Bahrain Grand Prix to be ushered in amid “days of overwhelming rage”

Call for opposition protests ahead of Grand Prix F1
By Saad Abedine, CNN – 17 April, 2012

(CNN) — An opposition group called for a week of demonstrations ahead of Sunday’s Formula 1 Grand Prix race in Bahrain.

The Bahrain Youth Coalition, which has organized a number of anti-government protests, wants “popular days of overwhelming rage” after motorsport’s governing body elected last week to hold the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.

The decision came after weeks of speculation amid continuing protests and civil unrest in the Gulf kingdom.

Amnesty International weighed into the controversy by releasing a 58-page report on its investigation of human rights violations, concluding recent reforms have been flawed and piecemeal.

“With the world’s eyes on Bahrain as it prepares to host the Grand Prix, no-one should be under any illusions that the country’s human rights crisis is over,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, the group’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director.

The report said Bahrain’s security forces are still not held accountable for mistreatment of protesters.

“The authorities are trying to portray the country as being on the road to reform, but we continue to receive reports of torture and use of unnecessary and excessive force against protests. Their reforms have only scratched the surface,” Sahraoui said.

A Bahrain government spokesman accused Amnesty International of seeing “the glass half empty and not half full.”

“There are a lot of judicial, security, social economic measures that have been taken that have been put into place that will make Bahrain a better place,” Abdulaziz bin Mubarak al Khalifa said Monday.

In a news release issued Friday, the race’s governing body said its president traveled to Bahrain in November and met with “a large number of decision-makers and opinion formers, including elected Shia members of parliament, the president of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, ambassadors from the European Union countries, the Crown Prince, the Interior Minister and many members of the business community. …more