Bahrain: Dictator unwelcome to jubilee event as he intensifies state’s terror
The invitation of the dictator, Hamad bin Isa Alkhalifa to the Queen’s Diamond jubilee celebrations has been marred by controversy and media attention that has clouded the event. Human Rights activists have expressed dismay at the invitation and called for banning the dictator from attending.
Bahraini activists have held protests at the Bahrain Embassy while other activists called for protests at Buckingham Palace. Media interest has embarrassed the royal family as criticism is being levelled at the Foreign Office which should have not recommended the inclusion of Bahrain’s dictator in the guest list.
Here are some links to news and comments on dictator’s invitation:
http://www.itn.co.uk/home/45660/King+of+Bahrain+at+Jubilee+lunch
http://www.itv.com/news/story/2012-05-17/royal-snub-to-the-queen/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18099937
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30894
The failure of the attempt to annexe Bahrain to Saudi Arabia has been greeted by Bahrainis with relief and a feeling of victory for the blood of the martyrs.
The Alkhalifa and Alsaud families had conspired to make the Saudi occupation of Bahrain that began on 14th March 2011 a permanent annexation as a means of defeating the revolution seeking to achieve regime change in Bahrain. The periodic GCC summit in the Saudi capital, Riyadh last Monday failed to agree on the move to create a Gulf Union which had been proposed by the Saudi king Abdulla during the winter summit last December.
The mouthpieces of the two dictatorships had spent the past six months promoting the idea to the extent that it became a virtual reality. But when they met this week they failed to achieve a consensus and the Saudi foreign minister, Saud Al Faisal, revealed the failure at a press conference shortly after the three-hour summit.
The Alkhalifa were morally and politically defeated as they woke up to the reality that their power and might are limited and that defeating the Bahraini people’s revolution is a fantasy. This disastrous foreign policy and strategic failure has demoralized the regime and its supporters.
The revolutionaries had long believed that other Gulf monarchies would not accept being subjugated by the Alsaud regime which is most backward, reactionary and dictatorial in the world.
The demise of the proposed union between Alkhalifa and Alsaud has so infuriated and angered the dictator and his family that they have now decided to increase their repression against Bahrainis. In the past week the dictator has instructed his troops and Death Squads to use live ammunition and shotguns randomly. The daily and nightly demonstrations yesterday were attacked with these lethal weapons.
Tens of Bahraini protesters were injured by shotguns and the lives of several of them are threatened. They cannot go to hospitals for treatment because the Alkhalifa interior ministry had placed medical institutions under military control and any injured Bahraini seeking treatment must be reported to the torture apparatus run by John Yates and John Timoney.
The 14th February Youth have instructed victims to seek treatment at field clinics run by volunteer doctors and nurses, but in cases where their lives are threatened they should seek treatment at hospitals and prepare themselves for arrest and torture.
In his comments at the House of Lords yesterday at the Foreign Relations Debate on the Queen’s speech, Lord Avebury said:
In Bahrain, after 15 months of bloodshed, torture, extrajudicial executions, and arbitrary detention of human rights activists, there is no sign of an Arab spring. The four leading human rights activists in the country are in custody, two of them awaiting retrial before a civilian court having already been tried before a military court and held, pending that trail, incommunicado for weeks and finally sentenced to life imprisonment.
Yet Ministers were content to let the Formula 1 race go ahead amid the misery and mayhem. Worse, they advised Her Majesty the Queen to invite King Hamad, the hereditary dictator, to come here for the Jubilee celebrations.
I realise that diplomatic requirements have compelled Her Majesty to meet some gross human rights violators over the 60 years of her reign, but is it not nauseating that in this Jubilee year she will have to shake the hand that is stained with the blood of dozens of the regime’s victims? Let it be clear to those who believe in human rights and democracy that King Hamad is not welcome at the Jubilee celebrations.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
18 May 2012
