Time for killer Saudi and Alkhalifa regimes to go
The international anger at the Saudi criminal behaviour has intensified following their repeated lies and deceptive tactics in the case of Jamal Khashoggi who was killed on 2nd October. Despite American attempts to water down the world’s reaction, the Turkish strategy of trapping them into disclosing the role of their senior figures appears to be working for now. There is also realisation that crown prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) has failed in almost all his adventures. His war on Yemen has trapped him and his allies in the quagmire of destruction, famine and death. His action against Qatar has not only exposed the limitations of Saudi power and influence but helped to strengthen the Qatar-Turkey-Iran axis. The botched plan to influence Lebanese status quo by arresting and humiliating prime minister Sa’ad AlHariri went disastrously wrong and helped Lebanese groups whom the Saudis wanted to undermine. MBS’s outrageous arrest of senior members of the House of Saud and hold them prisoners at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh had sealed his eventual fate. Then came the kidnap, killing and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to expose a maniac who must not be trusted by the world.
Following the speech by President Erdogan of Turkey yesterday, the noose has tightened further around the neck of an embattled regime that turned Saudi Arabia into a failed pariah state. The economic summit “Davos in Desert” has become the first major casualty of MBS’s reckless adventurism. The longer the departure of MBS from the scene, the stronger will the calls for total regime change in the Arabian Peninsula. This is what the Bahrainis have been calling for since their 14th February Revolution and the subsequent Saudi-Emirati invasion of Bahrain. It seems that every step MBS took had backfired. When he summoned members of the Khashoggi’s family including his son, Salah to “offer condolences” at his father’s palace, the world stood in horror at the images of the meeting between the killers and the victims. It was outrageously cruel to treat the grief-stricken family in this manner. MBS has demonstrated, beyond any doubt that time has come for the downfall of the House of Saud.
Yesterday Amnesty International issued a statement titled: Saudi Arabia: 10 things you need to know about a kingdom of cruelty: Devastating war in Yemen, Relentless crackdown on peaceful activists, journalists and academics, Arrests of women’s rights defenders, Executions, Punishments that are cruel, inhuman or degrading, Routine torture in custody, Systematic discrimination against women, Entrenched religious discrimination, ‘What happens in the Kingdom, stays in the Kingdom’ and Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.
Human rights activists have expressed rage at the extradition of a young Bahraini to Alkhalifa torturers. On Saturday 20th October the Dutch authorities deported Ali Al Shuwaikh to Bahrain where he was arrested and taken to the torture chambers. There are fears that he would be abused by the dictator’s henchmen. The Dutch government is responsible for any harm that may befall him.
Bahrain’s tyrant has ordered the arrest of Mohammad Al Khatam for protesting against his unemployment. In the past two months Mr Al Khatam has been asking for a job to feed his wife and four children after he had been unlawfully sacked. He had been repeatedly detained and tortured. Alkhalifa dictators use employment as a weapon against those who oppose the regime.
On 18th October nine NGOs including the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), wrote to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Experts, urging them to publicly condemn the reprisals against women human rights defenders. On 14th October several of them started a hunger strike to protest their degrading treatment at Isa Town Prison, The rights groups have also publicly expressed “grave concern for the total inefficacy of Bahrain’s human rights mechanisms”, and urged the High Commissioner to intervene in the case by calling “for the end of these punitive measures as well as the immediate and unconditional release of the three activists.” Their demands include: Removing the barriers separating them from their families during visits, Allowing adequate time outside the cell, given that inmates are currently locked in for 23 hours and Restoring the three weekly phone calls which, after the assault, have been reduced to two. Also an inmate Hani Marhoon has been on hunger strike demanding medical care for his many ailments for which he has been receiving meagre treatment. Today his condition worsened after 11 days of hunger and has been transferred to the clinic.
Education International’s Executive Board has named Jalila al Salman, a lifelong teacher and trade unionist who has dedicated her life to education, and to representing teachers in Bahrain, as the recipient of the Mary Hatwood Futrell Human and Trade Union Rights Prize. The prize is for her outstanding engagement and courage in promoting education for all. Following democracy protests in Bahrain in February 2011, al Salman was unjustly imprisoned for six months. She was threatened, beaten and subjected to acts of humiliation and torture by the authorities for her trade union activities.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
24th October 2018 (info@vob.org,www.vob.org)