Insult to Injury – UK dishonors its own and those martyred under its failed policies in Bahrain

A Sandhurst tribute to the fallen of a First World War battle has been abandoned so a donation from the King of Bahrain can be honoured.

Row over renaming of Sandhurst hall after Bahrain donation
UK Telegraph – By Tom Whitehead, Security Editor – 17 February, 2013

Mons Hall, named after the 1914 battle that saw thousands killed, will be renamed the King Hamad Hall after he gave £3 million towards its refurbishment.

Defence chiefs were accused of betraying the memory of soldiers who gave their lives for their country.

MPs also questioned the ethics of honouring regimes that have dubious human rights records.

It emerged an accommodation block at the Army officer training academy has also been named after the first president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following a £15 million donation from the country.

Andy Slaughter, Labour’s chairman of the Democracy In Bahrain all-party parliamentary group, said: “To change the name of something which commemorates a very tragic episode in British military history and an example of courage and heroism of British soldiers simply because they’re getting a sum of money from a rather dubious source is appalling.

“It reflects the appalling double standards the British Government and institutions have in relation to the Bahraini regime, which is guilty of all sorts of human rights abuses and fundamentally undemocratic.”

The Battle of Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force in the First World War.

Facing overwhelming odds from a far larger German force, more than 1,600 British soldiers were killed along with more than 5,000 Germans.

It gave its name to a sports hall at Sandhurst but the title will now be dropped when it is reopened next month following a refit.

King Hamad, who is Patron of the Sandhurst Foundation – a forum for former officer cadets – has been invited to the reopening but is still to make a decision. …more