The Bahrain government has just announced that 20 health professionals who were originally tried and convicted by miliary courts will be will be retried. Their crime: aiding wounded protesters. The quality of justice in Bahrain is revealed in a Human Rights Watch report linked here.

Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry: Implicit repudiation of Bahraini government's narrative

Commission website (in Arabic) and link to the full report in English.

Al-Jazeera Documentary: Shouting in the Dark (shown in August several times on the English al-Jazeera but not the Arabic station).

Scheduled rebroadcasts have been pulled without explanation; however, the complete documentary is on Facebook.  See the NYTimes coverage, and also see Religion and Politics in Bahrain.

The potentate's response: "Slander and lies".  You judge.

[Feb. 24, 2014: The film is not available to U.S. viewers on either al-Jazeera or for free on Facebook; however, it may be rented for $2.99 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmg1N1AKfFc .]

A succinct and valuable summary of the situation in Bahrain.

Bahraini spokesman offers more poppycock, a specialty of the potentate

Since February 14th, when the opposition demonstrations in Bahrain began, the government has insisted that the opposition is a tool of Iran.  There is no credible evidence that Iran played a significant role in organizing, funding or facilitating the demonstrations (and it is noteworthy that U.S. government officials expressed doubts about Bahraini claims).  Now the fanciful Fahad Ebrahim Shehabi, a spokesman for the Parliament, insists that Wefaq withdrew from the "dialogue" following the guidance of 'Ali Khamenei, the Iranian leader.  This is poppycock.

The Wefaq withdrawal reflects the fact that the dialogue cannot and does not permit the opposition's demands to be seriously addressed.

Graham Fuller on Saudi reaction

Formula One race is now OFF in Bahrain: due recompense for brutality

This is a small victory that stems in part from the reaction of the teams that were not enthusiastic about racing in Bahrain, esp. in light of the oppressive and punitive regime response to legitimate demonstrations.  Every person who joined the clamor of disapproval that met the decision of the F1 authorities to allow the race to go forward in October deserves credit as well.  (See my earlier posts.)

Bahrain and F1

News reports indicate that Bahrain paid a $40 million fee to the organizers.

According to the Formula One's World Motor Sport Council, "the recent announcement by the King of Bahrain has established a political dialogue and reconciliation process."  This claim is included in the announcement that the Formula One race, originally scheduled for February will be run in October.


The Independent notes:

"The FIA does not mention that a quarter of the staff of the Bahrain International Circuit, which hosts the event, have been detained and given graphic details of being beaten and tortured. Some 28 of them have been sacked or suspended and at least five are still in prison. Others have fled Bahrain."

Efforts to boycott sponsors of the race continue.

Is the Potentate of Bahrain a suitable host of a Formula One race? Human Rights First says no. I agree.

Formula One racing has reportedly agreed to permit Bahrain to host a race later this year.  The event was to be in February, but was rescheduled due to the protests.  Some racing teams apparently will boycott the event.

I think that many online petitions are a waste of time, but this is one instance in which a large number of "signers" might deter both racers and advertizers from participating in the Bahrain event.  The petition is directed toward Red Bull, which sponsors an F1 team. [Added: Red Bull is also sponsoring a drift competition in Bahrain in June.]

Emile Nakhleh's seminal study of political development in Bahrain has been republished with a new and substantive preface.

Highly recommended.

"Contrary to Saudi and Bahraini government claims, calls for reform are not a Shia thing or a recipe for sectarianism. Media reports indicate the sectarianism argument has been pushed by the Saudi and Bahraini leadership in order to justify their actions against Bahraini peaceful protesters. Many Bahrainis view the main goal of the Saudi presence in the country is to persecute the Shia community and silence all opposition voices. 
"The three key ingredients of the envisioned compromise involve a return to the 1973 constitution, a re-establishment of a popularly elected national Assembly, which the king’s father dissolved in 1975, and dissolving the current government, which has been headed by the king’s uncle, Shaykh Khalifa, since independence in 1971. The prime minister is perhaps the most disliked senior member of Al Khalifa because of perceived corruption, nepotism, and repression, according to academic analysis and media reports. Many Bahrainis also view him as a staunch opponent to reform within the ruling family. The opposition movement maintains that implementing these demands will lead to transparent and accountable government, a just distribution of wealth, recognition of freedoms of speech, assembly, and the press, and an independent judiciary." 

Bahrain: Choking Dissent by Toby Jones

More poppycock from the Bahraini potentate

"Today we are trying very hard to improve the process of reform and rectify those problems that have arisen along the way. Sectarian divide has created a schism in our society that is a major challenge. As monarch of all Bahrainis, it pains me to see many harmed by the actions of a few. And yet I am optimistic and have faith in our people. We all realize that now is the time to strike a balance between stability and gradual reform, always adhering to the universal values of human rights, free expression and religious tolerance. I am confident that we can strike this balance in cooperation with our long-time friend and ally, the United States, producing an outcome that will preserve the aspirations of our young democracy in transition."


