Western complicity the enabler to Bahrain’s bloody assault on human rights

With western complicity, Bahrain’s crackdown on human rights continues
By John Lubbock – 7 Septmeber, 2012 – CeaseFire

Bahrain’s decision this week to uphold the sentences of all the prominent opposition leaders and activists was met with international condemnation by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. Even the US has been voicing its discontent over the continued harsh sentences for those criticising Bahrain’s government.

Not that Bahrain’s government is listening. It seems to have stuck its head in the ground like an ostrich while repeating the mantra that it is “reforming”, presumably out of some other orifice.

So the rounds of appeals and protests continue indefinitely, with no end in sight. Bahrain has been stuck in political limbo since 1975 when the then Emir Isa ibn Salman al-Khalifa decided to dissolve the parliament and constitution because it refused to ratify his State Security Law – which allowed detention without trial for renewable periods of 3 years. The attempt by current King Hamad to bring back parliament and the constitution in 2001/2 was disingenuous and has now proved a complete failure.

What President Obama said last year – you can‘t have a real dialogue with parts of the peaceful opposition in jail – still stands. But it’s pretty obvious now that the BICI report, commissioned by the King last year, was just another PR stunt designed to present a veil of transparency over a state which has been the personal fiefdom of one family for almost 200 years. All the reforms they promised to make based on the recommendations of the BICI report have been superficial if they have been carried out at all, yet the government claims to have achieved most of them. You might like to compare Bahrain Watch’s assessment of the reforms with the government’s own assessment.

The most important recommendation of that report, to review convictions and release all those convicted because of exercising their rights to free expression, remains unmet. Sir Nigel Rodley, one of the report’s writers, clarified to Human Rights Watch last November that the report intended that the government free them and void their convictions. Almost a year later and the trials of the 13 opposition leaders and all the medical staff accused of ridiculous crimes like giving AK-47s to protesters are still ongoing. The doctors are due back in court next week, on the 11th of September, and Nabeel Rajab, President of Bahrain Center for Human Rights and Zainab Alkhawaja, activist and daughter of BCHR founder Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, are due back in court a day earlier, on the 10th of September.

Nabeel was given a three year jail term a few weeks ago for “inciting illegal protests” and has been in and out of jail on various tenuous charges such as insulting the people of Muharraq island, which were later dropped. Bahrain’s Penal Code, an incredibly vague document which can be put to all sorts of repressive purposes, was clearly criticised by the BICI report, though its recommendations neglected to call for the reform of these laws. …more