Posts from — December 2012

Bahrain Continues to Drag Feet Along Pathway to Reform
3 December, 2012 – Human Rights First

Washington, DC – Today’s postponement of the an appeal hearing for the prominent dissidents known as the Bahrain 13 marks another missed chance for the Kingdom’s authorities to start making real human rights progress, said Human Rights First. The appeal hearing was postponed until January 7, 2013.

“The constant delays in court hearings only adds to the perception that Bahrain authorities are dragging their feet along the path to reform,” said Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley. “These men were given a sham trial in military court last year and today’s decision just further postpones justice in this case.”

Last week, a Bahraini court ruled in the appeal of nine members of the political society Amal. Four of the men had their original sentences reduced from 10 to five years in prison, while the other five were released. Those still in jail are Sheikh Mohammed Ali Almahfoodh, Talal Abdulhamid, Sheikh Jasim Aldimistani, and Sayed Mahdi Almusawi .

“The delay to release the Amal people means a delay in reaching any solution in Bahrain,” a close observer of the case in Bahraini told Human Rights First. “The charges against them do not even meet the standards of official charges, and till now, there is no real evidence against them in court.”

The Amal Society, also known as the Islamic Action Society, was one of the groups prominent in the protests in Bahrain early last year. During the crackdown following the February and March protests the government closed its headquarters and de-registered Amal as a political society.

This week a four-member UN human rights team is in Bahrain to assess the human rights crisis and next week, on December 11, leading human rights defender and President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) Nabeel Rajab is due to hear his verdict in his appeal against a three-year prison term for taking part in illegal gatherings.

Human Rights First President and CEO Elisa Massimino recently traveled to Bahrain, where she witness court proceedings in the case of 28 medics prosecuted after treating injured protestors during the democratic uprising last year. Her account of that trip was featured in an opinion piece published today by The Washington Post. …source

A joint Event between the European-Bahraini Organisation for Human Rights and «Amnesty International – Netherlands
1 December, 2012

A joint Event between the European-Bahraini Organisation for Human Rights and «Amnesty International – Netherlands» to highlight the human rights abuses in Bahrain

‘Bahrain: Shouting in the dark’, a documentary by Al Jazeera English was screened to emphasize to those present about the violation of human rights in Bahrain. The screening was followed by a paper that was distributed among those present in which “Ahmed Al-Hadad”, who is a member of EBOHR and Amnesty International defined the human rights violations continuing in Bahrain, and the absence of accountability by local and international authorities; which in turn enables the authorities in Bahrain to continue the violations despite the issuance of the first recommendations of the Independent Commission of Inquiry, and other recommendations of the human rights Council of the United Nations.

Mr. Ahmed Al-Haddad, head of information and media at the European-Bahraini Organisation for Human Rights

Among those present were a number of university professors, politicians and previous representatives of the United Nations, including an ex-rapporteur of torture on the Human Rights Council.

The activity was applauded and the discussion that followed confirmed that the principles of human rights are the right of all humans, without exception and must be respected. Also, international and local accountability should not exclude anyone, regardless of political and economic interests.

Foreign students signed a petition submitted by Amnesty International (Netherlands – Maastricht branch), and the European Organization – Bahrain Human Rights, which will be raised to the human rights office and foreign affairs of the European Union, demanding the Union to take effective action to stop the violations and hold those responsible accountable. It also requested the release of all detainees of opinion, especially of Bahraini-Danish AbdelHadi El-Khawaja, Nabeel Ragab, defender of global human rights, and the Bahraini-Swedish citizen, Mohammad Habib al-Miqdad.

At the end of the event, the students declared their solidarity with the people of Bahrain, and denounced the daily human rights violations suffered by the people of Bahrain. They raised placards in a show of solidarity, and a message to the People of Bahrain: “You have friends who have not forgotten you.” A week of solidarity was also promised in solidarity with the Bahraini people specifically and the people of the Arabian Gulf in general.

A group of Dutch students holding photographs and messages of solidarity with the people of Bahrain

…more

=========================

Ahmed Al-haddad
Amnesty International
Head of Information & Media Relations
European-Bahraini Organisation for Human Rights (EBOHR)
www.ebohr.org
Twitter: @Diablohaddad
Mobile: +31623800921
Skype: a.alhaddado

Nobody loves Kim but those who stand to profit from her image. Face it Kim your hateful sales presence is hated around the globe. You make me wana puke Kim! Phlipn out.

