Stepping-up – NGOs ask Clinton to suspend all US military aid to Bahrain

NGOs ask Clinton to suspend all US military aid to Bahrain
12 September, 2012 – Reporters Without Borders

Human rights organizations wrote to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on 10 September asking her to suspend all US military aid to the government of Bahrain because of its human rights violations.

Read the letter :

Honorable Hillary R. Clinton
Secretary of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520

September 10, 2012

Dear Secretary Clinton,

We are writing to alert you to credible reports that the security forces of the Government of Bahrain continue to engage in human rights violations against non-violent, pro-democracy protesters and to urge you to immediately suspend further U.S. military assistance and arms transfers to the responsible units, as required by law.

The United States Government has appropriated at least $299 million in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and “Section 1206” assistance to Bahrain since 2002, with $10 million in FMF in the pipeline for FY 2012 and $10 million requested for FY 2013.

As you know, Section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act (the “Leahy Law”) states that: “No assistance shall be furnished under this Act or the Arms Export Control Act to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.” We believe that the reports cited below constitute “credible information” and that attacks by the police and other security forces on unarmed, non-violent, pro-democracy activists rise to the level of “gross human rights violations,” particularly so when the attacks resulted in death.

We provide the following information to assist you in carrying out the purposes of the law—namely, to avoid U.S. complicity with human rights violations and to create an incentive for the foreign government involved to bring human rights violators to justice.

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In November 2011, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) identified 35 people (including at least 19 protestors) killed by Bahraini security forces during the February-March 2011 demonstrations for political liberalization. BICI clearly attributed three of the deaths to the Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) [1] and found BDF, Ministry of Interior and the National Security Agency among those responsible for detaining and torturing protestors, including at BDF’s Al Qurain site. [2] While the BICI was able in some cases to document specific units that were involved in multiple incidents, it did not name the units responsible.- [3] We assume, however, that the USG has sought access to this information, [4] and that these units have been notified that they are ineligible to receive further U.S. security assistance until Bahrain takes “effective steps to bring the responsible members of the security forces unit to justice,” as required by Foreign Assistance Act Section 620M(b). We note that full application of this domestic law reinforces the U.S. government’s call for Bahrain to implement fully the BICI Report’s recommendation that investigations and prosecutions for torture and other serious crimes (such as unlawful killings) extend to higher ranks of the security forces. ….more