Bahrain: Opposition Offices Defaced; Government to Bring in Red Cross

Bahrain: Opposition Offices Defaced; Government to Bring in Red Cross
POMED – b Alex – 10 December, 2011

Pro-government demonstrators marched to the offices of a Bahraini opposition party of Waad and painted graffiti on the walls against the majority Shia population and Iran. Some of the slogans painted on the walls were ”down with Iran” and “Shi’ites get out,” as Waad, a secular group aligned with the largest Shia opposition group al-Wifaq has been at the forefront of demonstrations for the past nine months. This comes as Bahraini security forces fired tear gas upon anti-government protesters marching to the Pearl Square roundabout on Friday.

Bahrain has decided to allow members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) into its prisons following the human rights abuses outlined by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report released last month. Bahrain’s information authority said in a statement on Friday that “the Red Cross will also hold training courses on human rights and international humanitarian law for [ministry of interior] personnel to enhance their skills and reinforce and promote a culture of human rights.” State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland praised the Bahraini government ”for moving quickly to implement the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry Report recommendations,” and continued to urge the government to implement other reforms from the report as “Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Mike Posner, is going to be in Bahrain next week to continue our human rights dialogue.” …source