces widespread criticism for human rights abuses against pro-democracy protesters.

As Ken Silverstein reported in Salon last month, the kingdom is stepping up its Washington lobbying efforts. Here’s the latest example, as far as I can piece together from lobbying disclosures filed by Bahrain’s “strategic communications” firm, D.C.-based Sanitas International.

On Nov. 30, the Washington Times published an Op-Ed under the headline “Bahrain, a vital U.S. ally: Backing protesters would betray a friend and harm American security.” It was written by Vice Adm. Charles Moore (retired). Moore was formerly commander of the Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet. From 1998 to 2002, Moore notes in his Op-Ed, he “had the opportunity to develop a personal relationship with His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s leader, as well as many senior officials in his government.” Moore passed through the revolving door and is now regional president for Lockheed Martin for the Middle East and Africa.

Moore argues in the Op-Ed that while protesters in Bahrain have “legitimate grievances,” the U.S. “needs Bahrain now more than ever to preserve regional peace and stability in what remains a dangerous and uncertain world.” He particularly focuses on using the large U.S. Navy presence in Bahrain as a counter to Iran, which Washington sees as a foe and which Bahrain claims is fomenting unrest among the country’s Shia majority. …more

The Feds put Islam on trial
3 January, 2012 – by Jenin Juffri – Socialist Worker

IN THE same week that Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), sending it to Barack Obama to enshrine into law a provision allowing indefinite military detention of U.S. citizens, a federal jury in Boston delivered a guilty verdict against Dr. Tarek Mehanna, a Muslim American pharmacist charged with material support for terrorism.

Coming in the wake of other Muslims around the country who have been arrested, accused of supporting terrorism, and locked up for long sentences, the December 20 guilty verdict against Mehanna on seven counts was a shocking and chilling reminder to his growing number of supporters and advocates that the “war on terror” has been putting Islam on trial for years.

Tarek’s trial lasted nine weeks, but was the culmination of four years of FBI harassment, surveillance and intimidation against Mehanna from his days in pharmacy school.

In 2005, recognizing him as a respected leader within his community and a potential asset for the federal government in its spying and surveillance of Muslims, the FBI approached Tarek to act as an informant within his community. After Tarek refused to betray members of his community, he was subjected to harassment and surveillance of his online activities, including participation in online forums vocalizing his opposition to U.S. wars in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Mehanna was initially arrested in 2008 on the charge of making a false statement to the FBI, and when no case could be made to keep him in prison or prove he was a danger to the public, he was released with a restrictive bail arrangement.

In October 2009, after Tarek had graduated from pharmacy school and was ready to board a plane for a prestigious job in Saudi Arabia, federal agents arrested him a second time and charged him with providing material support to al-Qaeda.

The government presented nothing but an FBI affidavit to the court as evidence and fed the media with vicious accusations that Tarek had plotted to shoot up a mall–a charge that wasn’t even included in its case. Tarek spent another two years in solitary confinement before the trial even began. He was under 23-hour lockdown with little human contact, which is recognized internationally as a form of torture. …more

Bahrain creates judicial panel to review protest cases
2January, 2012 – CNN

(CNN) — Bahrain’s top court announced Monday that it is creating a judicial panel to review some military court verdicts related to protests last year, the state news agency said.

“A new judicial body comprising a number of judges from the civil courts shall be created in order to review nonappealable verdicts issued in favor of conviction by national safety courts according to international principles of the right to undergo a fair court trial and to access a lawyer for assistance in order to achieve the principles of fair justice,” said Sheikh bin Rashid Al Khalifa, the Supreme Judicial Council’s deputy chairman and president of the Court of Cassation.

He was quoted by the state-run Bahrain News Agency.

The new judicial body will review nonappealable convictions pertaining to the freedom of expression but not those related to incitement of violence, it said.

The judicial body will then submit the cases to the Supreme Judicial Council “in order to take appropriate actions,” it said.

The announcement came a day after witnesses said hundreds of mourners walked the streets of Sitra, south of the capital, behind the coffin carrying a 16-year-old boy who was killed during protests on Saturday. “We will sacrifice our souls and blood for you, martyr,” many of the mourners chanted. Some carried the country’s flag. A few held a red banner that read “Down with Hamad,” a reference to King Hamad al-Khalifa.

Clashes also occurred Sunday in Sitra between protesters and security forces who shot tear gas at them, injuring several people, witnesses said.

