Peaceful protesters killed in Bahrain today

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Bahrain Mass Job Dismissals: Shiite Majority Claim Discrimination

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- One afternoon in May, police in Bahrain led away security guard Mahdi Ali from his job at the Gulf kingdom's state-controlled aluminum plant. He claims he was blindfolded and beaten so severely that the bruises still have not healed.

His only offense, he insists, is being part of Bahrain's Shiite majority as it presses for greater rights from Sunni rulers who have Western allies and powerful Gulf neighbors on their side.

The 44-year-old Ali now counts himself among Bahrain's purged: Hundreds of Shiites – some say thousands – dismissed from jobs or suspended from universities for suspected support for demonstrators.

"My only crime is being Shiite," said Ali, who claims he has been effectively blacklisted from finding a new job. "I've paid for it by being dismissed, arrested, tortured and insulted."

With Bahrain's Arab Spring crisis moving into its eighth month, the mass dismissals remain a major point of anger feeding near-daily street clashes on the strategic island – which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

The coming weeks could be critical in assessing the chances for any significant reconciliation efforts in Bahrain. The alternative is an increasingly divided and volatile nation where the region's biggest political narratives intersect: Western security interests, Gulf Arab worries about spillover uprisings and Iran's ambitions to cast wider Middle East influence.

"Bahrain had these tensions long before the current Arab upheavals. And it may end up as one of the most enduring and most complex dilemmas after the Arab Spring has run its course," said Sami Alfaraj, director of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies.

Shiites account for about 70 percent of the population of some 525,000 people, but claim they face systematic discrimination by the 200-year-old Sunni dynasty. Bahrain's rulers, meanwhile, court Western and Sunni Arab backing by raising fears that Shiite power Iran is pulling the strings of the protests as a foothold to undermine other Gulf monarchs and sheiks.

Bahrain's Shiite groups have pledged to boycott elections Sept. 24 to fill 18 parliament seats left vacant since Shiite lawmakers walked out in March to protest the government's crackdowns. A fresh wave of protests could be timed to try to overshadow the voting and embarrass officials.

There already are signs of escalating violence after months of low-level skirmishes.

Security forces used tear gas, rubber bullets and bird shot early Thursday to break up crowds gathered to welcome doctors freed from prison after staging a hunger strike. "Down, down Hamad," chanted crowds in reference to Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa as they waited for some of the doctors, who still face charges of aiding the protests.

The broadest aim of the protests is to break the monarchy's monopoly on power and open room for Shiites in top government and security posts. But the smaller battles – such as the job and university purges – have often become the focus of outrage by protesters and denunciations from rights groups.

"We are calling for our forgotten civil rights," said Sayed Ahmad, spokesman for a committee formed by activists to aid workers claiming they were pushed out of their jobs. "We don't want to fight Sunnis, but we will stand up against anyone ... trying to cleanse a sect just because of their political views."

Ahmad estimates close to 4,000 Shiite workers have lost their jobs since the protests began in February – many fired for missing work either to join the demonstrations or because they were too nervous to venture out during clashes that have left at least 33 people dead.

Bahrain's biggest labor group, the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions, put the figure at about 2,500, but no definitive numbers are available and its unclear whether all dismissals were protest related.

Government officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last month, however, King Hamad urged companies and universities to take steps toward bringing back workers and students pushed out for alleged links to the protests.

Some doors have been opening. Hundreds of people have returned in the past month, including more than 400 university students and more 100 workers at the state oil company.

But many activists complain that reinstatements are spotty and still leave hundreds without jobs. Former workers at the state aluminum plant plan a march to Bahrain's Labor Ministry on Sunday in what they call "the rage of the dismissed."

"I've been almost seven months without a salary," said former computer technician at the plant, Mustafa Sadiq, a 39-year-old father of three children. "If this was the case in Europe, there would be massive protests until they got their rights back."

Bahrain Mass Job Dismissals: Shiite Majority Claim Discrimination

 

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Bahrain: Government Releases Doctors on a Hunger Strike

Bahrain on Wednesday released a group of doctors who had held a hunger strike over their detention during a government crackdown on protests, but investigators from an independent commission said more than 80 other detainees were also refusing food. The doctors were among dozens of medical professionals rounded up in March when the Gulf state’s Sunni rulers crushed pro-democracy protests led mainly by Shiites. The arrests of the doctors attracted international concern.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/world/middleeast/08briefs-Bahrain.html?ref=middleeast

 

[High_Gravity]

Bahrain Shiites fight daily battles no one can win

MANAMA: The battle began soon after sundown. And for the next six hours, in air heavy with heat and tear gas, phalanxes of police officers in helmets battled scores of youths in ski masks, as customers at a nearby coffee shop sat like spectators.

There are no winners in the clashes that erupt almost every night in Bahrain.

Five months after the start of a ferocious crackdown against a popular uprising - so sweeping it smacks of apartheid-like repression of Bahrain's religious majority - many fear that no one can win.