Bahraini’s protesting Kim Ks “milk shake” chain redefined by Western media as “hardline Islamists”. Not only does this definition of the protest fit with the dumbshit journalists in the Western press, it fails even pretend to understand what the protest was about. Can you image the reaction in the US if protesters were to be gassed and beat in the streets protesting a milkshake shop they found distasteful. Phlipn Out.

Bahrain police deploy teargas at anti-Kim Kardashian protest

Hardline Islamic demonstrators clash with police as reality TV star visits Middle East kingdom and tweets its praises
1 December, 2012 – the Guardian

Bahrain police deploy teargas at anti-Kim Kardashian protest

Hardline Islamic demonstrators clash with police as reality TV star visits Middle East kingdom and tweets its praises

Just hours after the reality TV star Kim Kardashian gushed about her impressions of Bahrain, riot police fired teargas to disperse more than 50 hardline Islamic protesters who were denouncing her presence in the Gulf kingdom.

The clashes took place just before Kardashian opened the Bahrain branch of her Millions of Milkshakes shop.

An Associated Press journalist saw protesters chanting “God is Great” near the shopping complex in Riffa, about 20km (12 miles) south of the capital, Manama. The demonstrators were cleared before Kardashian appeared late Saturday.

Earlier, Kardashian posted glowing remarks about Bahrain on her Twitter account, calling it “the prettiest place on earth”. The remark was re-Tweeted by Bahrain’s foreign minister.

Kardashian was in Kuwait earlier this week, to open another branch of the shop. …source

Amidst widening of the Islamic-Secular Divide

Showdown in Egypt
By: Esam Al-Amin – Counter Punch

Ever since the fall of former dictator Hosni Mubarak on that fateful day in February 2011, Egyptian society and its political factions have been sharply divided. On one side is the Islamic parties led by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) but also includes the more conservative Salafi groups as well as other smaller moderate ones such as Al-Wasat Party. On the other is a myriad of secular groups that includes many liberal, leftist, as well as youth revolutionary groups such as the April 6 movement.

There is no doubt that the unity displayed during the eighteen revolutionary days that ousted Mubarak had soon after dissipated when Egyptians went to the polls five weeks later and voted to hold parliamentary elections before writing a new constitution. The Islamic parties, which supported this referendum, won it with over seventy-seven percent of the electorate as Egyptians voted in unprecedented numbers.

The Islamic political parties reasoned that a new constitution must be written by an elected body that represents the will of the Egyptian people while the secular parties, realizing that they would be overwhelmingly outnumbered at the ballot box, argued that a new constitution must be written by representatives of all political stripes outside any claim of a popular mandate even if legitimized through elections.

Hence, throughout the tumultuous transitional period supervised by the Egyptian military that lasted over sixteen months, the gulf and mistrust between the two sides have continued to widen. Basically, there have been four main active blocs in the Egyptian political theatre, with each maneuvering to obtain or maintain an advantage over the others. They are namely: the Islamists, the secularists, the revolutionary youth, and the remnants of the old regime. Each group determined its objectives according to its general political overview or narrow interests, and tried to establish its own transient coalition with the others in order to accomplish its goals. The wild card during this political wrangling was the military, which had its own agenda and was able to play these various forces against each other.

But what were the objectives of all these players?

Feeling empowered by their vast support in the streets, the Islamists wanted to hold elections as soon as possible in order to set the agenda and dominate the discussion on the writing of the new constitution and the future direction of the country. They argued that the principles of democracy dictate no less than holding elections at all levels to embody the will of the people. Early on the Islamists established a tacit understanding with the military in order to establish a smooth transition through popular elections. In return, the military hoped to maintain stability and order while figuring out the new political landscape.

On the other hand, the secular factions, which include many traditional liberals, leftists, nationalists, and some revolutionary youth groups, as well as the Coptic Christian community, feared a possible crushing defeat at the polls since they were hopelessly divided and terribly disorganized. So their main tactic during that period was to frustrate the agenda of the Islamists while trying to impose certain constitutional principles without debate by having the military council issue several decrees and appointing several committees dominated by many of them but only to see them fail or wither away.

The main agenda of many revolutionary youth groups such as the April 6 movement, the Ultras (non-affiliated youth groups willing to confront authority), or the Egyptian Current, was to press for the revolutionary demands such as purging the Egyptian institutions from the elements of the old regime, especially in the security apparatus, the police, the media, the judiciary, as well as exposing and isolating the corrupt politicians. Throughout the transitional period they applied full pressure and maintained continuous presence in the streets in order to force the military council and its appointed government to hold trials against senior members of the Mubarak regime and those responsible for the almost 1000 people killed during the early days of the revolution. But in many instances the revolutionary youth in the streets felt betrayed by the Islamists as often times their demands and actions were met with either lip service or disdain.