On Sunday, the news agency reported that 11 “saboteurs” were arrested after legal proceedings related to an attack Friday on police in Nuwaidrat, a village located a few miles southwest of Sitra. …more

KSA orders arrest of 23 protesters
3 January, 2012 – PressTV

Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry has ordered the arrest of 23 anti-regime Shia protesters in the kingdom’s oil-reach Eastern Province over accusations of sparking an uprising in the Persian Gulf monarchy.

Saudi Interior Ministry declared the arrest order in a statement read on state television on Monday, accusing the 23 men of serving the agenda of a foreign power.

“We do have evidence of a relationship with somebody else abroad,” Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Mansour Turki told a news conference. “Now how much, or what kind of relationship and how strong that relationship, this still has to be investigated and that is what we want these people for,” he added.

He further called on the Saudi people to inform the authorities of any other protesters, offering rewards.

Several villages and towns in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province have been the scene of protest rallies, with demonstrators calling for freedom and equality as well as the release of thousands of political prisoners.

Earlier in November, Saudi forces attacked thousands of demonstrators, killing five people and injured many others in the Eastern Province. The funerals for the victims usually turned to demonstrations, with protesters chanting slogans against the Al Saud regime.

Saudi activists say there are thousands of political prisoners in jails across the kingdom. According to human rights campaigners, most of the detained are being held without trial or legitimate charges and have been arrested on the grounds of mere suspicion. …source

Bahrain opposition says dozens injured in police clashes
02 January, 2012 – Agence France Presse

DUBAI: Bahrain’s security forces fired tear gas at anti-government protesters and beat them with iron bars leaving dozens injured, human rights activists and the opposition said on Monday.

The violence erupted Sunday night in the town of Sitra after the funeral of 15-year-old Sayyed Hashem Saeed, who the opposition says was killed when he was struck on the head by a tear gas canister fired by security forces the previous day.

Another teenager, Hani al-Qanish, was also seriously wounded Sunday by a direct hit to the head by a tear gas canister, former opposition MP Matar Matar told AFP.

Opposition human rights activist Nabil Rajab said riot police used tear gas and iron bars to disperse the crowds that had gathered in Sitra after Said’s funeral procession.

“Dozens of people were injured and treated for tear gas inhalation but they all sought treatment in homes by volunteer doctors, because they feared being arrested if they went to the hospital”, Rajab told AFP adding that the police beat some of the protesters with “iron bars.”

The Bahrain news agency, quoting police officials, said that “a group of saboteurs took to the streets in an illegal march and committed acts of sabotage, blocking public roads with garbage bins and hurling stones, iron bars and Molotov cocktails at the security forces.”
…more

Prohibition of Gas by International Law

The prohibition of poison is one of the oldest rules of the law of the armed conflict. Correspondingly, the use of poison gas, which causes unnecessary suffering and superfluous injury to combatants, and—as a weapon of mass destruction—indiscriminately affects civilian populations, stands in blatant violation of the most vital rules of international customary law applicable to the conduct of armed hostilities: the principles of distinction, military necessity, humanity, and dictates of public conscience.

Gassing has been prohibited since the nineteenth century by more than just customary law. Written agreements, the first being the 1874 Brussels Convention on the Law and Customs of War, and the 1899 Hague Declaration, ban the use of projectiles filled with gases. The landmark twentieth-century treaties include the 1907 Hague Convention IV Respecting the Law and Customs of War on Land (which reaffirmed the ban on poison); the 1925 Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (which constituted a desired response to the atrocities of World War I, but did not provide for any compliance mechanisms); the 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons; and, most important, the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of Development, Production, Stockpiling, and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction. …source

Bahrain: Tiny Island, Iron Will
By: Shahira Salloum – 31 December, 2011 – Al-Akhbar – Reprint via moqawama.org

Ayat al-Gormazi is a 20-year-old Bahraini full of enthusiasm. “We are a people killing oppression and assassinating misery,” she cried at the Lulu roundabout as she recited her poem about a fictional conversation between the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, and Satan. It was the second time she read her work at the now destroyed landmark and central hub of the Bahraini revolt.

On February 14, the day the Bahraini uprising broke out, she was outside the country with her family eagerly following the news. As soon as she landed back home five days later, she hurried to the Lulu (Pearl) roundabout.

She would sit shyly in one of the corners and follow the program of events. She did not know anyone from the February 14 youth organizers. Describing those days at the roundabout, she said: “We breathed freedom. For the first time we felt we were free.”

