Bahrain ‘Day Of Rage’ Planned For Formula One Grand Prix
18 April, 2012 – By Andrew Hammond – Huffington Post

DUBAI, April 18 (Reuters) – Anti-government protesters in Bahrain are planning “days of rage” directed at this weekend’s Formula One Grand Prix, while security forces have rounded up dozens of activists in a clampdown on the opposition in the Gulf Arab nation.

Bahrain has been in turmoil since a democracy movement erupted last year after uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

The island state’s revolution was initially crushed with the loss of dozens of lives but youths still clash daily with riot police and thousands are turning out for opposition rallies as the motor race approaches.

“Boycott F1 in Bahrain,” reads a graffiti message daubed on a wall in a village outside the capital, Manama, next to a painted image of a red Ferrari race car. “You will race on the blood of martyrs.”

Bahrain’s ruling Al Khalifa family had to cancel last year’s race because of the uprising, but its return on April 20-22 is a chance to tell the world that all is back to normal – which could work if protests and clashes are kept to Shi’ite districts and do not reach major highways or the capital.

Bernie Ecclestone, the colourful British owner of the commercial rights to Formula One, said last week the race would go ahead because all was “quiet and peaceful” in Bahrain, which paid last year’s hosting fee of an estimated $40 million despite cancelling the race due to the conflict.

The Bahrain race, part of a 20-event worldwide season that has revenues of $2 billion, drew 100,000 visitors and generated an estimated half a billion dollars in spending when it was last held two years ago. Formula One, the business arm of one of the world’s most watched sports, is expected to be floated on the Singapore stock exchange later this year.

Race organisers say “the security situation in Bahrain is suitable for the staging of a major sporting event”. John Yates, a former senior British police officer hired by Bahrain to oversee reform of its police force, said he felt “safer than I have often felt in London”.

The official Formula One website, describing the Sakhir Circuit as “first-rate”, tells visitors: “As the wind picks up each evening and the early sunset takes hold, the place has a magical ‘Arabian Nights’ feel to it.”

Amnesty International said in a report this week that dozens remained in jail after unfair military trials for their role in mass protests a year ago while action was needed to address what the human rights group called discrimination against majority Shi’ites.

“With the world’s eyes on Bahrain as it prepares to host the Grand Prix, no one should be under any illusions that the country’s human rights crisis is over,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director.

OPPOSITION PARTY RALLIES

The opposition, led by the Wefaq party, say they do not oppose the race and their protests – licensed by a government under U.S. pressure to allow more space for dissent – will focus on demands for political reforms in a country where the Khalifa family dominates government and the economy.

Formula One was originally brought to Bahrain in 2004 as part of economic reforms championed by Crown Prince Salman – whom Wefaq continues to bet on as a man to deliver political reform – to encourage foreign investment and jobs for Bahrainis.

“We think Formula One is a secondary issue compared to the question of long-term rights. What we care about is our demands. We don’t want to ruin the projects’ of others,” said senior Wefaq member Sayed Hadi al-Mousawi.

But he predicted protesters would try to hold demonstrations near or inside Sakhir, which lies south of the capital and away from most residential areas.

“There are hundreds or maybe thousands who will get there and raise slogans, and they don’t care if they are taken to jail. People have reached the point of no fear,” Mousawi said.

Thirty-five people died during a month of protests when the uprising first began last year, but activists say the ongoing violence has taken the toll to around 70.

Activists say heavy use of tear gas has caused many deaths. The government disputes the causes of death and their attribution to the strife, and accuses youths of endangering police lives with petrol bombs.

YOUTH PROTEST MOVEMENT

Opposition figures outside the political parties and who are opposed to the race say they will stage protests inside the F1 circuit if they can, hoping to catch international attention.

They say they will host daily events, including a march in Manama on Thursday at a location to be announced, culminating in a country-wide “day of rage” on both Saturday and Sunday.

“They plan activities at the track but they have not announced what. For sure there will be something,” said Sayed Yousif al-Muhafda of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.

