Bahrain: Death Squads kill a child in cold blood and AI protests incorrect reporting
The killing on Wednesday of an under-aged Bahraini boy has re-ignited the revolution and took the country into what could become a decisive phase of its revolution. Ali Jawad Ahmad Al Sheikh, 14, was with a group of boys at the graveyard to visit the grave of an earlier martyr, Ali Al Mo’men, who had been killed in mid-March.
One of the government troops shot him in the face and killed him almost instantly. He was taken to Sitra Clinic for treatment. But the Al Khalifa troops surrounded the clinic, snatched the body and took it to the Salmaniya Hospital which is run by the military. The authorities wanted to falsify the facts and issue a death certificate with false reasons for the death but the family refused to receive a forged document. The people were so enraged by the cold-blooded of this young boy on Eid Day (which is a day of celebration) that they attended his funeral yesterday in their tens of thousands. They chanted anti-regime slogans including: “Down with Hamad” and “The people want regime change”.
The atmosphere was so charged that any attempt by the regime’s Death Squads to intervene would have led to blood bath. The royal commission, led by Charif Bissiouni, once again, failed to live up to its ethical duty. Although they visited the martry’s corpse at the morgue, they continued to whitewash the crimes of the regime either by their silence or the occasional positive remarks by Bissiouni himself.
Meanwhile two senior human rights figures have gone on hunger strike in support of the medical staff who had also gone on hunger strike. They issued the following statement yesterday: “Based on the human feeling and the human rights responsibility, we, Abdul Hadi Al Khawaja and Abdul Jalil Al Singace, announce that we have started our hunger strike in solidarity with the medical team and the other hunger strikers at the Dry Dock prison and to protest the continued arbitrary detention and unfair trials in relation to recent events in Bahrain”. This brave step is likely to cause serious bodily damage to both as they had endured the most torture among the prisoners and both are reported to be in ill-health.
In another disastrous development the Al Khalifa have demoted many senior academic staff at public schools to ordinary teachers in order to meet the shortage of teachers caused by the mass dismissal of hundreds in recent months. Most of these inspectors are well qualified with masters and doctorate degrees and their sudden demotion is seen as an attempt to subjugate the Bahraini professional teachers and pave the way for more foreigners who may be brought from outside.
As the people’s revolution takes a new leap forward, the Al Khalifa have brought into the country more Jordanian troops to supplement the Saudi occupiers. Over the past month demonstrations and protest have shaken the foundation of the regime which had thought that the Saudi occupation would bring Bahrainis to their knees. The sudden flare up of public emotions and activism has been unprecedented with massive protests in the streets of towns and cities chanting slogans that call for the removal of the Al Khalifa regime.
In an embarrassing fiasco Amnesty International today was forced to issue a statement in response to distorted reporting by the regime’s media. It said: “A number of Bahraini newspapers published articles on 2 September containing incorrect information about Amnesty International statements on Bahrain. The articles incorrectly state that Amnesty International called on Bahraini political groups not to use children in protests for political gains or as human shields.
Amnesty International has never published such a statement and urges all these newspapers to immediately withdraw this article from their websites and to publish corrections in their printed editions. The most recent statement issued by Amnesty International on Bahrain can be found on its website:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/teenage-activist-killed-bahrain-protest-2011-08-31
Note: this statement has been amended to reflect new information that more than one newspaper published this incorrect information about Amnesty International.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
2nd September 2011