In her first public appearance at the roundabout, she recited a poem as part of the Bahrain Teachers College event – she was a student at the college before being dismissed.

As a result, her name spread on social networking sites and she started receiving tens of threatening and insulting calls daily. She broke down and got in touch with the youth of the uprising; it was a chance to get closer to them. “Frankly I was not afraid of getting killed, but I was afraid of an attack on my honor as I was threatened with rape,” she said.

On March 17, the night of the bloody attack on the Lulu Roundabout, al-Gormezi was planning how to spend her time there. She said they sensed the smell of death everywhere “even the program consisted of prayers and supplications. There was a strange feeling that everyone felt a malicious intent besetting us. The sky was strange and a plane was flying above us at a low altitude.”

Although she had resolved to sleep at the roundabout, al-Gormezi did not, because of her mother’s pleas. She woke up the next day to chants of Allahu Akbar (God is Great) everywhere, and she heard the ominous news about the attack on Lulu.

Her parents were terrified. They asked her to hide but al-Gormezi refused. They told her that they lived through the 1990s and they are aware of this regime’s ability to oppress, but she was not convinced. Al-Gormezi told them she is a woman and will not be touched. But then she acquiesced and was taken to a relative’s home. Less than a week later her home was attacked and her family was threatened and humiliated until they revealed her hiding place.

The police came, arrested her, and put her in prison where she was subjected to the worst kind of torture for three months and 16 days. She says: “I realized from the first moment that I was among people who do not fear God, the policeman would insult me and ask me how many times I experienced sexual pleasure in the roundabout.”

“I was handed over to a Jordanian investigator known for his torture practices.” She says that as soon as she was placed before him he told her that he does not differentiate between men and women, that “he can wipe the floor with her.”

They told her “your father works in the public sector, you and your brothers studied at the expense of the state.” Surprised, she said, “This is not a favor, this is our right.”
Later, a woman who heads the drug section at the department of investigations, took charge of the investigation and the torture, according to al-Gormezi.

At the beginning, she used to slap al-Gormezi violently on the face. In later interrogation sessions, al-Gormezi’s face was electrocuted and she was threatened with cutting her tongue off.

In one torture session, the police officer opened al-Gormezi’s mouth and spit in it, then she brought a toilet bowl brush and inserted it in her mouth. She was forced to make confessions that were broadcast on TV in which she apologized to the al-Khalifa family.

Al-Gormezi said that the international support she received helped her. She pointed out that the regime’s weakness lies in its vulnerability when light is shed on a case of an individual like herself.

Al-Gormezi is now planning for her future. She is thinking about traveling and would like to study law.

According to Bahraini blogger Zainab al-Khawaja, what helped al-Gormezi was the publicity that her case attracted. She said that al-Gormezi’s suffering pales in comparison to the suffering of the Bahraini people, “who continue to scream in the dark but no one wants to hear them.”

Since al-Khawaja is a human rights activist who has worked with many international human rights organizations, the government had initially stayed away from her. Before February 14 she was doing research on non-violent resistance. The day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was toppled is the day she created her Twitter account under the name “AngryArabiya.” …more

BPA: Journalism and media Status in Bahrain over 2011
31 December, 2011 – BCHR

Bahrain Press Association

– More than 135 journalists and media professionals were subject to violations and harassment
– The BICI acknowledges the deaths of two media professionals, torturing of journalists, and vandalizing Al Wasat Daily Newspaper
– The authorities took no initiative to remedy the trespasses and violations as evidenced by the BICI report
– Journalists and photographers lawsuits unknown; Abdul Emam, Al Sangice, and Ma’atook face abusive political sentences

London, 31/12/2011: The year 2011 was not a cheerful year for journalists and media professionals in Bahrain as they wrap it with great sorrow and grief for the regim-led violations and trespasses. Such wrongdoings resulted into the murdering of two media professionals (Publisher Kareem Fakhrawi and Bolgger Zakaryia Al Asheeri) while they were kept in custody. Tens of journalists and media professionals were subjected to arrest and dismissal and were abused by torture and cruel treatment in the detention houses managed by the Ministry of Interior, Bahrain Defence Force, or The National Guards.

