for Bahrain
by Phlipn Pagee

Oh Bahrain,
I spoke to the moon about you tonight
it bears my words of comfort
so in it’s rising it might tell
you are not alone

the moon did see me weep
at your time of trial
of loved ones caged
and pained and felled

yours the anxious hour
with too much to bear
the wondered prayer
how long will they stay silent
our pleas are day and night

silence hides their shame
others see too clear
it’s the end of times
of kings and tyrants
nations free must reign

still yours is the anxious hour
with too much to bear
a wondered prayer
for loved ones caged and pained
our pleas are day and night

the moon replied after I spoke
it told me as it comes around
it tells of revolution’s morning
it understands there’s too much to bear
it listens to all the wondered prayers
it knows the courage
of loved ones caged
and pained and felled

the moon replied after I spoke
these words you speak to comfort her
will be my light for her to see
she is not alone

Arabic Ballad for Abdulhadi al-Khawaja Listen Here

Report: U.S., Israel helped train Iranian dissidents
Members of the Iranian opposition group Mujahideen-e-Khalq received training in the U.S. and Israeli funding for their operations against the Iranian regime, a New Yorker report claims.

6 April, 2012 – Haaretz
The U.S. military armed and trained members of a dissident Iranian opposition group during the Bush administration, according to a report published Friday in The New Yorker.

The report claims members of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq organization were provided with extensive training by the U.S. Defense Department’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). The training sessions were allegedly conducted in secret at a site belonging to the U.S. Department on Energy in Nevada.
bushehr – Reuters – December 9 2010

The organization, also known as the MEK or the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, was originally founded by leftist university students as an Islamist-Marxist group in 1965. It later staged attacks against the Islamic Republic from within Iraq, under Saddam Hussein.

According to the report, the training of MEK operatives was conducted as part of the Bush administration’s global war on terror, and ended before Barack Obama took office.

Sources quoted in the article said the MEK operatives were taught how to intercept telephone conversations and text messages inside Iran, which were then translated and shared with American intelligence officials. …more

Bahrain opposition rallies for hunger striker
6 April, 2012 – (AFP)

DUBAI — Hundreds of people demonstrated in Bahrain on Friday for the release of a jailed activist who has been on hunger strike for almost two months.

Two demonstrations — in Jidhafs district of Manama and in the village of Aali — uged the release of rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, witnesses told AFP.

The protesters carried pictures of Khawaja alongside Bahraini flags and chanted his name.

Bahrain’s largest opposition movement Al-Wefaq warned that the activist’s life was now in danger and urged the international community to intervene and press for his release.

Khawaja, who was condemned with other opposition activists to life in jail over an alleged plot to topple the Sunni monarchy during a month-long protest a year ago, began his hunger strike on the night of February 8-9.

Late on Thursday, Al-Wefaq said his daughter Zainab al-Khawaja was arrested after she protested outside the interior ministry’s hospital where her father was being held to urge his release.

“In a phone call to her husband, Zainab announced starting a hunger strike in solidarity with her father,” said the Shiite opposition grouping.

A police statement on state news agency BNA said she was arrested for having “attacked a public employee who was doing his duty” and who “repeatedly informed her she was not allowed to stand at the entrance” to the ministry.

Front Line Defenders, a Dublin-based non-governmental organisation, warned Tuesday after a visit to Manama that Khawaja, who it said has shed 25 percent of his body weight, could die in jail as he is “at risk of organ failure.” …more

Washington-backed monarchy murdering its own people
1 April, 2012 – Ahlul Bayt News Agency

(ABNA) – Bahrainis want democratic change, sectarian Shia discrimination ended, equitable distribution of state wealth, political prisoners released, and terrorizing stopped. They also want popularly elected leaders replacing Al-Khalifa rule. It’s despotic, ruthless and intolerable.

For months, many thousands braved security force attacks with tear gas, beatings, rubber bullets, live fire, arrests, torture, and disappearances.

Last March, Saudi troops entered Bahrain guns blazing. They remain, terrorizing Bahraini men, women, children, doctors, journalists, human rights activists, and foreign observers. So do state police.

No matter. King Hamad’s a close US ally. Bahrain’s the home of America’s Fifth Fleet. Generous aid’s provided. So are weapons, including armored vehicles, bunker buster missiles, wire-guided ones, others to attack protesters, and more.

On March 26, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) published a report titled, “A BCHR Report on Human Rights Violations since the BICI Recommendations.”

BICI refers to the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry. It published its findings last November 23, followed by a final December revision.

Abdul Hadi Al-Khawaja is a former Front Line Protection Coordinator and former BCHR President. Last April, Bahraini police arrested and beat him unconscious. He’s currently hunger striking for justice. Earlier, he twice did for nine days. His current one began on February 8. As of March 31, he refused food for 53 days. He demands freedom or death.

His life’s seriously at risk. He’s been unjustly imprisoned and severely tortured. Last June, he was sentenced to life in prison. At issue is his courageous human rights work. Without help, he’ll die. Washington and rogue NATO partners ignore him. So do Arab League despots and major media scoundrels.