''This is all cutting so deep,'' said Abdulnabi Alekry, an activist whose car was stopped at one of the checkpoints of rubbish bins, wood and bricks the youths had fashioned during the clash in August. ''The fabric here was never that strong, and now it is torn.''

In the revolts that have roiled the Middle East this year, toppling or endangering a half-dozen leaders, Bahrain, an island kingdom once known for its pearls and banks, has emerged as the cornerstone of a counterrevolution to stanch demands for democracy.

While the turmoil elsewhere has proved unpredictable - the ascent of Islamists in Egypt, the threat of civil war in Syria and the prospect of anarchy in Yemen - Bahrain suggests that the alternative, a failed uprising cauterised by searing repression, may prove just as dangerous.

The crackdown here has won a tactical victory through torture, arrests, job dismissals and the blunt tool of already institutionalised discrimination against the island's Shiite Muslim majority.

In its wake, sectarian tension has exploded, economic woes have deepened, US willingness to look the other way has cast Washington as hypocritical, and a society that prides itself on its cosmopolitanism is colliding with its most primordial instincts. Taken together, the repression and warnings of radicalisation may underline an emerging dictum of the Arab uprisings: violence begets violence.

''The situation is a tinderbox, and anything could ignite it at any moment,'' said Ali Salman, the general secretary of Al Wefaq, Bahrain's largest legal opposition group.

''If we can't succeed in bringing democracy to this country, then our country is headed towards violence. Is it in a year or two years? I don't know. But that's the reality.''

For decades, Bahrain's relative openness and entrenched inequality have made it one of the Arab world's most restive countries, as a Shiite majority of about 70 per cent seeks more rights from a Sunni monarchy that conquered the island in the 18th century.

But February was a new chapter in the struggle, when the reverberations of Egypt and Tunisia reached Bahrain and, after bloody clashes, protesters seized a landmark known as Pearl Square, where they stayed for weeks.

The toll of the ensuing repression was grim. In a country with a population of 525,000, human rights groups say 34 people were killed, more than 1400 arrested, and at least 3600 people fired from their jobs. Four people died in custody after torture in what Human Rights Watch called ''a systematic and comprehensive crackdown''.

Activists trade stories of colleagues forced to eat faeces in prison and high-ranking Shiite bureaucrats compelled to crawl in their offices like infants. Human rights groups say 43 Shiite mosques and religious structures were destroyed or damaged by a government that claimed it faced an Iranian-inspired plot, without offering any evidence that Tehran played a role. Backed by the armed intervention of Saudi Arabia, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa declared martial law in March, and although it was repealed on June 1, the reverberations of the repression still echo across the island.

Read more: Bahrain Shiites fight daily battles no one can win

 

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Bahraini Students Uncertain Over Future

Universities across Bahrain have opened for the new academic year, but a number of students who support the nation’s pro-democracy movement say various obstacles are preventing them from entering the classroom.

Roughly 400 students from different universities were expelled for participating in “unauthorized protests” after widespread civil unrest broke out in Bahrain in February.

In a gesture of reconciliation, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa announced last month that those who had been dismissed should be allowed to resume their studies. However, scores of young Bahrainis have yet to be reinstated.

At Bahrain Polytechnic, 31 expelled undergraduates are still waiting to return to class, including a second-year student who asked to be identified only as T.A. “We’re fighting for our future. We need to create our future,” he said.

In an initial statement, Bahrain Polytechnic said that in accordance with the law, it had disciplined those who had “offended the political leaders of the kingdom,” even though all of the illegal activities took place off campus.

Some of T.A.’s peers were punished for simply posting information criticizing the government on social media sites. He says the king’s speech added to their frustration. “The way he said that we are forgiven. We are forgiven for our mistakes, but we didn’t do anything wrong. We should return [to studying] no matter what," said T.A.

In defense of the expulsions, Ministry of Education spokeswoman Lubna Selaibekh recently said that those penalized were aware of the rules and regulations in place.

She also pointed out that students were given ample time to defend their behavior before action was taken against them.

Rights groups, however, have repeatedly criticized actions by the authorities.

Bahraini Students Uncertain Over Future | Middle East | English

 

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Bahrain police block protest march to capital

(Reuters) - A massive police force blocked protesters trying to march to Bahrain's capital on Friday, witnesses said, a day before a key by-election to fill parliamentary seats vacated by opposition leaders in protest at the crushing of popular unrest in March.

There were no immediate reports of violence or arrests.

Bahrain's Shi'ite Muslim majority took to the streets of Manama in February seeking more access to jobs and a greater say in government but a brutal crackdown and martial law ended the protest wave. Conciliatory gestures by the Sunni Muslim-led government followed but have yielded no agreements.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates sent in 1,500 troops to help suppress the unrest in Bahrain, a strategically important Gulf island off the coast of the oil-producing Saudi Eastern Province and home to the biggest U.S. military presence in the region, the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

More radical elements of the opposition have tried several times to march back into the capital recently, and Friday's attempt appeared to be the largest yet, witnesses said.