Activists opposed to the race point out that some Bahrain International Circuit employees say they suffered torture during the period of martial law that ended last June. Bahrain commissioned a report by international rights experts which revealed systematic abuse during the crackdown. …more

Bahrain activists vow days of rage for F1 race
19 April, 2012 – The Dailiy Star

DUBAI/MANAMA: Anti-government protesters in Bahrain are planning “days of rage” directed at this weekend’s Formula One Grand Prix, while security forces have rounded up dozens of activists in a clampdown on the opposition in the Gulf Arab nation.

Bahrain has been in turmoil since a democracy movement erupted last year after uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

The island state’s revolution was initially crushed with the loss of dozens of lives, but youths still clash daily with riot police and thousands are turning out for opposition rallies as the motor race approaches.

“Boycott F1 in Bahrain,” reads a graffiti message daubed on a wall in a village outside the capital, Manama, next to a painted image of a red Ferrari race car. Another message reads: “You will race on the blood of martyrs.”

Bahrain’s ruling Al-Khalifa family had to cancel last year’s race because of the uprising, but its return on April 20-22 is a chance to tell the world that all is back to normal – which could work if protests and clashes are kept to Shiite districts and do not reach major highways or the capital.

Bernie Ecclestone, the colorful British owner of the commercial rights to Formula One, said last week the race would go ahead because all was “quiet and peaceful” in Bahrain, which paid last year’s hosting fee of an estimated $40 million despite cancelling the race due to the conflict. …more

Hunger strikes and political prisoners in Bahrain and the West Bank
by Claire Schaeffer-Duffy – 18 April, 2012 – National Catholic Reporter

Bahraini human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja is beginning the 10th week of a hunger strike at a military prison hospital in Bahrain. Family members and his lawyer fear he could be close to death.

Al-Khawaja, 52, was arrested and tortured last spring amid a government crackdown against a popular uprising calling for reform of Bahrain’s Sunni-led monarchy. In June, a military court convicted him of “organizing and managing a terrorist organization” and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He launched his hunger strike — the fourth since his detention — to demand his release and the release of all Bahraini political prisoners of conscience.

Al-Khawaja is a highly regarded human rights leader, and news of his deteriorating health has intensified the international campaign for his release. From 2002 to 2008, he co-founded and served as the first president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, and most recently worked as the Middle East and North Africa project’s coordinator for Front Line Defenders. The Irish-based human rights organization has created a video to publicize his case:

Last week, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt urged Bahrain to release the jailed activist, who has dual citizenship, saying he was in “very critical” condition. The prime minister’s appeal came after a judicial panel refused Denmark’s request for custody.

On Monday, two protesters draped a banner from the roof of the Bahraini Embassy in London that bore an image of al-Khawaja and imprisoned Bahraini Shi’ite opposition leader Hussan Mushaima. “Over 60 days on hunger strike,” the banner read in reference to al-Khawaja. Amnesty International just issued an action alert and petition on his behalf and Wednesday, Germany’s top human rights official, Markus Loening, called on Bahrain to release al-Khawaja and the “few hundred protestors” still imprisoned more than a year after the Arab Spring demonstrations.

All this publicity comes days before Bahrain is scheduled to host the Grand Prix. The royal family is reportedly divided on whether to release the jailed human rights activist. They publicly insist his situation is not grave because he is receiving fluid through IVs, but photos of the emaciated al-Khawaja widely circulated online don’t support that description. …more

Letter of Solidarity from Palestinian Prisoners to the People of Bahrain
by sasha- 18 April, 2012 – Witness Bahrain

Rough English translation below. The original Arabic is published here: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/node/777866

Your freedom is our freedom and our freedom is your freedom!

Greetings to you, my brother, Abdul-Hadi al-Khawaja, struggling in the face of tyranny and for freedom, freedom of the individual, the people and the nation, whether in Bahrain or in any/every corner of the Arab world.

In past years I have stood in solidarity with you from Haifa, from the captive nation of Palestine, which surrounds the racist, colonial, Zionist project; and today I am in solidarity with you while in an Israeli jail, two years out of an unjust nine-year sentence — a high price imposed by the colonial system on Palestinian leaders of 48 to deter them from communication with the Arab people throughout the Arab world, and the price of our interaction with people’s movements and struggles for their freedom and the freedom of Palestine and its people.

