Country-wide protests in support of the striking detainees

A seminar to mark the annual anniversary of the Independence of Bahrain and the dissolution of the only legitimate parliamentary experience was held at the House of Lords on Thursday 6th August. Lord Avebury and Baroness Falkner, both Liberal Democrats peers organized the event which was attended by human rights and political activists from Bahrain and elsewhere.

Representatives of Human Rights Watch and the Bar Human Rights Committee addressed the meeting and presented solid evidence of serious human rights abuses by the Al Khalifa rulers against Bahrainis. They called for serious international pressure to be exercised on these rulers to end the suffering of Bahrainis. Peter Witherby, who was in Bahrain in July to observe the trial of several Bahrainis persecuted by the Al Khalifa occupiers, described experience with the judiciary, the security forces, the riot police and the officials. He said that despite presenting irrefutable evidence of torture, the officials continued to deny the wrongdoings of their torturers. A short film about the ordeal of the town of Ma’amir, both in regards to the environmental crisis engulfing the town and the life imprisonment of seven of their sons, was presented to the audience.

Meanwhile the protests and demonstrations continued in various parts of the country. On Thursday the road leading to the international airport in Muharraq was closed by the pro-democracy demonstrators who burnt tyres and disrupted the road traffic for a while, before members of Death Squads and riot police arrived and put out the fires. Similar protests at the time led to the closure of the Hamad Town Highway that leads to the Saudi-Bahraini causeway.

Yesterday, scores of Bahrainis in Ma’amir demonstrated against the continued imprisonment of seven innocent young men falsely accused of killing one of the foreign workers last year. They raised slogans calling for the release of the Bahraini hostages, ending the practice of torture and allowing the families to visit their sons who are languishing behind bars in the torture chambers. They had also demonstrated the previous day when they were attacked mercilessly by the foreign mercenaries imported by the Al Khalifa occupiers. The aggressors used shotgun against the Bahrainis who reacted using Molotov cocktail and stones.

On Wednesday 4th August, the youth of Sitra closed the main road using burning tyres and raising slogans calling for the released of prisoners and end the emergency laws. When the foreign-staffed riot police attacked them, scuffles broke out and continued for a while. On Sunday 1st August, the youth of the town of Saar went out to demonstrate against the deteriorating political and security situation in the country,. They burnt tyres near the Cinama before the riot police put them out. The villages had also exercised their right to demonstrate the night before and closed the main road. Similar protests were held in Malikiya and Bu Guwwa. The rising tension in the country is now felt by the expatriates, some of whom have recently decided to pack up and go, while others are adopting a policy of “wait and see”.

At another level, one of the notorious torturers has been trying in vain to end the protests of the prisoners at the Jaw prisons. Lieutenant Ibrahim Ghaith, met the families of the prisoners and asked them to convince their sons to end their strike. He had used force for this purpose but failed to dislodge the Bahraini innocent victims from their steadfast position. He was assisted by two other torturers, Ibrahim Al Najran and Ahmad Al Ne’aimi. The continuing strike is being monitored by human rights activists and bodies, while the families have expressed disgust at the persistence of the three officers in their adoption of torture against their children. More than 70 political prisoners have been wrongly convicted while more than 30 complaints of ill-treatment had been lodged by the families. Many of the prisoners were seriously injured when the torture chambers were raided by members of the Death Squads on the first day of their strike. One of those who were injured is a Nigerian who had expressed sympathy with the Bahrainis and their demands. The brother of one of the prisoners confirmed that his brother now lives in a state of fear since he was beaten by

Bahrain Freedom Movement
7the August 2010