Bahraini State Terror Continues

Bahraini State Terror Continues

Friday, 13 May 2011 07:47
By Stephen Lendman

Bahraini-crackdownBahraini and Saudi security forces continue daily terror in Bahrain, human rights groups condemning the violence, including Amnesty International (AI), providing regular updates.
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On May 12, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) confirmed over 900 arrested, disappeared, and/or tortured, as well as at least 31 deaths. Most participated in peaceful protests. Others were engaged in routine daily activities, but were arrested anyway in broad sweeps.

Among the dead was a 15-year old boy shot in the eye with a rubber bullet while playing near his home. His father said he was also pistol-whipped on his neck, causing it to snap. “I picked him up, and I could hear him breathing in pain,” he said. “He took his last breath and then he did not breathe again. He died in my arms.”

A 71-year old, Isa Mohammed, died of asphyxiation in his home from heavy tear gas firing. His family’s plea for medical care was denied. Others died in custody from beatings and torture.

BCHR called torture “institutionalized within the Bahraini judicial and penal systems.” A 2010 Omar Ahmed Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) report titled, “Broken Promises: Human Rights, Constitutionalism and Socio-economic Exclusion in Bahrain” explained abuses and unfulfilled reforms. Most Bahrainis are politically and economically deprived. Poverty and unemployment are extreme. High level corruption is extensive. Past confrontations between protesters and security forces resulted in violence, arrests, torture, other abuses and deaths. Oppressive measures are taken to prevent democratic reforms, including restricting free expression, assembly and association.

Moreover, human rights groups accuse authorities of “arbitrarily detaining opposition figures and….activists, subjecting (them) to torture and ill-treatment.” Overall, monarchical rule represents failed constitutionalism and state cronyism, institutionalized by security force harshness, enforced through brutal crackdowns, including widespread use of torture.

Explicitly prohibited under international law, Chapter III, Article 19, Clause (d) of Bahrain’s 2002 Constitution also states:

“No person shall be subjected to physical or mental torture, or inducement, or undignified treatment, (and any) statement or confession proved (made) under torture, inducement, or such treatment, or the threat thereof, shall be null and void.”

The Arab Charter on Human Rights also bans torture and other abuses and ill-treatment. It’s strictly prohibited at all times, under all conditions, with no allowed exceptions. …more