But police barred their way including roads to the Sanabis area and Bahrain Financial Harbour, which flank the central roundabout that was the epicenter of protests seven months ago.

There were no reports of violence or arrests.

Protests have also flared nightly in smaller villages where many Bahraini Shi'ites live.

Bahrain police block protest march to capital | Reuters

 

[High_Gravity]

Time to Disband the Bahrain-Based U.S. Fifth Fleet

After months of popular protests against the regime, Bahraini officials are desperate to convince anyone who will listen, and most importantly to their long time allies in Washington, that the Persian Gulf island nation is returning to normal. On Tuesday, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa visited the White House, where he offered assurances that the regime is serious about political reform and engaging in a "national dialogue" with the country's beleaguered opposition. Although it has directed muted criticism toward the Bahraini government, the Obama administration has offered repeated reassurances that it intends to stand by the ruling family. The White House appears to believe, or is banking on hope, that the Crown Prince is both willing and able to shepherd the country through the current crisis. But it may be time for the U.S. to reconsider its largest commitment to the Bahraini monarchy -- the massive U.S. Fifth Fleet docked on the island -- and the complicated relationship of mutual dependency that got us here in the first place.

Whatever opening there was for real dialogue in Bahrain, it appears to have closed. While the Crown Prince is busy touring Europe and the U.S. promoting himself as a force for moderation, it's the hardliners in the royal family who currently hold power. Rather than reconciliation, their priority continues to be to oppressing -- and often punishing - the protesters calling for a more representative government. The regime has taken extreme, frequently violent measures to destroy the country's political opposition and defeat the forces of democracy.

Over the last few months, as the regime's security forces have cracked down ever more brutally, the prospects for meaningful reform may well have passed. Since mid-March, when Saudi Arabia sent a contingent of its National Guard into Bahrain to help violently clear the streets of protesters, Bahrain has been the scene of terrible suffering. Hundreds languish in the country's dungeons, where they are subject to horrifying torture and the humiliation of being paraded in front of military tribunals. Thousands of others have been sacked from their jobs.

The island's Shiite majority, long politically marginalized and discriminated against, is paying the heaviest price. They have been stunned into silence by the vicious behavior of the Sunni regime. Bahraini politics have been polarized by sectarianism and the country's rulers are systematically creating an apartheid state. Reconciliation, let alone accountability for those responsible for the violence, is a remote possibility. So deeply ingrained are mutual antagonisms that, if this conflict continues, the most likely outcome may be an enduring hostility and the potential for perennial violence.

American officials are, of course, well aware of all of this. Their reluctance to condemn Bahrain is the result of a deeply ingrained belief in Washington that the U.S. needs Bahrain to help it preserve regional stability and to protect friendly oil producers in the Persian Gulf. Most important is Saudi Arabia, which is connected to Bahrain by a short causeway. The U.S. has had military ties to Bahrain since the 1970s, when its Navy first began using old British imperial facilities there. Since the mid-1990s, Bahrain has been home the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, which positions the island at the center of a sprawling military presence in the region. The base at Bahrain, from which the Fifth Fleet projects American force across the Middle East, South Asia, and East Africa, occupies a key physical and political placein U.S. geostrategic calculus.

The fleet carries the burden of patrolling the stormy waters of the Gulf as well as the Arabian and Red Seas, and according to conventional wisdom, for ensuring the flow of oil to global markets. It also serves as a not-so-subtle reminder to Iran that the U.S. is willing and able to protect its "vital interests" in the Gulf with overwhelming firepower.

Time to Disband the Bahrain-Based U.S. Fifth Fleet - Toby C. Jones - International - The Atlantic

 

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Bahrain: 21 Activists Get Life In Prison For Protests

MANAMA, Bahrain -- Bahrain's special security court on Wednesday upheld sentences for 21 activists convicted for their roles in Shiite-led protests for greater rights, including eight prominent political figures given life terms on charges of trying to overthrow the Gulf kingdom's Sunni rulers.

The decision suggests Bahrain's authorities are unwilling to roll back punishments for those considered central to the anti-government uprising, although officials have taken other steps seeking to ease tensions. They include releasing some detainees and reinstating state workers purged for suspected support of the seven-month-old protest movement.

Bahrain's security forces – backed by a Gulf military force led by Saudi Arabia – have crushed large-scale demonstrations by the country's majority Shiites. But near daily clashes have broken out across the strategic island, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

The initial verdicts in June against the 21-member group – 14 jailed in Bahrain and seven convicted in absentia – touched off intense street battles and brought swift condemnation from international rights groups.

Shiites represent about 70 percent of Bahrain's population, but claim they face systematic discrimination and remain blocked from high-level military or political posts. Sunni rulers say they have offered dialogue on possible reforms but have been snubbed by groups favoring confrontation on the streets.

