Business as Usual – Pretense of Human Investigations, BICI Charde, US-UK lead Public Relation Blitz, Top Cop Grand Standing – Bahrain’s Abusers continue with impuntiy

The head of an official inquiry into Bahrain’s unrest last year called for the investigation of any senior officials involved in the deaths or torture of protesters, as thousands of demonstrators returned to the streets in one of the nation’s largest marches in months.

Human Rights Abuses in Bahrain must be investigated
12 March, 2012 – ABNA.co

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – The head of an official inquiry into Bahrain’s unrest last year called for the investigation of any senior officials involved in the deaths or torture of protesters, as thousands of demonstrators returned to the streets in one of the nation’s largest marches in months.

Cherif Bassiouni, whose report in November found authorities used excessive force and widespread torture to shut down a popular uprising, told The Wall Street Journal that Bahrain’s Sunni regime hadn’t acted on his recommendation that any members of the government guilty of abuses should face justice.

“If you follow the system of accountability and justice, you follow the evidence wherever it goes and whoever is responsible has to be held accountable,” said Mr. Bassiouni, an Egyptian former United Nations human-rights lawyer.

Bahrain’s King Hamad ordered the independent report into the crackdown in June. Headed by Mr. Bassiouni, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry concluded that detainees had been subjected to systematic mistreatment included being beaten with rubber hoses, metal rods, electrocuted and threatened with rape. The report outlined proposed reforms to the police and security services.

A Bahrain government spokesman said a special prosecution unit dedicated to determining accountability had been established, but he declined to comment on whether senior government officials would be investigated.

Mr. Bassiouni is scheduled to submit a follow-up report at the end of March assessing the government’s implementation of his proposals, after meeting King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa and other senior officials in the coming week.

Tensions in Bahrain have simmered since the Sunni-led government forcefully put down a mainly Shiite protest movement early last year, with the help of Saudi troops, leaving 35 people dead and nearly 3,000 arrested, according to the report.

Friday’s march was called by protest leaders as a show of opposition resolve after Bahrain’s leaders portrayed the uprising as losing steam ahead of a Formula One Grand Prix car race in April, the Associated Press reported. Protests forced the cancellation of last year’s race.

Friday’s main procession was mostly peaceful, but breakaway groups were driven back by tear gas as they headed toward Pearl Square, which was the center of the uprising for weeks last year, AP said. …more