BCHR’s report discussed months of state terror. It categorized them under separate headings. They include:

Extrajudicial Killings

Over 60 deaths are known. No murder charges followed. A few police “show trials” involved “accidental deaths or beatings” causing death. Bahrain’s government denies responsibility.

No independent access to examine forensic evidence was granted. Doctors who wrote false causes weren’t held accountable. Families of those killed are targeted. Homes are raided. Arrests follow. Property is destroyed. Bahrainis continue to be terrorized. …more

Interview with Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International: On Respecting Human Rights, from Bahrain to Guantanamo Bay
2 April2, 2012 – by Cara Solomon – IHRC

Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International, spoke last month at Harvard Law School.

Last month, Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, drew more than 100 students for a fascinating lecture entitled “Ending Double Standards: Human Rights in the World Today.” For a copy of his remarks, click here.

Clinical student James Tager, JD ’13, later followed up with Shetty in an interview about everything from the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa to the need for strong human rights advocacy in the United States. Below is an edited version of that interview, which is also posted in the Harvard Human Rights Journal.

JT: In your lecture, you said that “the clear cut division that the purists sometimes like to make in the human rights world—between civil and political rights on the one hand and economic social and cultural rights, on the other—was exposed as meaningless” by the Arab Awakening. Can you elaborate on what you meant by that?

SS: Let’s take Tunisia, for example, and look at the case of Mohamed Bouazizi. Bouazizi was the Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire in protest, an action which then set Tunisia on fire, which set Egypt on fire. If you were to ask: Was he unhappy about his unemployed status, and the fact that he didn’t have a livelihood? Or was he protesting against the fact that he couldn’t express himself freely, and he had no way of getting any redress? And the answer, obviously, is both. Bouazizi’s actions were a graphic illustration of that.

There are other graphic illustrations. In Egypt, 40% of the population in Cairo lives in slums, with very uncertain tenure. I visited many of the slums in Cairo—Manshiyat Naser and others—where people are forcibly evicted. Then, when they go to the government to complain, they are further repressed, and there is massive corruption. So there is really a combination of factors at play here.

There’s another example in my mind that is particularly poignant, of a woman in a favela in Saô Paulo, who is in an abusive relationship with her husband, who doesn’t have a next meal to look forward to, and who has no security from the police.

The bottom line here, the thread that connects all of these stories together, is: It is those who are poor who have no voice, and those who have no voice who are poor. With this in mind, the distinction between civil-political rights and economic-social-cultural rights becomes a bit meaningless. Legally, of course, we understand that there are different Covenants that enumerate different rights, and so on. But in a very practical way, the distinction doesn’t mean much.

JT: In your remarks, you share your concerns regarding situations where “an apparent victory for human rights and democracy has come to seem much less of a bright shining victory than governments would sometimes like to suggest.” Can you tell us more about what the issue of an “apparent victory” means in countries like Egypt and Tunisia?

SS: My line has been: The dictators have gone, but not the dictatorships. We have published action plans for Egypt and for Tunisia, which we call a Human Rights Agenda for Change. The Agenda lays out the roadmap for creating the institutions, the rule of law, and the human rights culture, that now need to fall into place. The agenda discusses basic constitutional issues as well as basic freedoms which need to be converted into legal provisions. But, more concretely in the case of Egypt, our biggest concern is around women’s rights and minority rights, and we are pushing hard to engage on this issue with the political parties in the country.

For Egypt, we actually wrote to all 54 political parties who were contesting the January 2012 elections and asked them to make clear commitments to human rights principles, through adoption of a ten-point human rights manifesto. Interestingly, there was a positive response to many of the points within the manifesto. But when it came to women’s rights, both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists [which are associated with the two biggest Parliamentary parties after the January 2012 election, the Freedom and Justice Party and the Islamist Al-Nour Party, respectively] were very cagey in their response. So there is a lot more work to be done.

JT: Your comments make reference to the fact that the Bahraini government has recently missed an important deadline to meet key human rights benchmarks set by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry in the aftermath of the country’s 2011 anti-government protests. What are the next steps that need to be taken, now that the deadline has passed?

SS: In the case of Bahrain, the Western powers, particularly the United States, have significant influence. So I think it is absolutely essential for the United States and European allies to put pressure on the Bahraini government. What is needed, very simply, is implementation of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry recommendations.

And then, of course, there’s a massive issue of justice, of reparations for those who have been attacked in the last year, including reinstatement of the people who have lost their jobs, and compensation. All of the basic freedoms that were suspended need to be put back in place, and there needs to be a systematic investigation of all abuses, and people need to be brought to justice.

When I call for a systematic investigation, I am of course referring to an independent investigation. The Commission based its recommendations at a very high level of analysis, and I believe they did a phenomenal job, but we now need to move on to individual cases. And let’s not forget that, since the Commission, there have been further abuses, massive abuses. This includes last month, at the one-year anniversary of the original protests. So there needs to be a comprehensive, independent process.

JT: Does the need for increased American awareness of international human rights issues translate to human rights issues here at home, regarding the United States itself?