More than 30 people have died since the unrest began in February, inspired by other Arab revolts. Hundreds of others have been arrested or driven out of jobs or studies.

The appeal group included eight well-known political figures sentenced to life in prison after being charged as coup plotters. They include prominent Shiite political leaders Hassan Mushaima and Abdul Jalil al-Singace and rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. Mushaima returned from self-exile in London earlier this year after Bahrain's leaders promised to erase old charges of opposing the state.

Bahrain: 21 Activists Get Life In Prison For Protests

 

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Bahrain: Doctors Who Treated Protesters Sentenced To 15 Years

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Bahrain's special security court on Thursday sentenced a protester to death for killing a policeman, and gave doctors and nurses who had treated injured protesters during the country's uprising earlier this year lengthy prison sentences, a lawyer said.

Attorney Mohsen al-Alawi said the tribunal, set up during Bahrain's emergency rule, convicted and sentenced 13 medical professionals each to 15 years in prison. In addition, two doctors were sentenced to 10 years each while five other medics convicted on Thursday got shorter prison terms of 5 years each.

Thursday's harsh sentences suggest the Sunni authorities in the Gulf kingdom will not relent in pursing and punishing those they accuse of supporting the Shiite-led opposition and participating in dissent that has roiled the tiny island nation.

Earlier this year, the same special court sentenced two other protesters to death for killing a police officer in a separate incident.

Al-Alawi, the lawyer, said the 20 medical professionals, who were charged with various anti-state crimes, and the protester who got the death sentence on Thursday can all appeal their verdicts.

A Bahraini rights group identified the protester sentenced to death as Ali Yousef Abdulwahab. The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said in a statement that another suspect, Ali Attia Mahdi, was convicted on Thursday as Abdulwahab's accomplice and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Hundreds of activists have been imprisoned since March when Bahrain's rulers imposed martial law to deal with protests by the country's Shiite majority demanding greater rights and freedoms.

More than 30 people have been killed since the protests began in February, inspired by Arab uprisings elsewhere. The Sunni monarchy that rules this strategically important Gulf nation, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, responded with a violent crackdown.

Thursday's sentences came a day after the tribunal upheld sentences for 21 activists convicted for their roles in the protests, including eight prominent political figures who were given life terms on charges of trying to overthrow the kingdom's Sunni rulers.

Bahrain: Doctors Who Treated Protesters Sentenced To 15 Years

 

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Bahrain doctors await the call that will send them to prison

Dr Ali al-Akri sits at home in Bahrain waiting for the jailer to call. When it happens, probably within days, the veteran physician will pack his bag, kiss his family goodbye and go to the prison that he will probably call home for the next 15 years.

"I'll do what I have to do," he says, "if that means that Bahrain will be a better place. And all of the doctors convicted with me will do the same."

The 20 Bahraini medics who were sentenced on Thursday to prison terms of between five and 15 years remain on bail in Manama, but all are sure that their fate has been sealed by the military court that convicted them of a range of subversive crimes, some of which the government claims amount to acts of terrorism.

The sentences have drawn widespread international condemnation and refocused attention on the uprising in the tiny Gulf state that faded away as the rest of the region boiled. When nobody was looking, Bahrain's revolution died.

"And this is what happens now," said Hussein al-Musawi, a protester who ran an information tent at the now defunct Pearl Square roundabout, which was the main protest hub. "We're in a grieving period for a stillborn promise."

The plight of the medics – 18 doctors and two paramedics – continued to attract criticism , with the US saying it was deeply disturbed by the sentences and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights saying it had "severe concerns".

Several of the doctors said their ordeal during the six months since they were arrested in Bahrain's main hospital – the Salmaniya medical centre – has left them crushed and dispirited.

In February they were catapulted to the vanguard of a protest movement that shook the foundations of the kingdom. The doctors say they became unwitting participants in a series of events that rapidly overtook them.

As protesters were chased away from Pearl Square they began regrouping in the grounds of the hospital. It was the only place they said they felt safe from security forces. And that, according to al-Akri, is when the trouble started for the medics.

"We knew right from the beginning that our issue was about politics," he said one day after being sentenced on various charges of committing crimes against the state.

"We were as far away from politics as you could be but we found ourselves in the centre of it because were treating the victims."

The doctors were the highest-profile group to be convicted over the past six months, which has seen many hundreds of arrests and a purge of suspected protesters from government jobs. The ruling al-Khalifa family has pledged reforms in the Sunni-led state that rules over a large Shia majority, which it accuses of having ties to Iran. "It's all lies," said al-Akri. "We have nothing to do with Iran and we want nothing to do with Iran. There is not a single incident that they could point to that would reinforce the view that Bahrain's Shias are carrying out an Iranian agenda."

Matar Matar, a former opposition lawmaker from the al-Wefaq party, is also on bail, accused of offences against the state. He said little he has seen has given him reason to think things will change. "There have been no improvements on the ground," he said. "The situation has gone from bad to worse. They are ignoring change and trying to deny that there is a movement for reform.

