Bahrain’s rebellion continues in spite of domestic and regional pressures
14 September, 2013 – Anna Jacobs – Morocco World News

Charlottesville, Virginia – Arab League names Bahrain as destination for the Pan-Arab Human Rights Court in the midst of increasing limitations to freedom of assembly and on-going talks between the Saudi supported government and Shia opposition forces over political reform

As the debate over diplomatic solutions and possible military intervention in Syria continues, developments in other countries have taken a second place in international news. However, one event struck me as particularly interesting and especially nonexistent in the US media: Bahrain has been chosen to host a pan-Arab human rights court. This choice was made at an Arab League meeting in Cairo and announced by the official Bahrain News Agency at the beginning of September.

Aljazeera English cited the Bahrain foreign minister as saying that “The initiative to establish the court stems from the King’s firm belief in the importance of human rights and basic human liberties,” which was naturally met with much criticism from human rights activists in the country, as well as internationally, after King Hamad Al-Khalifa went to the Gulf Council Cooperation (GCC) to seek help in smothering Bahrain’s political uprisings in 2011. Protests broke out in the country’s capital Manama, in Pearl Square, during the early months of the Arab Spring, calling for greater political freedoms and an end to the royal family’s absolute power. As a response to the King’s request at the GCC, both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates sent troops in to suppress the peaceful protestors.

The US and Gulf countries; a marriage of convenience

The subsequent crackdown on human rights defenders, as well as medical professionals that treated the protestors, has become infamous and a stain on the country’s reputation. However, as Maryam AlKhawaja, the acting head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, argued, the lack of criticism from major western governments is nothing new.

“The Gulf states are not held accountable for their human rights abuses. No one will take this seriously. For them to have a court such as this is a slap in the face to those who have documented abuses in Bahrain, for which there have been no consequences.” She was quoted as saying by Aljazeera English. In other words, the choice of Bahrain as the locale for the pan-Arab Human Rights Courts and the lack of debate over this choice among both Arab and western governments represents a status-quo event of hypocritical hype—which all too often characterizes western relations with Gulf countries, epitomized by the US-Saudi alliance.

As the Shia majority called for political change against a Saudi allied Sunni monarchy, the United States found itself attempting to formulate a “diplomatic” response to the widespread violence, arrest and imprisonment of activists and doctors, and the Saudi led military crackdown in the country. The monument in the Pearl Square was also torn down, in an attempt to emphasize the royal family’s iron fist backed by a legion of supporting GCC-sanctioned tanks.

Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa claimed that the demolition of the monument, signifying the nation’s history as a location of pearl diving and a symbol of Arab Spring revolutionary fervor against autocracy, was an exercise in “restoring law and order” in typical despotic fashion.

US reaction to the crackdown was especially dismissal, even compared to the reactionary positions taken by officials as dictators were taken down in both Tunisia and Egypt. “Stunned” US officials advised Bahrain to show “restraint” after a particularly violent suppression of protests in April 2011. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed the government to quickly initiate a reform process that “advances the rights and aspirations of all the citizens of Bahrain.” Yet the US government never recalled its ambassador or mentioned the threat of sanctions, and this was at the height of the Arab Spring’s revolutionary zeal. In the over two years since this bloody event, the US has remained more or less silent on the subject of oppression in the island kingdom. The reason for this, of course, relates to the government’s general relationship with Gulf countries as a regional supplier of oil, an ally against hostile governments such as Iran and Syria’s Al-Assad, and the strategic significance of Bahrain in particular, as the location of the United States Fifth Naval Fleet.

The Tamarod Bahrain Movement

Mobilization against the Bahrain government has nonetheless continued in various forms for the last two and a half years, and the country’s own Tamarod movement was begun by activists on August 14th of this year. The government’s response to this initiative was a series of draconian laws restricting the freedom of assembly, to such a point that it was essentially a fiction, while also threatening to remove citizenship rights and apply severe sentences to opposition party members.

In reaction to these oppressive security measures, Tamarod Bahrain Movement leader Hussein Youssef told the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir that “Aug. 14 marked the launch of a political project that will endure no matter how complicated the security situation becomes, because our reliance is on the strategy of popular street action, which does not end even if the movement’s leadership is arrested.”

Regional influences on government-opposition talks

After a two month break in talks between the Bahraini opposition and government officials, they were reignited again on August 28, with a mind to both the domestic and regional situation. The sectarian nature of the Syrian conflict, especially the intensified Sunni Shia dichotomy, has strong implications on talks between the government and the opposition in Bahrain. A former Bahraini opposition member of Parliament, Abdulhadi Khalaf, who was also stripped of his citizenship by Bahrain’s King this year, described this dynamic to al-Monitor:

“The longer the Syrian crisis goes on, the bigger its implications for Bahrain. Inciting against the Alawites in Syria goes hand-in-hand with demonizing the Shiites in Bahrain….Before the Arab Spring, no one in Bahrain, no matter how arrogant, would have dared to call the opposition apostates. But that is normal today. The incitement campaigns aimed at raising funds or recruiting militants to fight in Syria have catalyzed and hardened the discourse of sectarian confrontation. Resolving the crisis in Syria through a regional and international agreement (Geneva II, for example) would make it easier to propose the same mechanism to resolve the crisis in Bahrain.” …more

Bahrain opposition leader arrested, charged with inciting terrorism
By Mohammed Jamjoom and Samira Said – CNN 18 Septemebr, 2013

(CNN) — A leading opposition figure in Bahrain has been jailed after being charged with “inciting and advocating terrorism,” Bahrain’s Public Prosecution Office said. Activists in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom, however, insist the charges against Khalil Al Marzooq are politically motivated and accuse the country’s leadership of attempting to stifle dissent.