I follow your case from an Israeli jail in the north of 1948 occupied Palestine. I feel strong, the greatness of your stance, your gloriousness, and your heroic struggle, echo to dock with the stands of the heroic Palestinian militants Hana Al-Shalabi and Khader Adnan, who led open ended hunger strikes that lasted two months, and will also meet with the stance of five thousand Palestinian and Arab prisoners still in Israeli prisons.

When the will is free and the cause is just, and you embody both, the human is capable of making miracles happen, and no oppressive, tyrannical, murderous regime can harm it, not the Bahraini regime, subject to U.S. colonial imperialism, or the Israeli colonialism system in Palestine. It is the system of colonialism and its puppet regimes that have lost all legitimacy; while the people are legitimacy and its source.

Said the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Abdul-Rahim:

I will carry my soul in my hand
And throw it in the valleys of death
It is either a life that makes a friend happy
Or a death that makes an enemy angry

As you «carry your soul» in your open hunger strike, behind this is the essence of your position — that you love life; only he who loves life has the courage and the will to sacrifice for freedom and human dignity and the dignity of his people and the country’s freedom.

Greetings to you and be confident that the prisoners of Palestine are with you and the people of Bahrain and its revolution.

Prisoners of freedom and supporters of freedom in the world are with you.

Ameer Makhoul / Haifa – Palestine

(From the fleeting Israeli prison of Gilboa prison no matter how long the captivity) …source

12 April, Yates wrote: “Along with my family, I feel completely safe. Indeed, safer than I have often felt in London.”

Security can’t be guaranteed at Grand Prix, says Yates of the Yard
Richard Hall – 19 April, 2012 – The Independent

The former high-ranking Metropolitan Police officer currently advising the Bahraini government has said that security cannot be guaranteed at the upcoming Grand Prix.

Former Assistant Commissioner John Yates made the remarks as anti-government demonstrations continued to rock Bahrain and protesters called for a “day of rage” ahead of the event this weekend. Nearly 50 people have been killed since February 2011 in violence between security forces and protesters from Bahrain’s Shiite majority, which seeks to break the near monopoly on power by the island nation’s Sunni monarchy.

Protests have intensified in recent weeks and opposition activists have called for the F1 race to be cancelled.

Mr Yates, who in his previous job was known as “Yates of the Yard”, is currently on a six-month contract advising Bahrain’s ruling Khalifa family on police reform. He is also working on security for the event. He told the Guardian: “People say can we guarantee security. Of course we can’t guarantee security. I’d be a fool to sit here and say that. Is it possible there might be an incursion on the track? Of course there is. It’s an open event. Can you stop some idiot running onto the track? There have been other incidents of track incursions.”

Opposition figures outside the political parties – and who are opposed to the race – say they will stage protests inside the F1 circuit if they can, hoping to catch international attention.

Mr Yates said of the planned demonstrations: “There will be protests over the weekend. But we want to make this a sporting event, not a security event. …more

Bahrain Grand Prix: Only 29% of Formula One Companies Respond To Human Rights Concerns
How Formula One companies responded (or failed to respond) to human rights concerns

18 April, 2012 – Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

LONDON, Apr. 18 – CSRwire – Only 29% of firms linked to Formula One responded to Business & Human Rights Resource Centre about human rights concerns that various organizations raised relating to the Bahrain Grand Prix, scheduled for 20-22 April. Forty two companies or teams failed to respond.

See all the responses on this webpage, which also lists each company that failed to respond. That page also summarises human rights concerns raised by international human rights groups, human rights advocates in Bahrain, and others. Human Rights Watch warned Formula One that by holding the Bahrain Grand Prix, it would be endorsing the kingdom’s government despite claims that sport and politics don’t mix. Amnesty International said “Human rights violations are continuing unabated… Holding the Grand Prix in Bahrain in 2012 risks being interpreted by the government of Bahrain as symbolizing a return to business as usual.” The UK Labour Party urged Formula One to cancel the Bahrain Grand Prix, saying that proceeding with the event would “send the wrong signal.” Among the prisoners of conscience detained in Bahrain is human rights advocate Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who is on hunger strike – there are fears that he may soon die.

