Internationalising the case of Bahrain takes new dimensions
The Syrian authorities detained a prominent Bahraini personality on Wednesday 1st July as he was entering the country. Sheikh Mohammad Habib Al Miqdad was on his way to Iraq when he was stopped by the Syrian border police and led away to an unknown destination. Nothing has been heard of him since.
It is believed that the ruling Al Khlaifa family had asked for his detention after its failure to prosecuted him while he was in detention earlier this year. He was arrested in January by the Al Khalifa torturers, subjected to horrific ordeal with his colleague, Hassan Mushaime, before their release in May. He has been an outspoken critic of the Al Khalifa hereditary dictatorship and a leading figure in a charity helping orphaned children. Among the reasons given by Al Khalifa for his earlier detention was helping children in need without their permission. The latest episode is an indication of the extent to which the ruling family would go to curtail the freedom of Bahrainis. In Autumn 2001 the ruler summoned several leading figures to tell them that the US authorities had a list of 99 names of Bahrain’s opposition figures who would be arrested if they set foot outside Bahrain. Subsequently the American Embassy issued a statement denying that any Bahraini was on any American black list at the time. Many Bahrainis have either been arrested or banned by other Gulf states on orders from the Al Khalifa. Several demonstrations and protests in the past two days have been organised calling for his release. One citizen was severely injured by a sound bomb used by the mercenaries.
In a further development, the ruling family has threatened to kill tens of Bahrainis who are held hostages at their torture chambers. Their agents working for the prosecution has demanded the execution of Bahrainis who had been languishing in torture chambers for the past two years, falsely accused of killing a mercenary working for the Al Khalifa. Several reports have confirmed that the victim had died of causes incompatible with attacks by rioters six months before the alleged date of their killing.
But the ruling family is adamant on its programme of extermination and genocide against the people of Bahrain, a programme it had initiated soon after the present ruler took over following the demise of his father in 1999. The defence lawyers have repeatedly called for the release of those Bahrainis and are awaiting the next setting of the Al Khalifa-controlled kangaroo court on 13th October. Despite the pleas of the lawyers for new investigation following widespread claims of torture, the Al Khalifa are in no mood to abide by the rule of their own laws. On the days before the latest session on Tuesday 30th June, the walls of Karzakkan, Ma’amir, Sitra, Al Daiha and Sanabis and Sitra and other areas were used by pro-democracy activists to write slogans calling for ending the emergency rule and the release of the political prisoners. Small fires were seen on the main roads in the areas of protests. The mercenaries used rubber bullets, tear and chemical gas against demonstrators.
The international concerns at the increasing use of torture as an institutionalised instrument of subjugation have been expressed by several leading human rights bodies. Cases of intensive torture have now been authenticated in details despite the regime’s heavy-handed policy against those who testify to international bodies. The extent of the evidence is overwhelming and those linked to the campaign to criminalise senior figures of the Al Khalifa are confident of an eventual trial of those Al Khalifa officials accused of serious crimes against humanity. The moves against the ruler, the present and former heads of national security and the minister of royal court are implicated in crimes against humanity. Of particular interest are the moves against the present Al Khlaifa Ambassador to London, Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, who is accused of re-introducing torture at extensive scale when he was installed as the head of national security apparatus in 2005. Several of his victims have testified against him and the British Government has been urged to remove his diplomatic immunity to facilitate the work of the police against this criminal.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
3rd July 2009