Al Marzooq, secretary general of Al-Wefaq, the main Shia opposition party, was arrested Tuesday after being interrogated about a speech he delivered last week. According to BNA, Bahrain’s official news agency, he was summoned to a police station, questioned and then referred to the Public Prosecution Office.

In a statement, the office accused Al Marzooq of being “affiliated with the terrorist organization” and added that he had been “speaking at many forums, inciting and promoting terrorist acts, advocating principles which incite such acts, supporting violence committed by the terrorist coalition, and legally justifying criminal activities.”

Taher Al-Mosawi, the head of Al-Wefaq’s media center, says that Al Marzooq did not incite violence and that Bahrain opposition parties are suspending participation in national dialogue.

Al-Wefaq called the government’s actions in regard to Al Marzooq “reckless” and “a clear targeting of political action in Bahrain.” The party added in a statement that it believes his detention is, in part, a reaction to a European Parliament resolution passed last week regarding the human rights situation in Bahrain.

On a mission: Oppression in Bahrain

That resolution called for “the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Bahrain” and urged Bahraini authorities “to immediately end all acts of repression, release all prisoners of conscience, and respect the rights of juveniles.”

European Parliament member Marietje Schaake told CNN that “the lack of progress in terms of dialogue and reforms towards the rule of law and respect for human rights in Bahrain continue to be of great concern to the European Parliament.”

Schaake spearheaded the effort to get the resolution passed. “For the sake of the well-being of all people in Bahrain,” she said, “and for the future of the country, the crackdown on peaceful demonstrations must end. The blanket ban on assembly in Manama is not helping reconciliation, either.”

Bahraini opposition activists say that Al Marzooq’s arrest is just the latest in a country where many prominent dissidents have been jailed in the past two years and that it only underscores how tense the situation remains in Bahrain. …more

Bahrain: Special Investigations Unit Makes Claims to False Achievements and Colludes to Extract Revenge On Political Prisoners, Prisoners of Conscience
16 September, 2013 – Bahrain center for Human Rights

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) expresses dissatisfaction over the Bahraini authorities continued avoidance to comply with the recommendations which aim to limit human rights violations. Many official institutions were established which propose to value the protection of human rights, while in reality they follow the government’s official policy of impunity and discrimination. The BCHR has monitored the performance of the Special Investigations Unit at the Public Prosecution over the course of a year and a half, and concluded that this unit is only one of the many attempts of the Bahraini regime to present the image of reforms, while acting as a tool to punish political prisoners and prisoners of conscience for their peaceful activism.

The Special Investigations Unit was established on February 28, 2012 after an order from Attorney-General Ali AlBuainain to establish a specialized unit at the Public Prosecution for the investigation of torture crimes, abuse and ill-treatment that may have been committed by government officials. Specifically, this unit is designed to investigate into the facts arising from the events in 2011 during the three month state of emergency declared by the government, and which are included in the report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), as well as any facts or other issues decided by the Attorney-General to be referred to the Special Investigations Unit.

The establishment of this Unit came as an implementation to recommendation No. 1716 of the BICI report, which stated “To establish a national independent and impartial mechanism to determine the accountability of those in government who have committed unlawful or negligent acts resulting in the deaths, torture and mistreatment of civilians with a view to bringing legal and disciplinary action against such individuals, including those in the chain of command, military and civilian, who are found to be responsible under international standards of “superior responsibility”.

However, what is witnessed on the ground in Bahrain is quite different from the recommendation. The unit is headed by the Chief Prosecutor, and there is no mechanism in which the use of the independent experts to conduct investigations is compulsory, which stands in violation to the very essence of the recommendation, particularly as the involvement of the Public Prosecution itself in the abuse of detainees during the investigation period has been documented. In the investigation cases referred to the unit, some of the cases were documented while others were suspended, and many resulted in the acquittal of those involved in torture as occured in the case of doctors lawsuit against Mubarak bin Huwail and Noora AlKhalifa. The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) believes that the formation of this Unit was primarily intended to stop international human rights pressure on the government, while the reality shows a deliberate avoidance of real reforms that are at the heart of the recommendation. …more

Bahrain Shia groups quit reconciliation talks
18 September, 2013 – AlJazeera

Bahrain’s main Shia Muslim groups have suspended participation in reconciliation talks with the Sunni-led government after the detention of an important opposition figure.

Bahrain’s public prosecution said Khalil al-Marzooq, a former deputy parliament speaker, was detained on Tuesday accused of instigating violence and having links to bombings and other attacks.

Marzooq, a senior member of Al Wefaq, the main Shia political bloc, was ordered to be held for 30 days during the investigation.

His supporters claim he was targeted in attempts to punish the opposition after recent criticism from European officials about government crackdowns on dissent.

The decision by the Shia groups closes one of the main channels for dialogue.

Repeated rounds of political talks have failed to significantly close the rifts between the Sunni establishment and Shia factions, who began an Arab Spring-inspired uprising in early 2011 to seek greater political rights.

According to the government, more than 65 people have died in the unrest, but rights groups and others put the death toll higher. …source