The Report issued by the Bahrain Independent Commission Inquiry (BICI), established pursuant to a Royal Decree on June 29, 2011 to investigate and report on the events occurred in Bahrain in the months of February and March 2011 and the consequences of such events, acknowledges, in the chapter pertaining to media violations, the several violations and crimes against media professionals and journalists in Bahrain including, among other things, the killing of Zakariya Al Asheeri on April 9 and Kareem Fakhrawi on April 12; the arrests; the torturing; and the mass dismissals. The Report, publically known as ‘Bassiouni’s Report’, released late in November also acknowledges the violations committed by the state-run media outlets that were biased and incited hatered as per sectarian basis. The Report also made mention to the state attempt to control the daily newspapers and direct them politically towards its agenda. The Report has certified the targeting of Al Wasat Daily Newspaper which is the only independent daily among other papers. Shockingly, the Bahraini judiciary has through its criminal court fined on October 11, 2011 as per the case suited against Al Wasat’s editor-in-chief Dr. Mansoor Al Jamri; Waleed Nawihadh, the managing editor; Ali Al Shareefi, the editing secretary; and the local news head, Aqeel Mirza. The BPA then described the fines as an escape of acquittal not to declare the journalists innocence of fabricated accusations. …more

Appalling Bahraini Prison Conditions and Treatment
by Stephen Lendman, 01 January, 2012

Since early 2011, Washington, Western governments, and major media scoundrels largely ignored outrageous Al Khalifa monarchy abuses. They include crackdowns on nonviolent protesters, mass arrests, torture, intimidation, and cold-blooded murder.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and other NGOs documented:

• 46 killings;
• 1,500 arbitrary arrest cases;
• 1,866 torture and abuse cases;
• 500 prisoners of conscience;
• destruction of over 40 mosques and other places of worship;
• 4.000 summary firings of workers suspected of having unsympathetic regime views;
• 500 individuals forced into exile for their safety;
• three innocent men on death row;
• 477 students expelled for supporting democratic change; and 96 targeted journalists.

Ruthless repression continues. In September, special military tribunals lawlessly sentenced 208 civilians to a combined 2,500 years in prison. Twenty doctors got up to 15 years for treating injured protesters.

Arrests continue daily. Violence is extreme. Victims of state atrocities seek help getting redress.

On December 22, BCHR reported receiving “appalling information about (conditions) at Bahrain Central (Jaw) Prison, and infringing the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners by the United Nations.”

Human rights activists accuse Bahraini authorities, and Saudis helping them, of crimes against humanity. A European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights submitted a report saying:

“We believe that there are sufficient grounds (on two cases they addressed to accuse authorities of a) pattern of crimes that might amount to crimes against humanity.

Cairo Institute of Human Rights Studies director Eldin-Hassan told the UN Human Rights Council’s 18th Session that “crimes against humanity….in Bahrain and Yemen (have) been swept under the rug.”

Clear evidence proves it. BCHR’s report documented violations of the “right to life, freedom from torture, arbitrary arrest and forced disappearance, freedom of opinion and expression, assembly and association, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and the right to a fair trial.” …more

Appeals Postponed, Defenders Harassed as Bahrain Crackdown Continues
Human Rights First – 3 January, 2012

Washington, DC – Human rights defenders, medics, students and others targeted by the Bahraini government in its crackdown on pro-democracy efforts continue to face detention and harassment despite growing calls for their release. On Dec. 21, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called for the unconditional release of all Bahraini detainees imprisoned after a military trial. Human Rights First notes that the Bahraini government has failed to comply with that request and, in fact, is taking steps to delay the appeals of those accused.

“Yesterday, a group of students from the University of Bahrain who were sentenced to 15 years each by the military court had their appeal hearing postponed until March. Five of them remain in Bahrain’s Jaw Prison,” said Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley. “Their case and others like it make clear that Bahrain’s leaders are ignoring key calls for reform issued by Commissioner Pillay and even the Kingdon’s own Bassiouni Commission.”

In addition to the students, the Bahrain regime continues to contest the appeals of others sentenced by the military court, including 20 medics who appear to have been prosecuted for treating injured protestors and telling the media about the nature and extent of injuries.

Dr. Nada Dhaif is one of the medics sentenced to 15 years after an unfair trial in military court. Though she is out of detention while she awaits her next court hearing on January 9, Dr. Dhaif was summoned by the police for a four-hour interrogation on December 25. During that interrogation, she was warned to keep a low profile, an apparent government response to her decision to speak with the media and human rights organizations about how she and others were tortured in detention.