We must wonder how "pained" the potentate was upon learning fo the death of Mr. al-Fakhrawi: 
" ‘Abdel-Karim al-Fakhrawi, a 49-year-old businessman and member of al-Wefaq, the largest Shi’a political association, died in police custody on 12 April. According to reports, his body bore marks of torture but the authorities have attributed his death to kidney failure." Amnesty International

This photo and others may be found on Demotix.

Amnesty International Briefing Paper on Bahrain: "A Human Rights Crisis"

Arabic, Spanish and French pages are also available.

Excerpts:

The State of National Safety

Since 15 March Bahrain has been under a State of National Safety. This was initially imposed for three months but it may be prolonged with the approval of the National Council. Using its powers under the SNS, the government imposed a curfew in certain areas, initially from 4pm until 4am but now reduced to apply during the hours from 11 pm to 4am. The provisions of the SNS are broadly drawn and vague, and it contains no explicit human rights guarantees. It equips the armed and security forces with sweeping powers, which allow them to ban all public gatherings that are deemed harmful to national security; to prohibit individuals from travelling outside Bahrain if this is held to be in the public interest; and to conduct searches of places and people suspected of transgressing the SNS provisions; to summarily deport foreign nationals considered to pose a threat to national security. The SNS also allows the authorities to close down NGOs, trade unions, social clubs and political associations if they are deemed to have carried out activities considered harmful to national security, including “collaborating” with a foreign state. Further, any publication or broadcast containing information harmful to national security or that questions the political, economic and social systems of Bahrain are to be seized or confiscated.

In addition to these powers, the SNS provides that the armed and security forces may arrest anyone deemed to pose a threat to national security and to strip any Bahraini deemed to pose such threat of their Bahraini nationality and detain or expel them from the country. The SNS established a special court and appeal court – the National Safety Court of First Instance and the National Safety Appeal Court - to try people accused of transgressing the law; the courts are to conduct their procedures in accordance with the provisions contained in Bahraini statute law in relation to investigation, evidence, the conduct of court proceedings and the announcement of verdicts but there is nothing said about human rights safeguards for detainees held under the SNS, including how long they can be detained in pre-trial detention. The final verdicts of these special courts cannot be appealed against in Bahrain’s ordinary courts.
..................


Torture and other ill-treatment and deaths in custody

The renewed crackdown and arrests of opposition activists has been accompanied by an alarming increase in reports of torture and other ill-treatment of people detained in connection with the protests. Methods of torture have included punching with fists, kicking with boots, beatings with wooden batons and in some cases, the use of electric shocks were applied. Hamid Sayyid (real name withheld), a 31-year-old man from a Shi’a village who was detained at the Salmaniya Medical Complex at the end of March, after his release told Amnesty International:

“… 10 people dressed in police and army clothes entered the nursing room while I was alone in the room and beat and kicked me. Immediately after they took me to the police station in the …. village without explaining why they were taking me. Once there they put me in the middle of a room, blindfolded, and several men, I don't know how many, beat me and applied electric shocks on both legs. It hurt so much that after they applied the first shock I fell on the floor because I could not feel my legs. Once on the floor they beat me and kicked me on my head and body. They beat me so hard that I still cannot see from one of my eyes now. They pulled me and repeated the same procedure [electric shock on the leg] two more times. While they were beating me, they insulted me. They told me to confess that the medical workers were hiding weapons in the ambulances and that I took weapons and hid them in the ceiling of the hospital. I said I did not know anything and they kept on beating me. They continued for 30 minutes. They left me on the floor, after maybe 30 minutes a police officer came back and told me that if anyone asked me about the marks I had to say I fell down. Another police officer, higher rank, came in the room, saw me on the floor and I heard him asking the others what had happened and what was all that blood; I heard the others saying they did not know. He took me to a room, gave me water and asked me how many times I had been in the roundabout, I remained silent. Then he let me go and told me not to say I was beaten….”

At least four detainees are known to have died in custody in suspicious circumstances. Hassan Jassem Mohammad Mekki, aged 39, a married man with children from Karzakan, was arrested from his house in the early hours of 28 March. He was initially held in a police station in Hamad Town then transferred to the CID on 29 March. On 3 April the CID contacted his family and asked them to go the Salmaniya Medical Complex. Two of his brothers and his father did so and when they arrived military officers took them to the morgue. They uncovered the head of deceased person lying there and asked the family if they could confirm that the body was that of Hassan. The father and Hassan’s two brothers were in a state of shock but confirmed that it was Hassan. The father was then made to sign a death certificate; it was dated 3 April and gives the cause of death as “heart failure”. No autopsy is known to have been conducted by the authorities in order to arrive at this determination of the cause of death. The body was then taken to the family home in Karzakan for burial; when it was fully uncovered to be washed prior to burial the family reportedly saw marks of beatings and bruises on the neck, legs and the head. However, they are said not to have asked the authorities about these injuries and how they were sustained not to have submitted any complaint for fear of possible repercussions by the security forces.