The company responses were on the whole disappointing, given the gravity of the human rights concerns raised about Bahrain, and given that last year the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted by consensus the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which confirmed that all companies have a responsibility to respect human rights.

“Seldom have we seen a response rate this low from a group of companies anywhere in the world”, said Christopher Avery, Director of Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. “And of the responses that were received, seldom if ever have we seen such a high proportion that completely fail to comment on the human rights concerns that they were asked to address.”

Chris Marsden, Chair of the board of Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, said: “I encourage everyone to look at each company’s response and to draw their own conclusions about which companies are taking human rights concerns seriously, and which are not.”

On Wednesday, opposition supporters held a protest demanding Sunday’s Grand Prix also be called off, and calling for the immediate release of Mr Khawaja in Old Manama. A Bahraini journalist, who asked not to be named for fear of arrest, told the BBC that there were chaotic scenes outside Bab al-Bahrain, which marks the entrance to the main souq. The journalist warned: “If he dies the streets will explode.”

Clashes erupt after Bahrain Grand Prix exhibit protest
BBC – 18 April, 2012

Women protesters run after a stun grenade is fired at them in Old Manama (18 April 201″) Anti-government protests have been widespread in the run up to the Grand Prix

Bahraini security forces have fired stun grenades at protesters outside a cultural exhibition in Manama ahead of Sunday’s Formula 1 Grand Prix.

A local journalist told the BBC the demonstrators in Old Manama were shouting “Down, down, F1” and demanding the release of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja.

The activist has been on hunger strike in prison for more than two months.

Mr Khawaja’s lawyer earlier told the BBC that his client had removed the intravenous drip keeping him alive.

The 52-year-old told his wife on Tuesday afternoon that he was also now refusing anything but water, Mohammed al-Jishi said.

Mr Khawaja believed nothing was being done to resolve his continued detention, and this was the only way to force the issue, he added.
Abdulhadi al-Khawaja in hospital (3 April 2012) Abdulhadi al-Khawaja’s lawyer released this picture of his client taken in hospital on 3 April

Mr Khawaja was convicted by a military court in June of plotting against the state, but human rights groups have said that his trial was “grossly unfair”.

They said his conviction was based on a confession he made under duress, and that no evidence was presented showing he had used or advocated violence during protests against King Hamad Al Khalifa.

Bahrain’s highest court is due to rule on Mr Khawaja’s appeal against his conviction on Monday – a day after the Grand Prix.

Last year’s race was cancelled after at least 35 people, including five police, were killed during a crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
Activists ‘arrested’

Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, only decided to go ahead with this weekend’s race at the last minute.
Continue reading the main story
At the scene
image of Rupert Wingfield-Hayes Rupert Wingfield-Hayes BBC News, Manama

Although the number of activists was small, they managed to get right in to the centre of Manama’s old market, an area frequented by tourists and expatriates. Once there, they held up banners demanding the release of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who is in prison on the 70th day of a hunger strike, and reportedly close to death.

The protesters are determined to use this weekend’s Formula 1 race to draw world attention to their year-long campaign for democracy, and to the government’s continuing suppression.

The government, run by the ruling Al Khalifa family, is determined to stop them. Opposition groups say between 60 and 80 activists have been taken from their homes in the last few days as the government rounds up those it fears will cause most trouble.

On Wednesday, opposition supporters held a protest demanding Sunday’s Grand Prix also be called off, and calling for the immediate release of Mr Khawaja in Old Manama.

A Bahraini journalist, who asked not to be named for fear of arrest, told the BBC that there were chaotic scenes outside Bab al-Bahrain, which marks the entrance to the main souq.

Veteran activist Nabeel Rajab reportedly stood near Bab al-Bahrain chanting anti-government slogans, while others carried signs reading: “Your silence is killing al-Khawaja”.

The journalist warned: “If he dies the streets will explode.”

Riot police at first demanded the protesters leave. When they refused, officers fired deafening “sound bombs” into the crowd, sending protesters and bystanders running.