"But they are under a lot of pressure too. The economic situation here is very bad and they don't have anything on the horizon. They can no longer convince Saudi businessmen to come here."

Bahrain doctors await the call that will send them to prison | World news | The Guardian

 

[High_Gravity]

Bahrain: Activists Sentenced To Prison

MANAMA, Bahrain -- A Bahraini security court has sentenced 26 activists to prison for their part in anti-government protests, raising to 60 the total number convicted over the past two days in stepped-up prosecutions by the Gulf kingdom.

The official Bahrain News Agency says the verdicts Tuesday include members of a Shiite political group, Al Amal, which was banned by the Sunni monarchy after pro-reform protests began in February.

The agency says the sentences range from five to 15 years.

Bahraini forces have made hundreds of arrests as part of crackdowns on members of the Shiite majority seeking greater rights.

Bahrain: Activists Sentenced To Prison

 

[High_Gravity]

Bahrain: Another 19 Protesters Sentenced

MANAMA, Bahrain — Bahrain's attorney general has ordered a civilian court retrial for 20 medical personnel sentenced to long prison terms as alleged backers of anti-government protests.

A statement Wednesday by Bahrain's government apparently nullifies the verdicts earlier this week from a special security court against the doctors and nurses, who received sentences ranging from five to 15 years. The case brought an outcry from rights groups and raised questions from the U.N. secretary general.

Bahrain has been gripped by nearly eight months of unrest by Shiite-led protests seeking greater rights from the ruling Sunni monarchy.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) – A security court in Bahrain on Wednesday sentenced 19 people, including a 16-year-old Iraqi soccer player, to up to five years in prison for taking part in Shiite-led protests against the Gulf nation's Sunni rulers.

The decision brings the total number of people sentenced this week to at least 81, as Bahrain's authorities step up prosecutions of hundreds of people arrested in the crackdown on dissent. Bahrain's majority Shiites claim they face widespread discrimination. More than 30 people have been killed since February in Bahrain's unrest, which was inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world.

On Wednesday, the court sentenced 13 people to five years in prison, and six people to one year terms for alleged attacks during the unrest, including trying to torch a police station, the Information Affairs Authority said in a statement. The verdicts can be appealed.

Family members, journalists and human rights activists attended the hearing, which took place in the Al-Khamees police station, according to the statement.

The detention of the Iraqi teenager, Zulfiqar Naji, sparked angry demonstrations in Iraq and as far away as Canada calling for his release. It also prompted the Iraq government to make a plea to Bahrain on his behalf. Naji played for a local soccer club in Bahrain until his arrest.

The player's father, Abdulameer Naji, said in July that his son was taken into custody from their Bahrain home in April on suspicion of participating in protests. The father has since fled to Iraq but the boy's mother and several of his siblings have remained in Bahrain.

Bahrain: Another 19 Protesters Sentenced

 

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Protests Swell in Bahrain After Boy’s Death

Large numbers of people filled the streets west of Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on Friday as a funeral march for a 16-year-old boy — who activists said was killed by the police — grew into one of the largest demonstrations in the tiny Gulf nation in recent weeks.

Toward evening, activists said the police began using tear gas and sound grenades to disperse the crowd as protesters lingered on a central highway after the funeral procession had broken up. Al Jazeera reported on its live blog that at least one person had been severely injured in the face. There were also reports of gunfire, though it was unclear what type of bullets were being used.

Protests Swell in Bahrain After Boy's Death - NYTimes.com

 

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US awaits inquiry ahead of Bahrain arms deal

The US has said that it will consider a special investigation of alleged human rights abuses in Bahrain before moving ahead with a $53m arms deal to the Gulf kingdom.

In a letter to Ron Wyden, a US Democratic senator, and in public statement, the state department said on Tuesday that it shared congressional misgivings about Bahrain's treatment of protesters and would await the results of a special inquiry established by the king.

The commission's report to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa is due on October 30.

"That's something we would look at closely," Mark Toner, the State Department spokesman, said, speaking about the commission's report.

"We're going to continue to take human rights considerations into account as we move toward the finalization of this deal."

He added that several procedural steps remain before the US could deliver the weapons to Bahrain and noted the sale pertained to equipment for Bahrain's "external defence purposes".

Wyden and Jim McGovern, a US Democratic representative, have introduced a resolution to block the arms sale to Bahrain, which includes Humvee combat vehicles and missiles.

At least 35 people have died since Bahrain's Shia Muslim-led majority began protests in February seeking greater rights from the ruling Sunni monarchy in the strategic nation, which is home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet.

In the US, at least six senators, including Wyden, have written to Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, criticising Bahrain's human rights violations and resistance to demands for reform.

They have said completing the arms sale would weaken US credibility amid democratic transitions in the Middle East.

'Weapons to repressive governments'

The state department statement comes as Amnesty International published a report into arms sales by the US, Russia and European countries to Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen.