Dr. Dhaif told Dooley, “I am being targeted for telling the world the continuing truth about Bahrain. Members of my family are also being harassed by the regime. I have only ever advocated peaceful reform but am being threatened for my human rights advocacy. …more

Excessive use of tear gas endangers women protesters Bahrain
WNN Features – 01 January, 2012

(WNN) Manama, BAHRAIN: Expressing grave concern about the ongoing violence that has impacted Bahrain with forty-four casualties, the BCHR – Bahrain Center for Human Rights is asking for a stop measure in the use of excessive force on Bahraini citizens and activists, especially the excessive use of tear gas as a hazardous chemical.

“We really believe it is important for Bahrain to engage immediately and boldly in [a] strong national protection system, which is not in place yet,” said Mr. Bacre Ndiaye, Director of the Human Rights Council and Special Procedures Division at the United Nations Office in Geneva. Ndiaye following travels to Bahrain December 13-17, 2011 with a recent team UN human rights assessment visit.

The official UN team visit was enabled through cooperation and communications with the Office of King Hamad. “One of the big problems of [with] Bahrain is impunity, especially members of security forces. As long as this impunity, and a strong independent judiciary, were not in place it would be very difficult to lead a comprehensive national reconciliation process. This is also a big issue in Bahrain,” added Ndiaye.

“Although Governments are under an obligation to initiate inquiries into allegations as soon as they are brought to their attention, in some countries impartial investigations are rarely conducted. In other cases, public inquiries are compromised, with light sentences imposed on perpetrators despite the gravity of the crimes committed. In particular, trials of members of the security forces before military courts are sometimes undermined by an ill-conceived esprit de corps. There are also instances where low-ranking officials are convicted of human rights violations or crimes, while those in positions of command escape responsibility,” says a formal statement by the UN. “Often victims — and sometimes witnesses who assist in investigative efforts — are subjected to intimidation and death threats,” continues the statement. “For this reason, the United Nations has intensified efforts to bring the perpetrators of such crimes to justice and break the cycle of impunity.”

Linking the levels of stress with civil unrest and the excessive use of tear gas causing adverse affects on women, the BCHR – Bahrain Center for Human Rights, based in Manama, has received numerous reports of miscarriages and incomplete pregnancies in regions that have been impacted by violence. Some reports have directly linked miscarriage to the exposure of pregnant women to tear gas used by Bahrain’s police security forces. Twenty-one cases of miscarriage, or spontaneous abortion causing incomplete pregnancies, have been reported to the BCHR over an eight month period from March to November 2011. …more

Bahrain: Crushing Pro-Democracy Protests. American and British Police Chiefs Step Up State Repression
Top Western appointments allegedly aimed at improving human rights…
Global Research, January 2, 2012 – by Finian Cunningham

Two former police chiefs from the US and Britain have brought discernible Western “expertise” to the Bahraini force only weeks following their appointments – a surge in repression and state terrorism.

Former Miami police chief John Timoney and his British counterpart, John Yates, formerly commander at London’s Scotland Yard, were assigned last month by Bahrain’s royal rulers to “oversee reform” of the Persian Gulf kingdom’s security forces. Officially, the appointment of the American and Briton was to bring Western professional policing to the Bahraini force and specifically to upgrade the human rights record of Bahrain’s ministry of interior and National Security Agency.

The assignments were announced by King Hamad Al Khalifa following a report by an international commission of inquiry into widespread human rights violations in the US-backed oil kingdom since pro-democracy protests erupted there last February.

As reported earlier by Global Research, the inquiry report and the subsequent appointment of the US and British police chiefs appeared to be a public relations exercise to burnish the tarnished image of this key Persian Gulf ally of Washington and London [1].

However, only weeks into their jobs, the Western commanders appear to have been given a remit that goes well beyond public relations, namely, to sharpen the repression against the pro-democracy movement.

Human rights activists and several political sources say that state forces have dramatically stepped up violence towards protesters and targeting of the Shia community generally. The diminutive island state of less than 600,000 nationals is comprised mainly of Shia muslims (70 per cent) who are ruled over by a Sunni elite installed by Britain when the kingdom gained nominal independence in 1971. American and British government support for the unelected Al Khalifa monarchy is viewed by the majority of Bahrainis as being at odds with their claims for democratic rights.

