Elections under dictatorship lead to legalized oppression

Bahraini prisons have become home to hundreds of innocent natives whose crime is calling for democracy based on the will of the people and a constitution written and approved by them.

Those detainees have been declared by the international human rights bodies as “prisoners of conscience” as they are being punished with extreme forms of torture for expressing their views openly and courageously. They have challenged the ruling Al Khalifa family to allow the citizens to write a modern constitution to replace the present one that had been tailor-made to suit the needs of the hereditary dictatorship that has turned the country into a “Kingdom of Silence”. For the past ten years the present ruler has maintained his grip on power with an iron-fist policy adopting all means of repression including arbitrary detention, torture, Death Squads and summary justice.

In addition it has adopted a programme of deception to camouflage the real face of dictatorship with an election process that is devoid of meaning or substance. The “elected” bodies have served their interests, rubber-stamped their repressive policies and draconian laws such as the Press Law, the Assembly Law, the Terrorism Law and the Molotov Law, all of which have legalized torture and turned free speech into a crime punishable by death.

As the torture chambers became overcrowded with pro-democracy activists, the Al Khalifa dictators have called for “elections” after robbing the people of their right of determining their destiny and deciding on the political system that suits the country. In order to give credence to these orchestrated “elections” they have plundered millions of people’s money on payments for foreign public relations companies (In UK alone, several PR companies have been employed to enhance their ugly image; including the Policy Partnership, Bell Pottinger and Gardant Communications). They have also paid foreign journalists to cover those stage-managed elections.

What is the purpose of this poorly-staged plays if the will and aspirations of the people were confiscated? Fairness becomes void of meaning if the real issue is not addressed and the people are not allowed to write their own constitution. The past eight years have proven beyond any doubt that “electing” half the members of the legislature (the other half being fully-appointed by the ruling family) did not constitute “democracy”, but confirmed what the opposition described as “institutionalized” dictatorship.

How can “free and fair” elections be conducted when pro-democracy activists are tortured beyond any human decency? How can the Al Khalifa be allowed to get away with the torture that has been comprehensively condemned by international bodies such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Frontline, OMCT and others.

People like Professor Abdul Jalil Al Singace (who is disabled, wheelchair-bound and a polio sufferer), Dr Mohammad Saeed Al Sahlawi and other scholars are blindfolded, hand-shackled, stripped naked and hung in chicken-position are being held in solitary confinement simply for opposing the Al Khalifa dictatorship. Those who are in Bahrain to cover the elections will serve their human conscience better if they visited the families of the detainees, witnessed for themselves the treatment of the natives in their down-trodden villages while the Al Khalifa who had occupied our land by force, have plundered the wealth, the resources and the land for themselves.

Human decency has long disappeared from their hearts as they continued their oppression against the native people of Bahrain. In fact, the Ambassador at 30 Belgrave Square, is accused of re-introducing torture to Bahrain’s prisons when he was in charge of the National Security Agency (2005-2008).

The testimonies of his victims are being compiled for legal purposes.

Your voice in support of the struggle of Bahrainis against this autocratic regime is a service to humanity. Your solidarity with the victims of torture will anger the dictators and please their victims. Your loud voice demanding the immediate release of a British citizen, Mr Jaffar Al Hasabi, of Mill Hill East, will go a long way to ensure the failure of this evil-regime whose misbehaviour has angered those human rights bodies which have monitored the situation over the past two months.

Bahrain Freedom Movement
19th October 2010