Meanwhile, the remnants of the old regime, called the fulool (Arabic for remnants) stayed in the background waiting for the right moment to regroup and launch a counterrevolution. The fulool included not only many pro-Mubarak politicians from the old regime but also many corrupt businessmen and oligarchs. They knew that if a new order was allowed to be established they would lose their ill-gotten wealth and possibly face imprisonment as many prominent senior officials of the former regime had to contend with.

But the military, which control as much as thirty percent of Egypt’s economy and has been autonomous with little governmental oversight or accountability for decades, was determined to maintain this status-quo and as much of its privileges as possible. It also did not want any politicians or political groups to interfere in, let alone control, its decision-making process, especially in its internal financial conglomerates or national security affairs. So for the entire transitional period the military council pitted these groups against each other, with each group calculating and selfishly protecting its own short-term interests regardless of the overall consequences on the main objectives of the popular revolution.

With this as the backdrop the Egyptian people went to the polls seven times during this period: voting on the constitutional referendum in March 2011, four times to elect both chambers of parliament between November 2011 and January 2012, and two times to elect a president in May and June 2012.

More Egyptians went to the polls during this period than in any election in the past six decades. During the Mubarak regime the electorate had never exceeded 6 million, or less than 15 percent of eligible voters. But during the 16 months transitional period, over 62 percent of Egyptians went to the polls as 18 million Egyptians voted in the referendum, 30 million in the parliamentary elections, and 26 million in the presidential elections. Not surprisingly, in every one of these elections, the Islamist position or candidates won (77 percent in the referendum and 73 percent of parliament.)

In the presidential elections, despite the polarization that engulfed the country, the overt support of the military council, the Egyptian bureaucracy, the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC), and the Elections Committee to the fulool candidate, as well as the massive propaganda machinery campaign against Dr. Muhammad Morsi; the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, still won though barely with 52 percent of the vote. It is important to note that both the Elections Commission and SCC were Mubarak’s appointees who also oversaw and overlooked many fraudulent elections during the Mubarak era, most notably the 2005 and 2010 rigged elections. Although it took over a week for the commission to announce the results, Morsi took office on June 30, 2012 in a polarized atmosphere. Despite the presence of the military council as the real power behind the thrown, people still had great expectations for the new president. …more

Okay, but what does “full democracy” mean and for whom? And what of preconditions and demands to free the Political Prisoners, Remove Security Forces from Villages, Restoration of Right to Protest and Assembly, Restoration of Banned Societies, Restoration of Citizenship Rights, Free Press, Oversight of Judiciary by an independent body… …all before any “dialogue” or “reconstitution” toward “full democracy”. And who would negotiate “full democracy”? Could there such negotiations without the freedom and participation of the political society leaders that languish in Hamad’s prisons? Phlipn

Activist: Establishment of Democracy only Way to Restore Security in Bahrain
1 December, 2012 – FARS

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior member of Bahrain’s Islamic Action Society slammed the Bahraini regime for continuing detention and torturing of activists even 18 months after the start of popular protests across the country, and warned that establishment of democracy will be the only way to restore security and tranquility in the country.

“Without establishment of full democracy in Bahrain, security and calm will not be materialized, and security officials have no other way but to reconsider their decisions and correct their way of interaction with the people,” Hisham al-Sabbagh, a senior member of Bahrain’s Islamic Action Society told Iran’s Arabic-language news network, Al-Alam, on Saturday.

He further blasted the al-Khalifa regime for his hostile approach to the Bahraini people, apprehension of activists and opposition figures, killing and cracking down on citizens and villagers and launching night raids on their houses.

The Bahraini government, facing protracted unrest by an overwhelming majority of the people, has resorted to any harsh measure to suppress popular protests and arrest political activists. It also revoked the nationality of 31 men on charges of harming national security earlier this month.

The men include London-based dissidents Saeed al-Shehabi and Ali Mushaima, the son of jailed opposition leader Hassan Mushaima, as well as clerics, human rights lawyers and activists.

Also on the list published by Bahraini News Agency (BNA) were two former parliamentarians from the leading Shiite party Wefaq, Jawad and Jalal Fairooz.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty’s over-40-year rule, end of discrimination, establishment of justice and a democratically-elected government as well as freedom of detained protesters.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar – were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

So far, tens of people have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.
…source