Over the past year, Bahraini state forces have killed some 50 people; thousands have been maimed, wounded and detained, many of the latter tortured. Proportionate to its population, such state violence is comparable to what Washington and London have loudly denounced the Libyan and Syrian regimes for – indeed mounting a military invasion of the former and threatening to do so in the latter – under the guise of “protecting human rights”. By contrast, there is hardly a word of denunciation from Washington or London towards the Bahraini regime, which hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

“The violence is worse than ever,” said one Bahraini pro-democracy activist. “The state security forces are operating with new tactics and this change coincides with the arrival of the American and British police chiefs. But this is no coincidence. We believe that the Bahraini police are using more repression and terror under the orders of these police chiefs.”

Since the appointment of the American and British commanders, at least five more civilians have been killed at the hands of police, including a 15-year-old boy Sayed Hashim who was shot in the face with a teargas canister on New Year’s Eve, and a 27-year-old woman who was bludgeoned with an iron bar. …more

Rape and the Arab Spring
The Dark Side of the Popular Uprisings in the Middle East
By Elizabeth Marcus – 20 December, 2011

The Middle East is undergoing a profound and dramatic political transformation. But the analysis of the scope, pace, and quality of this change has focused largely on the quality and results of initial elections in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt. Unfortunately, this sort of analysis overlooks how these transitions are affecting women and minorities—key indicators of the robustness of democracies around the world.

Despite the prominent role played by women in organizing the popular movements that have overthrown and challenged authoritarian regimes across the region, the early results on the treatment of women in three key countries—Egypt, Yemen, and Libya—raise serious concerns about the future of democracy and human rights in the Middle East as the region experiences tectonic political change.

As momentous as these changes are, they are occurring within a social context that has made sexual violence against women a powerful instrument of political repression. In many cases sexual violence against women is a desperate reaction of the powerful elite groups linked to authoritarian leaders and dictators who are rapidly losing power and relevance.

Like other forms of violence and repression, sexual violence against women has been used as a tool to punish or intimidate those advocating for political change. The most horrific of these tools being used to control women is rape. Using rape as a weapon of war is not new, but in the context of patriarchal religious societies, it holds unique potential as a horrific tool of political repression. …more

Bahrain’s revolutionaries
By Toby C. Jones, Ala’a Shehabi – 2 January, 2012 – Foreign Policy

Bahrain’s February 14th movement has become a symbol of resistance and fortitude…and the most powerful political force in Bahrain today. This confederation of loosely organized networks, named after the date of the beginning of Bahrain’s revolution, is faceless, secretive, and anonymous. Its tens of thousands of supporters have abandoned the failed leadership of the country’s better established, but listless, political opposition. They have suffered the most and have weathered the worst that the regime has so far meted out.

Most outside observers, particularly policymakers hopeful that a political resolution is still possible, have mistakenly ignored the February 14th movement or deemed it irrelevant. The Bahraini government is not interested in reform or reconciliation. It has ignored calls for an end to its assault on pro-democracy forces, and in the last few weeks has actually intensified its crackdown. Security forces have once again laid siege to the country’s many poor villages, home to most of its Shiite majority as well as the country’s pro-democracy movement. Several people have been killed in the last month by police. Thick and choking tear gas has become a fixture across the island. This recent turn for the worse comes just over four weeks after the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), headed by the respected M. Cherif Bassiouni, released its report charging the government and security forces with using excessive force in its handling of street protests in the spring. Many had hoped that the report would signal a new opportunity for Bahrain’s competing political forces to come together and forge a way through the country’s impasse. Sadly, neither the government nor the mainstream opposition has risen to the occasion. The country’s political crisis is worsening as a result, and the prospects of reform fading from view.

This crisis was avoidable. Earlier this year, most supporters of February 14th called for political reform and for changes that would have, for the most part, kept the country’s power structure in place. This is no longer the case. Partly because of the government’s self-destructive political instincts and its poor handling of the country’s affairs, calls for the fall of the ruling al-Khalifa family have hardened, garnered greater support, and gained legitimacy. As February 14th moves in this more revolutionary direction, it will most likely pull the rest of the opposition along. Bahrain’s future will be determined by a test of wills between a government unwilling to accommodate change and an increasingly politicized youth movement unwilling to surrender.

The Bahraini regime has proven consistently unable to understand and combat the February 14th movement. The impulse behind Bahrain’s revolution and the foundation for today’s decentralized, but highly disciplined and organized, February 14th movement first took shape on the website bahrainonline.org. Launched in 1998, this forum receives over 100,000 visits a day and has long been a source of political activism. Last winter, a loose affiliation of anti-government cyber activists took to its pages, as well as Facebook and Twitter, and collectively organized a social protest movement. …more