‘Abdel-Karim al-Fakhrawi, a 49-year-old businessman and member of al-Wefaq, the largest Shi’a political association, died in police custody on 12 April. According to reports, his body bore marks of torture but the authorities have attributed his death to kidney failure.

‘Ali ‘Issa Ibrahim al-Saqer was reported to have died in custody by the Ministry if Interior on 9 April. He had been arrested six days earlier in Hamad Town after he reportedly went to a police station after being summoned to appear in connection with investigations into the killing of a police officer during the March protests. The Ministry said ‘Ali ‘Issa Ibrahim al-Saqer had died in custody while being restrained by police. His body, when returned to his family for burial, is said to have had visible marks suggesting that he may have been tortured. No autopsy or formal investigation into his death is known to have been held to date.

The Interior Ministry also announced the death in custody of a fourth detainee, Zakaraya Rasheed Hassan al-‘Asheri, on 9 April. He was said to have been arrested from his home in al-Dair on 2 April. The Ministry attributed his death to ill-health but in his case too at burial his body is reported to have borne marks indicating that he may have been tortured.

Torture and ill-treatment are prohibited in international human rights treaties such as the UN Convention against Torture, also ratified by Bahrain, and the ICCPR. Bahraini legislation too bans the use of torture. Amnesty International is calling on the Bahraini government to immediately establish an independent and impartial investigation into the deaths in custody that have occurred and into all allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, and to being to justice any members of the military and security forces or other officials, however senior, who are responsible for torture or other abuse of detainees.

Bahrain: Physicans for Human Rights publish carefully documented report revealing systematic attacks against medical personnel, among many troubling findings

April 22, 2011 Report: Do No Harm: a Call for Bahrain to End Systematic attacks on Doctors and Patient

Missing medical personnel.

Bahrain's Ambassador to the U.S. should read the report.

Witch hunts in Bahrain continue

I will have more to say about this later. 

Also see this article summarizing retributive attacks by the Bahraini government. http://pubrecord.org/world/9274/bahrain-do-no-harm/

My comment on a skewed and misleading analysis of the Saudi role in Bahrain

JULIETTE KAYYEM (“Bahrain is the line in the sand,’’ Op-ed, April 9) informs Globe readers that Iran is seen as “a guiding force’’ in the Arab uprisings, especially in Bahrain. There is no credible evidence that Iran guided, planned, or inspired the peaceful demonstrations that began in mid-February, notwithstanding the sometime shrill claims of the Bahraini monarch and his entourage. It is striking that Kayyem, a former official in the Department of Homeland Security, has nothing to say about the economic despair and discrimination that afflict the majority of Bahrain’s population — factors that lent impetus to the protests but that have been minimized by the rulers.

Kayyem makes the odd claim that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened after an opportunity for reform had been missed. It is quite likely that the Saudi-led intervention was precisely intended to sabotage US-encouraged reforms. The Saudi monarchy has long been committed to quashing reform, both inside the kingdom and in the smaller states of the Gulf, not least in its Bahraini dependency.

The repression, censorship, and punitive policies now being pursued in Bahrain may open up opportunities for Iranian meddling, but this will stem from the avoidance of reform, not from people peacefully seeking better treatment from their government.

Bahrain: The provenance of these often distressing pictures is not known, but they appear authentic

From king to potentate: the retrograde journey of Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa

With no lack of coaching from Riyadh, Bahrain's government moves to ban two moderate opposition political societies.  The largest of two, al-Wefaq, holds 18 of the 40 seats in Bahrain's lower house or Council of Representatives.  Al-Wefaq is led by the soft-spoken and moderate Shaikh 'Ali Salam.  I will post some comments from my discussion with him later.

[Unusually detailed report on the BBC.]

Constitutional Options for Bahrain: Toward a Constitutional Monarchy

Article by Chibli Mallat & Jason Gelbort in the Virginia Journal of International Law.

Important piece on Saudi Intervention in Bahrain

Caryle Murphy provides interesting detail on the March 16, 2011, intervention in Bahrain by Saudi Arabia.  There are a variety of notable elements in the piece:

• King Abdullah and company have been riled by the U.S. embrace of reform in Egypt and in Bahrain. 
• They signalled this in several ways, including refusing to receive Hillary Clinton and Bob Gates.
• Hardliners in Bahrain have been intent to sabotage active reform efforts by the Bahraini crown prince, and the hardliners have willing collaborators in Saudi Arabia.
• Once "requested",  the Saudis were glad to lead the charge into Bahrain and launch a wave of repression and thuggery against the majority population in Bahrain.
• Reading between the lines, there is good reason to question how much freedom of action the Bahraini leaders truly enjoy.  The Saudi godfather is not easily ignored, especially given the financial dependence of Bahrain on the KSA.
• Notable for it absence from Murphy's account is any mention of a significant role by Iran, which has been the poppycock peddled by King Hamad in recent weeks.