It said the countries "supplied large quantities of weapons to repressive governments in the Middle East and North Africa before this year’s uprisings despite having evidence of a substantial risk that they could be used to commit serious human rights violations".

Helen Hughes, Amnesty International’s principal arms-trade researcher on the report, said: "These findings highlight the stark failure of existing arms export controls, with all their loopholes, and underline the need for an effective global Arms Trade Treaty that takes full account of the need to uphold human rights."

The main arms suppliers to the five countries included in Amnesty’s report were Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the UK and the US.

The UK-based rights organisation said in the report that it recognised that the international community has taken some steps this year to restrict international arms transfers to the countries named.

But Amnesty said that existing arms-export controls had failed to prevent the transfer of arms in the preceding years.

"Arms embargos are usually a case of ‘too little too late’ when faced with human rights crises," Hughes said.

US awaits inquiry ahead of Bahrain arms deal - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

 

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Anti-regime protests held in Bahrain

Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Bahraini protesters took out to the streets in many parts of the Persian Gulf sheikdom on Wednesday, calling on King Hamad bin Isa Al Kahlifa to step down.

The latest protests were held despite ongoing crackdowns by the Saudi-backed regime forces, who have killed scores of peaceful protesters and arrested hundreds of others since the start of the country's popular uprising in February.

The development came as Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa traveled to Washington on Wednesday to hold talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

During the meeting, Clinton urged the Bahraini authorities to follow through on an independent investigation into the crackdown on the protests in Bahrain.

The result of the probe by an independent five-member panel was expected to be released by October 30, but was delayed until November 23.

Washington has come under mounting criticism for providing Bahrain, which serves as the base to US Fifth Fleet, with lethal weapons to be used against anti-regime protesters.

Since mid-February, thousands of anti-government protesters have been staging regular demonstrations in Bahrain, calling for the US-backed Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

On March 14, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded Bahrain to assist the ruling regime in its brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters in the Persian Gulf island.

Human rights activists say many Bahraini doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or have disappeared because they had evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces and riot police in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Anti-regime protests held in Bahrain

 

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Bahrain security forces clash with protesters

Security forces in Bahrain have used tear gas and armoured vehicles to drive back hundreds of protesters advancing toward a heavily guarded square that was once the center of pro-reform demonstrations in the Gulf nation.

Witnesses said hundreds of demonstrators marched on Pearl Square in Bahrain's capital Manama after a funeral procession on Friday morning for the 78-year-old father of an opposition leader.

Ali Hasan al-Dehi died on Thursday morning after reportedly having been severely beaten by riot police during a protest the day before in the village of Dehi. Opposition groups claim he died as a result of his alleged treatment by police.

Al-Dehi was the father of Hussein al-Dehi, who is the deputy-head of the main Shia opposition group. Authorities said he died of natural causes.

Video and images uploaded on social media websites on Friday appeared to show police cars driving at protesters in several locations. Al Jazeera was unable to verify the authenticity of the footage.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Bahrain security forces clash with protesters - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

 

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Bahrain: Protests Flare Up Ahead Of Release Of Report, Police Fires Tear Gas

MANAMA, Bahrain — The head of a special commission that investigated Bahrain's unrest says authorities used torture and excessive force against detainees arrested in crackdowns on the largest Arab Spring uprising in the Gulf.

The comments by Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni are the first details from a highly anticipated report being released Wednesday on the harsh measures used against Shiite-led demonstrators seeking greater rights from Bahrain's Sunni monarchy.

Bassiouni's summary suggests the report will be highly critical of officials in the strategic kingdom, which is the home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

The investigation, authorized by Bahrain's rulers, was based on more than 5,000 interviews.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) – Riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades at demonstrators Wednesday after clashes erupted just hours before the release of an independent report on Bahrain's harsh crackdowns on the largest Arab Spring unrest in the Gulf.

The unrest outside the Bahraini capital Manama reflects the tense backdrop in the tiny island kingdom ahead of the highly anticipated report, which includes probes into alleged abuses by security forces after the country's majority Shiites opened their most sustained uprising for greater rights.

The special investigation commission, which was green lighted by Bahrain's Sunni monarchy in a bid to ease tensions, has spent months interviewing thousands of witnesses, officials and others about the chaotic and bloody months after protests began in February. Details of the report, which will focus on the period between Feb. 14 and March 30, have been a tightly held secret.

But conciliatory statements by the government in advance suggests authorities believe it could cast a harsh light on the tactics used against demonstrators and already noted in rights groups allegations: widespread arrests, purges from workplaces and universities, destruction of Shiite mosques and jail house abuses.

At least 35 people have been killed in violence related to the uprising, including several members of the security forces.

The latest street battles broke out after a 44-year-old man died when his car crashed into a house earlier in the day. Protesters say he swerved to avoid security vehicles. Bahrain's government said it has opened an investigation.