Stun grenades and rubber bullets were also used to disperse the protesters, while helicopters circled overhead and interior ministry officers filmed the clashes, the journalist said.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights meanwhile told AFP news agency the authorities had arrested about 80 pro-democracy activists from villages outside the capital ahead of the Grand Prix.…more

14,600 Days in Solitary Confinement
Bryna Subherwal – 16 April, 2012 – Amnesty International USA

No human being deserves this.

23 hours a day isolated in a small cell, four steps long, three steps across. Three times a week for exercise in an outdoor cage, weather permitting. A few hours every week to shower or simply walk. Rare, fleeting human contact with prison guards, let alone with family.

This describes four decades of existence for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace in Louisiana, two members of the so-called “Angola 3″ who pass their remaining hours “in the hole” to this day.

April 17th will mark 40 years — 14,600 days — of their nightmare. The conditions in which these two men are held, as well as the tragically absurd duration of this punishment, violate a host of human rights treaties to which the US is a party, including those covering basic standards for treatment of prisoners. Prisons simply shouldn’t operate this way in the US.

Woodfox and Wallace may be in isolation, but they are not forgotten. Our calls for justice will ring loud — on April 17 we’ll make sure Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal hears us when we arrive at his Baton Rouge doorstep with tens of thousands of petition signatures from people in 125 countries in hand.

We can’t let more days pass without justice. Herman Wallace is now 70 years old, Albert Woodfox is in his mid-60s, and both men are suffering from serious health problems — made worse by the appalling deprivation in which they live.

Ill, advancing in age, with clean disciplinary records for the last 20 years — what is so dangerous about these men that could possibly warrant this inhumane treatment, for so long?

Because the prison authorities see them as a threat. The “Angola 3″ organized their fellow prisoners against inhumane treatment and racial segregation in the early 1970s. Angola Prison’s warden, Burl Cain, has suggested that Woodfox and Wallace’s continued isolation is based on their political activism — particularly their association with the Black Panthers.

The “Angola 3″ case highlights the failings of a Louisiana justice system that is undermined by discrimination. No physical evidence links Woodfox and Wallace to the 1972 murder of a prison guard. Inmate testimony is questionable. And judges who twice overturned Woodfox’s conviction for the murder cited racial discrimination, prosecutorial misconduct, and more.
…more

Bahrain Grand Prix 2012: ‘no Formula One over our blood’ cry protesters ahead of weekend’s race
18 April, 2012 – Bahrain Freedom Movement

They poured past in their thousands: men of all ages, chattering children, women dressed head to toe in black abayas, many of them holding placards, all of them chanting slogans. You did not need to be able to speak Arabic to get the gist of what they were saying: “Down with King Hamad” mostly. That and: “No Formula One in Bahrain.”

Every so often a protester would peel off from the crowd and shake the hands of visiting journalists, thanking us for being there in person and imploring us to help them get their message out.

We had been told to see with our own eyes what the situation was in Bahrain. So there we were; at a protest march in Al Dair, a small Shi’ite village north east of Manama, near the airport. It was the largest of several such protests yesterday.

This was the acceptable face of the opposition. While tear gas was used to disperse protesters armed with Molotov cocktails during Monday’s march in Salmabad, yesterday’s in Al Dair was peaceful, almost joyful.

But there was an edge. Rubber bullets, remnants from previous clashes, lay scattered about. A 13-year-old girl, Reem, whose father was killed in police custody last year – allegedly beaten to death – came up to introduce herself. She was with her uncle, a politician in Bahrain’s main opposition party, Al Wefaq, which has called for seven days of protest to capitalise on the presence of F1.

Our guide for the day, Dr Ala’a Shehabi, an activist who met with F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone in London earlier this year in an effort to have the race cancelled, told us about some of the other faces in the crowd; a nurse, Rola Alsaffar, who was allegedly beaten by police last spring after helping to treat injured protesters; a doctor, Huda Alawi, whose husband is a prominent local lawyer representing hundreds of protesters in jail.
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With the grand prix coming up this weekend, she told us, many activists had been rounded up in the past few days. One of her colleagues, a 19-year-old student, told us he had slept in three different houses over the past three nights after the police had come looking for him.