SS: Well, let me illustrate by using two big issues that Amnesty International is concerned about. The first is Guantánamo Bay. That has been one of our biggest disappointments with President Obama’s first term. With President Obama, there was a clear promise to shut Guantánamo Bay down. Now, Guantánamo has become part of the political ping-pong process between the Congress and the White House. All at the cost of the victims who are facing daily suffering inside Guantánamo.

The other issue is the death penalty. The United States simply cannot continue to be one of the few developed, Western nations that continue to use the death penalty in this day and age. The other day, I received a letter from the president of Mongolia, thanking Amnesty for its anti-death penalty campaign and declaring that Mongolia is now a death penalty-free county. And we still have the United States following this completely primitive procedure.

And all of this links into public pressure. We hope that the Troy Davis case, which Amnesty International worked on and where Troy Davis sacrificed his life, marks a significant departure from how American people think about the issue of the death penalty. And we hope that this translates into pressure that the Americans will put, that they need to put, on their Congressional representatives and other leaders. …more

Three Human Rights Activists in Prison on Hunger Strike in Solidarity with the Prominent Activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja
6 April, 2012 – Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) expresses its deep concern on the health of a prominent human rights activist Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja, which was transferred to the hospital, “the Ministry of the Interior” after the deterioration of his health.

Ms. Zaynab Alkhawaja – a 27 years old Cyber Activist, better known as Angryarabiya on twitter.She was arrested yesterday (April 5, 2012) after Sit in front of the Interior Ministry to demand the release of her father, Mr.Al-Khawaja.

Ms. AlKhawaja, inspired the recent mass hunger strike in Bahrain after going on hunger strike in support of her detained father and prominent human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja (former MENA Coordinator with Frontline Defenders, former President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and The founder of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights). Ms. Alkhawaja continued her strike for a period of 8 days until she was pressured to end the strike by international human rights organization.Ms.Al-Khawaja was previously arrested for participating in a public protest on 15 December 2011.She reported being beaten during her December arrest.

Mr.Naji Fateel : is a board member of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) and blogger who has been active in reporting human rights violations in Bahrain.He used his account on Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/najialifateel) for dissemination of human rights information. He was previously detained between Dec 2007 and April 2009, and has been reportedly tortured. His house was stormed in search for him several times last year following the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. He was suffering from damage to his spine and was supposed to travel abroad to get medical treatment.

On February 14, 2012, the security forces in Bahrain arrested Mr.Naji Fateel, as he was participating in a march towards the Pearl Roundabout in Manama city, exercising their right to peaceful assembly to this symbolic Roundabout, which was the centre of last year protests.

On April 4, 2012, Public prosecutor issued a decision for the release of Mr.Naji Fateel on bail, but Mr.Fateel refused to get out of jail in solidarity with Al-Khawaja and demanded his release.

Mr.Ahmed Abbas: An active member in BYSHR.On January 1, 2012, Bahraini authorities arrested Mr.Abbas and he has been subjected to ill-treatment.

Mr. Ahmed is currently suffering from the disease.

Ms.Zainab, Mr.Ahmed and Mr.Naji, announced a hunger strike in solidarity with Al-Khawaja and demanding his release immediately.
…source

Labour MP Richard Burden says Bahrain GP should not go ahead
Pablo Elizalde – 6 April, 2012 – AutoSport.com

Political unrest in the country lead to the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Labour MP Richard Burden has joined calls for the Bahrain Grand Prix to be cancelled, amid fresh concerns about the ongoing political trouble in the Gulf island state.

Former world champion Damon Hill said this week that the FIA should rethink the hosting of the Sakhir race amid the continued unrest in the kingdom.

Burden, who under the last government was a special advisor to the Minister of Sport, Richard Caborn, on motorsport, has backed Hill’s view.

“Damon Hill is right to call on the governing body of motor sport to rethink its decision to go ahead with this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix,” Burden wrote in a column for the Huffington Post.

“I say that as someone who is a motor sport nut as well as an MP with a keen interest in the Middle East.

“In a context where genuine and sustainable reform is taking place, holding a Grand Prix could be a unifying event for the people of Bahrain as well as a positive showcase on the world stage. But things are not at that stage.

“Since February last year, 45 people have died on Bahrain’s streets. The latest victim was killed by live ammunition only last week. Hundreds of protesters gathered at the cemetery near his home outside the capital, Manama. Reports say riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades into the crowds, setting off running street clashes.

Although Burden is convinced the Bahrain government will do everything possible to make sure F1 is not affected by the situation, he reckons grand prix racing’s reputation will be badly harmed.

“No doubt the Bahrain authorities will move heaven and earth to minimise any risks to the teams taking part,” he said. “But the long term damage to the reputation of F1 and motor sport in general could be considerable.

“In hindsight, the FIA should not have scheduled the 2012 race so early in the season. It was always going to be too early to know how far things had moved on in Bahrain since last year. F1 can’t turn the clock back but, with three weeks to go before the race, it can still rethink. It should do so.” …more