Out of touch Narrative – Mark C. Toner Deputy Department Spokesman Daily Press Briefing on Bahrain

Mark C. Toner
Deputy Department Spokesman
Daily Press Briefing
Washington, DC
November 28, 2011
[Bahrain Excerpt]

QUESTION: Yeah. Bahrain?

MR. TONER: Bahrain.

QUESTION: As you well recall, the Independent Commission of Inquiries report was released on Wednesday morning, our time. You have —

MR. TONER: That was a long time ago, but yeah.

QUESTION: Yeah. You had an initial reaction, and, of course, the Secretary had her comment and the White House also issued a statement. So it’s been five days. I realize it’s a long report, but even though it’s a holiday weekend, I imagine your Bahrain experts will have read the report. Two questions: One, does the report, now on reflection, seem to you to have been a fair and genuinely independent-minded and no holds barred sort of report? And then secondly, is what you have seen so far from the Bahraini Government suggestive of their taking genuine steps to try to hold everyone accountable for their actions in the – putting down the protests this year? And is it suggestive to you that – of a sort of rule of law or some other kind of process that may eventually lead to reconciliation with the Shia population?

MR. TONER: Yes, on the fact that we believe it was a credible and transparent report that did come out. Of course, it is, as you said, a very long report, and we have read through it and remain – and – I’m sorry – continue to study various aspects of it, but we certainly believe it was a transparent, credible process carried out with due diligence. We did – we do commend the commission’s work, and we commend the king for allowing it to work in an unfettered environment.

In answer to your second question, I think it’s – we’re still waiting and monitoring. We did, obviously, see that Bahrain has formed a report implementation committee that’s going to implement some of the report’s recommendations. We welcome the formation of that national implementation committee. We think it’s a good first step, and we would just urge the government to meet the high standards of transparency and accountability that were recommended by the report.

QUESTION: And how about reconciliation? I mean, do you think that the government is taking steps towards trying to achieve reconciliation?

MR. TONER: Well, we think that, again, the work of this commission and now the follow-up committee, if it indeed does take the kind of steps that seek to implement the commission’s recommendations, would help move that process of national reconciliation forward.

QUESTION: And should Bahrain have – we just talked a lot about the Egyptian elections. Should Bahrain have a fully fledged democracy?

MR. TONER: Again, what I think is important now for Bahrain is to address the report’s recommendations. It was a very tumultuous period there in the spring. The government there has made an effort, the king has made an effort to address some of the problems that resulted from that period. We need to see a national reconciliation process emerge from this, and then ultimately a political process will emerge from that that leads to – or that addresses, I think, the aspirations of the Bahraini people.

QUESTION: Well, let’s – I mean, there’s been tumult in a lot of countries this spring. In three of the ones we’ve talked about today – well, let’s just stick to two, Tunisia, where it began, and Egypt. You have very warmly praised the movement to elections; you have made clear that you believe that democratically elected governments are in the U.S. national interest. You don’t seem to have any trouble with the notion of dealing with a religiously based government, should one emerge in either of those countries, or as it has in Tunisia.

MR. TONER: So long as their committed to democratic ideals.

QUESTION: Right. So why not answer my question – does Bahrain deserve a fully fledged democracy – with yes? Is that not the U.S. interest in the world?

MR. TONER: Look, we very much want to see the democratic aspirations of the Bahraini people met by the government. Ultimately, that’s the goal here. But I also want to praise – we also want to praise the steps that they’ve taken to address some of the incidents that took place last spring and try to move the country on a better path towards reconciliation.

QUESTION: Have you –

QUESTION: But one other thing on —

MR. TONER: Yeah. Go ahead.

QUESTION: I mean, one thing that hasn’t changed in Bahrain is that it is – it remains a monarchy and it is ultimately the king who retains power. So for all the – what you say is the transparency and independence of the report, and you say you’re waiting and watching to see how it’s implemented, but one thing hasn’t changed, the country is still ruled by the person on whose watch all of the things described in the report, including the death by torture of civilians by security forces, one of whom was tortured to death in a hospital. So why not take – even if it is commendable to have done such a report and a rare thing in an Arab country, why doesn’t the Administration believe that democratic change, where the democracy – where you can kick out a government that you don’t like or that you believe has mistreated or not served – mistreated the people or not served their interest should be as applicable in Bahrain as it is in Egypt or as it is in Tunisia or anywhere else in the region?

MR. TONER: Let’s be clear. I mean, we’ve – we support the democratic aspirations of people in every country, as long as they’re expressed peacefully. I think – I’m not trying to necessarily dispute your logic or your questioning – line of questioning. I’m just simply saying that where we’re at now in the process, we’ve been encouraged by the steps that the Bahraini Government has taken. They need to do more to address, I think, the legitimate concerns of their people and to enact democratic reforms. Again, we’re – they’re at a stage now where they’re trying to initiate a process that addresses some of the – their grievances and also some of the incidents that took place last spring. We think that’s a good thing. We’re going to continue to look at it going forward.

QUESTION: New topic? Can you just (inaudible) about the proposed arms sale, which wasn’t mentioned in any of the statements on Wednesday, though it was, ahead of the report, off in – the report was referred to in answering questions about this sale.

MR. TONER: Right.

QUESTION: So have officials had enough time to determine how this will affect that deal?

MR. TONER: I think I said the other day that we’re going to wait and see how the commission’s recommendations are implemented before we move forward.

QUESTION: Are you —

QUESTION: So the —

MR. TONER: Before we move forward. But again, it’s important – I’ve also always said that this is not something that’s going to happen next week or two weeks. There’s a significant period of time before this military sale would actually be realized.

QUESTION: So the actual allegations that are contained in the report are not pertinent to the proposed arms sale; it’s how Bahrain would respond to these allegations?

MR. TONER: Well, again —

QUESTION: I mean, if you have killings and torturings, doesn’t that speak for itself, or is it okay as long as the government then responds by saying it won’t do it in the future?

MR. TONER: Well, we’ve said – we’ve also said that human rights concerns do factor into our decision making. And again, the Bahraini Government has made an effort, we believe a genuine effort, to address these allegations head on and to implement reform so that they don’t happen again.

QUESTION: Just follow-up on Bahrain. After the release of the report, there were protests over the weekend in Bahrain, including today. Would it be fair to say that its – how the Bahraini Government treatment with these resuming protests would be a good indication?

MR. TONER: Oh, of course we’re going to look at those – I mean, we’re not going to give them a pass on future behavior as well. It’s important that they allow peaceful demonstrators to peacefully demonstrate. …source