In Al Dair, the police kept their distance and everyone headed off after an hour or so to answer the call for evening prayer.

One man, who was wearing a red Ferrari polo shirt, approached us. “I love F1,” he said. “But not over our blood. They are forcing it on us.”

I had heard much the same thing from my taxi driver after landing in Bahrain yesterday. On our way into town, which, as we were assured it would be by Bahrain’s authorities, was ghostlike, he gave me his thoughts on Sunday’s race. “I have two emotions,” he said. “One is that I am proud to have such a big event in Bahrain. But the other part of me feels shame. You will be welcome here because you are guests in my country but you will be racing over blood this weekend.”

Asked if the race was not vital to the economy, he insisted that the average Bahraini would see little of the $400-500 million which the Bahrain GP organisers estimate it generates. “The government and their supporters own all these buildings,” he said, sweeping his hand in a wide arc to indicate the smart hotels of the diplomatic quarter. …more

Carlos Latuff

Forty-eight IFEX members and partners call for freedom for Bahraini human rights defenders, bloggers and activists
17 April, 2012 – Joint action – IFEX

(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a letter signed by 48 IFEX members and partners to the King of Bahrain:

His Majesty Sheikh Hamad bin Issa Al-Khalifa
King of Bahrain
Office of His Majesty the King
P.O.Box 555
Rifa’a Palace
Kingdom of Bahrain.
Fax: +973 176 64 587
17 April 2012

Your Excellency,

In the face of growing international concern about human rights violations in Bahrain as you prepare to welcome people to the Formula One on 22 April, we the undersigned 48 members and partners of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) call on you to free detained activists, bloggers and human rights defenders and drop all charges that violate the right to peaceful expression.

In particular, we call on you to immediately release human rights defender Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, founder of IFEX member the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, whose life is at risk from a hunger strike undertaken since 8 February 2012. He has been transferred to a hospital and could die if he is not released and allowed to seek medical treatment in Denmark, where he is a dual citizen. In an open letter, Al-Khawaja pledged to stay on hunger strike to protest his life sentence until “freedom or death”. A renowned human rights activist, Al-Khawaja is also the co-founder of the Gulf Center for Human Rights and a former Middle East and North Africa director of Front Line Defenders.

After being violently arrested in April 2011, Al-Khawaja was treated for fractures to his face, among other abuses alleged to have been committed while he was tortured in prison. Two journalists are reported to have died of torture in prison last year, according to the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), an independent inquiry which you mandated. We call on the Bahraini authorities to independently investigate the torture claims, as recommended by BICI.

Al-Khawaja, blogger and activist Abduljalil Al-Singace and blogger Ali Abdulemam of BahrainOnline are among 21 men accused of being leaders of anti-government protests that began in February 2011 and charged with attempting to overthrow the monarchy, despite there being no evidence to support this claim nor the claim that they advocated violence. Fourteen of them are in detention, while seven others were sentenced in absentia by a military court in a grossly unfair trial in June 2011. The whereabouts of Abdulemam, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison, are unknown. He has not been seen for over a year.

Al-Khawaja and Al-Singace were both sentenced to life in prison in June 2011 and were among those found to have been tortured in custody to extract confessions, in contravention of international law.

On 2 April, Bahrain’s Court of Cassation refused to release the 14 detained activists and human rights defenders. The court said it would announce a verdict in their case on 23 April.

The BICI called for all prisoners tried in military courts to be transferred to civilian courts and for investigations into allegations of torture to be carried out. Despite the recommendations of the BICI, human rights defenders, political activists and bloggers – as well as doctors, medics, teachers and even athletes – remain in jail, merely for exercising their right to peaceful expression, assembly and association.

We urge the Bahraini authorities to follow through with the BICI recommendations and to abide by their obligations under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and ensure the unconditional release of and the dismissal of all charges against Al-Khawaja, Al-Singace and of all those currently detained in Bahrain solely for the peaceful expression of their opinions.