Although Bahrain's bloodshed and chaos is small in comparison with the huge upheavals across the Arab world – including renewed protests in Egypt – the island's conflict resonates from Tehran to Washington.

Bahrain is a critical U.S. ally as home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Washington has taken a cautious line because of what's at stake: urging Bahrain's leaders to open more dialogue with the opposition, but avoiding too much public pressure.

There are signs of growing impatience with Bahrain's rulers from some U.S. lawmakers. A $53 million arms deal with Bahrain is on hold until the upcoming report is examined.

For Gulf leaders, led by powerful Saudi Arabia, the showdown in Bahrain is seen as a firewall to keep pro-reform protests from spreading further across the region. Gulf rulers have rallied behind the kingdom's embattled monarchy and sent in military reinforcements during the height of the crackdowns.

Bahrain is also viewed as a front-line fight against Iranian influence. The Sunni Arab monarchy and influential sheiks consider any significant gains by Bahrain's Shiites as a beachhead for Shiite powerhouse Iran, which has called the Saudi-led military units in Bahrain an "occupation force."

Bahrain: Protests Flare Up Ahead Of Release Of Report, Police Fires Tear Gas

 

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Bahrain: Authorities Fear Report Findings

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The findings of an independent investigation into Bahrain's 10-month-old unrest are still under wraps, but the Gulf kingdom's leaders were working hard in advance to control its possible fallout.

Admissions of excessive force against protesters and promises of more inquiries were part of a pre-emptive narrative ahead of Wednesday's highly anticipated report on the Gulf's main Arab Spring uprising, which also has become a flashpoint between U.S.-backed Gulf states and rival Iran.

The unprecedented wave of demonstrations, street marches and sit-ins by Bahrain's Shiite majority – which has long complained of systematic discrimination by the ruling Sunni dynasty – also has unsettled rulers across the oil-rich states who are accustomed to stifling domestic criticism by granting favors and making cash handouts.

The special investigation commission, which was green lighted by Bahrain's rulers in a bid to ease tensions, has spent months interviewing thousands of witnesses, officials and others about the chaotic and bloody months after protests began in February. Details of the report, which will focus on the period between Feb. 14 and March 30, have been a tightly held secret.

But the government's conciliatory tone in advance suggests authorities in the island kingdom believe it could cast a harsh light on the tactics used against demonstrators and already noted in rights groups allegations: widespread arrests, purges from workplaces and universities, destruction of Shiite mosques and jail house abuses.

Some of the strongest accusations have come from medical personnel from Bahrain's main state hospital, who claim they were beaten and ridiculed in custody after state authorities took over the Salmaniya Medical Complex, claiming its mostly Shiite staff who have treated injured protesters were opposition sympathizers. At least 35 people have been killed in violence related to the uprising, including several security forces.

Bahraini authorities counter that opposition claims are exaggerated and they could not allow protesters to claim control of key areas of the capital, including the main financial district – recently pointing to the actions of police in the United States to roust anti-Wall Street groups.

Although the numbers are small, Bahrain's conflict resonates from Tehran to Washington.

Report findings that are highly critical of the government could embolden protesters and force new policies from Western allies such as Washington, which has remained close to Bahrain's rulers because of strong strategic ties, including the base for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. A $53 million arms deal with Bahrain is on hold until the upcoming report is examined.

For Gulf leaders, led by powerful Saudi Arabia, the conflict in Bahrain is seen as a firewall to keep pro-reform protests from spreading further across the region. Gulf rulers have rallied behind the kingdom's embattled monarchy and sent in military reinforcements during the height of the crackdowns.

Bahrain also is viewed as a front-line fight against Iranian influence. The Sunni Arab monarchy and influential sheiks consider any significant gains by Bahrain's Shiites as a beachhead for Shiite powerhouse Iran.

Earlier this month, Bahraini authorities accused five people of links to a suspected terror cell connected to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, whose alleged targets included attacks on the Saudi Embassy and the causeway linking Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Although there had been no direct evidence of links between Bahrain's Shiites and Tehran, the claims underscore the intensity of the showdown.

The fissures in Bahrain are not new. For decades, Shiites have pushed for a greater voice in a country where they account for 70 percent of the 525,000 people but are generally blocked from top political and government posts.

The Arab Spring was the catalyst for the most sustained Shiite-led revolt. Protesters began occupying a square in the capital Manama in February – just days after crowds in Cairo's Tahrir Square celebrated the downfall of Hosni Mubarak.

Security forces later stormed Manama's Pearl Square, tore down the landmark three-pronged monument at its center and imposed martial law. Hundreds of activists, political leaders and Shiite professionals such as lawyers, doctors, nurses and athletes were jailed and tried on anti-state crimes behind closed doors in a special security court that was set up during emergency rule.

Three protesters have been sentenced to death and several prominent opposition leaders were sentenced to life in prison.

