“Our problem is with the King of Bahrain”

Nabeel Rajab’s Speech During the Political Societies’ Mass Gathering
15 January 2012 – Mohdashoor blog

The opposition political societies in Bahrain have drawn a red line for themselves, refraining from criticizing the King of Bahrain and its Crown Prince, in a belief that the way forward is for the call for a Constitutional Monarchy. Therefore, in all their weekly gatherings and political protest marches, they have only gone as far as calling for the resignation of the Government, headed by the King’s uncle.

However, in their weekly gathering on Thursday, 12th January, 2012, Nabeel Rajab (President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights) dropped quite a shock to both the regime and the political societies when he took to the podium by making the King of Bahrain his main target. This could well be a new page in the struggle for Freedom in Bahrain. The video of his speech and the English translation are below. Judge for yourself….

Brothers & sisters, after the publication of the Bassiouni [BICI] report, it has become clear that the regime is insisting on its existing policies, its recklessness, its brutality and its tyranny. And it doesn’t seem like there is any glimpse of hope or sign that we cling on to that indicates to us that the regime is going to reform itself. The persistent use of excessive force against protesters, and the new strategy of kidnapping the youth from the villages, dragging them to isolated places like the Youth Hostel, municipality buildings and stable in Budaiya, and torturing them there indicates that the new strategy is not to take them to police stations to do this, so that these institutions are able to distance themselves from these crimes, and for them not to be accused of ill-treatment and/or torture. This shows that this regime does not learn from its past mistakes, and does not learn from what is going on in the world around it.

I think that we are entering a new phase of activism. We are entering a phase in which we have to escalate our activism work as individuals, organizations, activists and human rights defenders. The regime has undoubtedly gotten used to the current rhythm of protests, just like a body that gets used to certain drugs. The regime got used to these gatherings and to the small village protests that it ends and disperses using tear gas. At the same time it tries to mislead the world public opinion in saying that Bahrain does not have any problems except for some small protests inside the villages and these gatherings.

We have to be clear in our speech. Our problem is not with the Prime Minister, nor with the government of the Prime Minister, whom are all merely employees. Our problem is with the King of Bahrain.

Our problem is with the King, whom since his ascendancy to the throne we have been facing tragedies. It’s the same King that was behind the Bandar Report [Bandargate], the same King that was behind the sectarian cleansing in public institutions, the same King that tried to implement sectarian segregation, and the same King that is trying to change the demographic composition of the country. As I said before, we tried to give the King a chance. We have rarely criticized the King in our speeches and writings to allow him a way back from his policies and for him to reform. However, it is now clear that this strategy has not produced any results with the King. So it is now important that we openly confront the King with honesty.

[Speaking to the King] We have given you a great opportunity to reform yourself. If you cannot get rid of the heavy weights of your regime and the crimes that your regime has committed, then it is the appropriate time now for you to leave.

I call on the patriotic lawyers, that have played a crucial role during this crisis and deserve all the thanks and gratitude from us, to start filing court cases against all the criminals and human rights violators that have killed and tortured. Especially that most of the international courts of justice do not accept cases in their courts until after exhausting all the local means of obtaining justice. Therefore, I would request the lawyers, again which have already exerted considerable effort in the legal movement in the courts and have themselves been victims of detention, like Mohammed Al Tajer, and threats, like Jalila Al Sayed, Mohammed Ahmed, Mohammed Al Jishi and others, to start filing these court cases, and to start with members of the ruling family that have been complicit in these crimes, headed by the sons of the King; Nasser & Khalid. Adding to them, the Commander of the BDF, Khalifa bin Ahmed, the Head of the NSA (that has been recently promoted), Khalifa bin Abdulla, the Head of the Riffa Police Station, Khalifa bin Ahmed, and also Sh. Noora. These people, and according to many statements received by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, have been complicit in crimes of torture either directly or indirectly.

On another point, we must get past the protest marches and gatherings that wait for the permission of the authorities. …more