Hundreds of people have been charged for participating in protests, most of them peacefully. Arrests and crackdowns on demonstrations are ongoing, including of those calling for the release of Al-Khawaja and other political prisoners, as well as those opposed to the holding of the Formula One in Bahrain, under the current circumstances. Al-Khawaja’s daughter, twitter activist Zaynab Al-Khawaja, was twice arrested for protesting her father’s ongoing detention and for trying to visit him in a military hospital earlier in April.

You cannot continue to silence dissent with teargas and detention without alienating the international community further and risking Bahrain’s reputation. Releasing these detainees would send a strong message that Bahrain will uphold its international obligations and follow through with its promises for reform.

Failing their release, we urge the Bahraini authorities to allow immediate access to necessary medical treatment, regular family visits and lawyers for all detainees, and for international observers to be allowed to attend the Court of Cassation’s ruling scheduled for 23 April.

Some of the groups below are among signatories to a letter of protest published in the UK Guardian on 9 April. Many are also among those who previously sent you a joint appeal to free Al-Khawaja, dated 5 March 2012. Al-Khawaja simply cannot wait until 23 April to find out if justice will be served.

Respectfully yours,

IFEX members:

…more

How the Arab Spring was sapped dry
SPEAKING FREELY – By Ismael Hossein-zadeh – 18 April, 2012 – Asia Times

Within the first few months of 2011, the United States and its allies lost three loyal “friends”: Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, Zine el-Abbidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Saad Hariri in Lebanon. While Mubarak and Ali were driven out of power by widespread popular uprisings, Hariri was ousted by the parliament.

Inspired by these liberating developments, pro-democracy rebellions against autocratic rulers (and their Western backers) soon spread to other countries such as Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

As these revolutionary developments tended to politically benefit the “axis of resistance” (consisting of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas) in the Middle East, the US-Israeli “axis of aggression” and their client states in the region mounted an all-out counterrevolutionary offensive.

Caught off-guard by the initial wave of the Arab Spring in Egypt and Tunisia, the US and its allies struck back with a vengeance. They employed a number of simultaneous tactics to sabotage the Arab Spring. These included: (1) instigating fake instances of the Arab Spring in countries that were/are headed by insubordinate regimes such as those ruling Iran, Syria and Libya; (2) co-opting revolutionary movements in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen; (3) crushing pro-democracy movements against “friendly” regimes ruling countries such as Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia “before they get out of hand,” as they did in Egypt and Tunisia; and (4) using the age-old divide and rule trick by playing the sectarian trump card of Sunnis vs. Shi’ites, or Iranians vs. Arabs.

1. Fake springs, post-modern coup d’etats
Soon after being caught by surprise by the glorious uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, the counterrevolutionary forces headed by the United States embarked on damage control. A major strategy in pursuit of this objective has been to foment civil war and regime change in “unfriendly” places, and then portray them as part of the Arab Spring.

The scheme works like this: arm and train opposition groups within the “unfriendly” country, instigate violent rebellion with the help of covert mercenary forces under the guise of fighting for democracy; and when government forces attempt to quell the thus-nurtured armed insurrection, accuse them of human rights violations, and begin to embark openly and self-righteously on the path of regime change in the name of “responsibility to protect” the human rights.

As the “weakest link” in the chain of governments thus slated to be changed, Gaddafi’s regime became the first target. It is now altogether common knowledge that contrary to the spontaneous, unarmed and peaceful protest demonstrations in Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain, the rebellion in Libya was nurtured, armed and orchestrated largely from abroad. Indeed, evidence shows that plans of regime change in Libya were drawn long before the overt onset of the actual civil war. [1]

It is likewise common knowledge that, like the rebellion in Libya, the insurgency in Syria has been neither spontaneous nor peaceful. From the outset it has been armed, trained and organized by the US and its allies. Similar to the attack on Libya, the Arab League and Turkey have been at the forefront of the onslaught on Syria. Also like the Libyan case, there is evidence that preparations for war on Syria had been actively planned long before the actual start of the armed rebellion, which is branded as a case of the Arab Spring. [2] …more

Wave of arrests ahead of Bahrain Grand Prix: NGO
18 April, 2012 – France 24

AFP – Bahraini security forces have arrested some 80 leading pro-democracy activists in an attempt to contain the daily anti-government protests ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix race, a local rights group said Wednesday.

