Regime Maintains Human Rights Progress Show for Western Media, while trampling Human Rights at advice of US Consultants

Many months of so-called police reform and political reform appear to have done little to improve exercise of the right to peaceful assembly. Denying a permit request was bad enough, but the decision to attack obviously peaceful protesters with completely excessive force was much more serious.

Bahrain: Police Attack Peaceful Protest – Authorities Continue to Deny Access to International Rights Groups
27 June, 2012 – Joe Stork – Human Rights Watch

(Beirut)– Bahraini authorities should immediately end the use of security forces to unlawfully attack peaceful protesters, Human Rights Watch said today. Riot police used teargas and sound bombs to disperse a demonstration on June 22, 2012, called by Al-Wefaq, Bahrain’s largest opposition group.

A small group of 25 or 30 people, some carrying flowers and led by Al-Wefaq’s leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, attempted to march to the protest site after the Ministry of Interior denied their request for a permit. They were stopped by a more or less equal number of riot police. Four witnesses told Human Rights Watch that riot police shot “flash-bang” grenades and teargas directly at the protesters without provocation. A video examined by Human Rights Watch appears to show police at first tossing flash-bang grenades into the crowd and then firing multiple rounds of the same type of device from riot control guns at extremely close range. The protesters behaved peacefully throughout and posed no threat of any kind to the officers or anyone else.

“Many months of so-called police reform and political reform appear to have done little to improve exercise of the right to peaceful assembly,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Denying a permit request was bad enough, but the decision to attack obviously peaceful protesters with completely excessive force was much more serious.”

Ali al-Mowali, 27, was hospitalized with apparently serious head injuries. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that a teargas canister hit al-Mowali when riot police attacked from a distance of just a few meters. He is being treated at the Salmaniya Medical Complex. At least three other people had lesser injuries including Salman, the Al-Wefaq leader, the witnesses reported.

Authorities arrested five protesters and charged them with illegal gathering, Jawad Fairooz, a leader of al-Wefaq, told Human Rights Watch. Al-Mowali is reportedly among those facing charges.

In a statement, the Interior Ministry said it will investigate the incident, but blamed the organizers for the casualties, saying, “They didn’t care about exposing the safety of the participants to danger.” The statement did not allege that the protesters were violent or threatening at any point.

“An official investigation into this incident is certainly warranted, leading to disciplinary action, and criminal prosecution of officers shown to have endangered lives with reckless use of crowd control devices,” Stork said. …more