Arrest and detention for changing hotel reservations in Bahrain

Human rights activist Paki Wieland of Northampton returns from Bahrain
By BOB DUNN – Daily Hampton Gazette

Paki Wieland answers questions about her trip to Bahrain during a press conference Friday at the First Churches on Main Street in Northampton.

NORTHAMPTON – After being detained in Bahrain and deported by its authorities, Northampton resident and human rights activist Paki Wieland says she remains resolute to stand with its people to welcome a new era of democracy and freedom.

Wieland, along with five other American observers, were detained earlier this week at a road block on “trumped-up” charges, she said, then deported about 12 hours later.

Wieland told a group of about 25 at the First Churches of Northampton on Friday afternoon about her experience as an observer and activist as part of “Witness Bahrain,” an effort to provide a civilian presence to report and monitor the government’s response to demonstrations marking the one-year anniversary of the “Arab Spring” pro-democracy protests.

The group of six were stopped at a roadblock en route to the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, which Wieland said was the epicenter of pro-democracy protests in the area, a place she said is akin to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in that it is a prominent public space for expression and demonstration.

Wieland said that on the road toward the roundabout, she could hear concussion grenades detonating in the distance and round after round of tear gas canisters being discharged to disperse the gathering crowds.

She said the authorities kept launching tear gas into the fleeing crowd even as it began to break up.

Wieland, who entered the country on a tourist visa, said that the rationale she was given for her detention was that she had checked into a different hotel than she had a reservation for.

She told the group that was the fault of a local taxi driver who couldn’t find the hotel she had booked, and instead took her to a closer, more familiar one.

Wieland said she and the others were not subjected to harsh treatment at the hands of the authorities nor asked many questions while being detained in a nondescript room at the local police station.

Wieland said because she was deported she can’t legally return to Bahrain until the administration changes, a situation she hopes comes about soon.

She said that she left the country with a deep sense of respect for the Bahraini people and their tenacity. She said they are fighting so hard for democracy because “they have nothing left to lose.”

“As brutal as the government forces can be,” Wieland said, “the people aren’t deterred.”

Wieland said people in Bahrain hold up their fingers in a peace-sign like gesture and say, “Samud,” which means “steadfast” in English, as a sign of support and solidarity.

“We are all ‘samud,'” Wieland said.

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