Bahrain's rulers have offered some concessions, including giving more powers to parliament and opening up a so-called "national dialogue" on reforms. But authorities have rebuffed a key protest demand for the monarchy to give up control of top government posts and share privileges.

As part of the attempts to quell protests, Bahrain in July approved an international commission to look into the protests and crackdowns.

The five-member panel's chairman, Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni, an Egyptian-born professor of international criminal law and a former member of U.N. human rights panels, praised the kingdom for a historic decision.

It was unprecedented, Bassiouni said, for an Arab Muslim country that has gone through "a difficult time" to have an independent investigation "irrespective of where the chips might fall."

In a statement Monday, Bahrain said it expects the report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry will be critical.

"Regrettably, there have been instances of excessive force and mistreatment of detainees," the government said, adding that prosecutors have charged 20 members of the security forces for alleged abuse of protesters during the uprising.

Bahrain: Authorities Fear Report Findings

 

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Bahrain police break up march as government orders investigation of abuses

MANAMA, Bahrain — Police in Bahrain used tear gas Friday to disperse hundreds of anti-government protesters marching on the capital, witnesses said.

The country’s Sunni rulers also moved to mollify the mostly Shiite-led opposition movement by ordering prosecutors to investigate allegations of abuse by the security forces throughout Bahrain’s 10-month-old uprising.

Anti-government protesters stand in clouds of tear gas, trying to make their way out of it during clashes with riot police Friday, Dec. 9, 2011, in the Sanabis, Bahrain, neighborhood of the capital Manama. Following a nearby religious procession, hundreds of people chanting anti-government slogans ran toward an area that had been the hub of a spring uprising and is now a heavily militarized zone protesters regularly seek to reclaim. They were forced back by riot police just short of the area.
The investigation ordered by the interior minister, Lt. Gen. Sheik Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, was announced late Thursday by the country’s Information Affairs Authority.

It covers “all cases related to deaths, torture and inhumane treatment implicating police.”

The move follows the recommendations made last month by a special commission that probed claims of human rights abuses during the uprising, in which at least 35 people, including security force members, were killed.

The commission was authorized in a bid to ease tensions with the majority Shiites, a rare example of an Arab regime subjecting itself to a harsh public reckoning.

It issued a 500-page report documenting torture, the use of excessive force and fast-track trials, as authorities tried to stamp out the largest of this year’s Arab Spring uprisings to hit the Gulf.

Opposition activists at the time said those responsible for the abuses needed to be brought to justice.

The Interior Ministry said Thursday it was following another of the report’s recommendations by installing cameras to record interrogations, and that it signed an agreement with the International Committee of the Red Cross to develop better policing practices.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. was encouraged by Bahrain’s steps, including the government’s decision this week to drop charges against more than 100 athletes accused of participating in protests.

Nuland told reporters the U.S. wanted its ally to “create and support a climate conducive to reconciliation.”

The government’s self-scrutiny has not defused the protest movement, however.

Witnesses said Friday’s clashes began as demonstrators assembled in the village of Musalla outside the capital, Manama, for Shiite ceremonies to mark the holiday of Ashoura.

As the commemorations came to an end, some in the crowd began shouting anti-government slogans and started running in the direction of the capital’s Pearl Square, witnesses said.

They were stopped by police as they neared the square. No injuries were reported, though some protesters appeared to have fainted and were being carried away by other demonstrators.

 

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Bahrain opposition remains wary of 'reform'

In the wake of a highly publicised meeting between Bahrain's King Hamad and British Prime Minister David Cameron, critics in the country remain sceptical about reform.

Many in the Bahrain opposition see a committee that was set up by the king to oversee recommendations for change as being irrelevant.

They point to the fact that the leaders of two of the main political societies remain in jail along with a prominent human rights activist.

As one activist put it: "You cannot have political reform without them being part of the process - it's farcical." The activist asked not to be named for fear of reprisal.

Ibrahim Sharif, the leader of the secular party Wa'ad, Hassan Mushaima and Abduljalil Singace of the Shia party Haq and the prominent human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja are all serving long prison sentences.

They were convicted of trying to overthrow the government but international observers believe they are innocent of all charges.

There is strong evidence that they were tortured in detention.

The opposition say that releasing the men would be a sign that the king was serious about reform.

They also say that the more than 1,000 people - almost all Shia - who were sacked from their jobs for supporting calls for reform should be immediately re-instated.

"That's not happening," Mansoor al-Jamri told me. Mr Jamri is the editor of al-Wasat, the only independent newspaper in Bahrain. He called the sacking of Shia a form of apartheid.

"Releasing political prisoners, restoring people's jobs - these are easy steps, if the king is serious about meaningful change," the activist told me.

But the politician reality in Bahrain dictates that at best the king can only proceed very cautiously.

BBC News - Bahrain opposition remains wary of 'reform'

 

[Nadarkhanian]

I've had a good opinion of Bahrain for a while now, always seemed like a really progressive example of a middle-eastern country, this is heartbreaking.