“About 80 people from several villages near (the capital) Manama have been arrested since April 14,” the president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, Mohammed Maskati, told AFP, adding that the “mass wave of arrests is a preventive measure” by the authorities.

He said most of those arrested are “protest leaders” that have been organising near-daily demonstrations against the government in the kingdom’s Shiite villages.

Tensions have been mounting in the unrest-hit kingdom ahead of Sunday’s controversial Formula One race as the opposition and youth activists capitalise on renewed international attention on Bahrain’s year-long political and sectarian crisis.

On Tuesday, hundreds protested near Bahrain’s international airport as Formula One teams began arriving in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, carrying banners calling for a boycott of the race.

“Our demand: Freedom not Formula,” read one banner. “We are human without rights,” read another.

Prominent Shiite activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who is on a hunger strike and has been convicted to life in prison has said that he will refuse intravenous infusions starting Wednesday and drink only water, according to his wife.

Khawaja’s deteriorating health has raised fears that his potential death could spark a wave of violence in the already tense kingdom.

Bahrain’s largest opposition grouping, Al-Wefaq, has called for a week of daily demonstrations and sit-ins to last through the end of the April 22 race.

The more radical February 14 Youth Movement, however, has called for “three days of rage” to coincide with the event.

The F1 race in Bahrain was cancelled last year in the wake of the Shiite-led uprising and the brutal government crackdown that followed in which 35 people were killed, according to an independent probe. …source

The fast and furious Sunni revenge
THE ROVING EYE – By Pepe Escobar – 18 April, 2012 – Asia Times

And the winner is … the Gulf Counter-revolution Club (GCC), also known as Gulf Cooperation Council.

Their collective celebration party is this weekend’s Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix – complete with buckets of Moet and Ferraris oozing by. See it as a coterie of Sunni sheikhs telling the “international community” – we won; it’s our way or the (boiling hot) desert highway.

How could they not gloat? The unruly waves of that noxious Arab Spring never had a chance of disturbing the placid waters of the Gulf. The arrival of the Fast White Man Formula 1 circus – a spectacular public relations operation – proves that the GCC is as “normal” as an Arab prince swinging through Monte Carlo with a blonde babe in a Ferrari 458.

Who cares that Bahrain activists sent a letter to Formula 1 emperor Bernie Ecclestone denouncing the state of siege in the placid al-Khalifa dynasty realm, the killing and torture of pro-democracy protesters, the thousands still in jail and the lack of the most basic human rights? This does not concern The Fast White Man.

Revenge!
Strategically, the GCC was invented – with essential American input – to defend those poor Gulf petro-monarchies from the evils of Saddam Hussein and the Iranian Khomeinists, with its members comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. But when the 2011 Arab revolt exploded in Northern Africa – and then reached the Gulf, in Bahrain, and even generated protests in Oman and Saudi Arabia – the petro-monarchies faced a larger evil that simply petrified them: democracy. The status quo had to be protected at all costs.

King Hamad al-Khalifa, technically, asked the GCC for “help” into smashing the Bahrain pro-democracy movement. The fact is the House of Saud already had masterminded an invasion across the causeway linking the capital Manama with Saudi Arabia. The Pearl roundabout in Manama – Bahrain’s Tahrir Square – had to be literally razed to the ground by the al-Khalifa dictatorship to erase any physical memory of the protests.

For the GCC and its top dog the House of Saud, not only Bahrain was “contained”, Saudi subjects were placated with billionaire bribes. Ample possibilities of profiting from the geopolitical black hole in northern Africa were also opened.

Ever since the House of Saud and the emir of Qatar, Hamad al-Thani, got their act together, they have been on a roll – recent rumors of a military coup against the emir notwithstanding. The “humanitarian” bombing of Libya represented the apex of the NATOGCC embrace – with Qatar in the forefront and the House of Saud sort of leading from behind. …more