King Hamad’s Human Rights Stain

Activists and American Observers Detained as Bahrain Marks Protest Anniversary
By ROBERT MACKEY – February 14, 2012 – NYT

Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, center, surrounded by protesters and American observers.Mazen Mahdi/European Pressphoto AgencyNabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, center, surrounded by protesters and American observers.

Bahrain arrested three local human rights activists on Tuesday, along with six Americans who had traveled to the kingdom as part of a private monitoring mission, during a security crackdown on the first anniversary of the country’s protest movement.

As Reuters reports, the authorities detained Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, and the American observers who entered the country last week to work with Witness Bahrain, a project set up by international activists to monitor the policing of demonstrations in the country.

Bahrain’s state news agency reported that the six Americans were deported “for applying for tourist visas under false pretenses.” An immigration official told the agency, “People coming to visit Bahrain need to understand that lying on immigration documents is against the law.”

Two Bahraini activists, Naji Fateel and Hassan Jaber, were also detained with Mr. Rajab after the police fired tear gas at a small group of demonstrators who tried to march to the former site of Lulu Roundabout, or Pearl Square, the focal point of protests last February. (To deny opposition activists a rallying point, the authorities removed the traffic circle last March, and pulled down the pearl monument that had become a symbol of the protest movement.)

Nabeel Rajab, a rights activist, was detained at gunpoint in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on Tuesday.Hamad I. Mohammed/ReutersNabeel Rajab, a rights activist, was detained at gunpoint in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on Tuesday.

After Mr. Rajab was released several hours later, he updated his Twitter feed with just one word: “resistance.”

Video posted online by activists showed armored police vehicles patrolling the streets, in the capital and in Shiite villages where support for the protest movement is strong.

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