Obama and Western analysts fail to acknowledge structural – “apartheid” – nature of conflict, argument for vain remedies of judicial accounting and punishments for underlings are not a solution to structural oppression

Obama Praises Report as Groups Urge Arms Delay
By Jim Lobe – IPS – 23 November, 2011

WASHINGTON, Nov 23, 2011 (IPS) – The administration of President Barack Obama has praised a damning report issued Wednesday in Manama on Bahrain’s crackdown on the democracy movement earlier this year, as human rights groups called on Washington to further delay delivery of a pending 53-million-dollar arms package to the kingdom.

“We welcome today’s report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), which provides a thorough and independent assessment of events in Bahrain since protests first erupted in February,” the White House said in a statement.

“The report identifies a number of disturbing human rights abuses that took place during this period, and it is now incumbent upon the Government of Bahrain to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations and put in place institutional changes to ensure that such abuses do not happen again,” according to the statement.

It also said Washington “will closely follow” the implementation of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa’s commitment to carry out the report’s recommendations.

At the same time, several major human rights groups here called on the administration to further delay the transfer of a pending 53- million-dollar arms deal for Bahrain in light of the findings by the Commission, which was headed by the Egyptian-American jurist, Cherif Bassiouni.

“The U.S. shouldn’t sell the arms until there’s clear evidence that the Bahraini ruling family is addressing these very serious issues that the commission found and has taken action on the recommendations,” said Joe Stork, the Middle East analyst for Human Rights Watch (HRW) here.

“The Bahraini security forces have demonstrated over the past few months a willingness to use everything from weapons up to tanks in cracking down against domestic protestors,” said Sanjeev Bery, Middle East/North Africa advocacy director for the U.S. section of Amnesty International (AIUSA).

“Until its government has demonstrated complete follow-through on the recommendations, including the investigation and prosecution of anyone who may have been involved in the abuses, including those who gave the orders, there should be no arms transfers from the United States or any other country to Bahrain,” he told IPS.

Based on more than 5,000 interviews with Bahraini officials, protestors and witnesses, the long-awaited report found numerous serious and systematic violations, including the excessive use of force by the security forces; arbitrary arrests; and the abuse of detainees during the February-March government crackdown. More than 40 people – most of them Shi’a demonstrators – were killed in the violence. …more