Bahrain: US pressure sought as Death Squads continue their abductions
Another abduction by the Death Squads has confirmed the suspicion that the ruling Al Khalifa family are out to kill and maim Bahrainis who oppose their dictatorial rule. A young Bahraini, Sayyed Adnan, was abducted in the early hours of yesterday, taken to a remote area, beaten up, abused and then dumped near his house.
This is the second time in recent weeks in which a Bahraini has been treated in this vicious way. Jaffar Kahdhem had been subjected to a similar treatment two weeks ago. He left hospital last week only to be accused by the interior ministry of being “engaged in illegitimate relations” with a girl. This was the second justification for the abduction after the first in which it had claimed that he had been attached by robbers who were trying to take his mobile phone. The abduction of Sayyed Adnan has now confirmed the worst-case scenario that the Al Khalifa have now decided to follow the path of the South American dictatorships which, in the eighties, used deployed Death Squads against the activists, especially in El Salvadore and Guatemala.
The Bahraini people have stood up with bravery to this onslaught by the occupiers of their land. In the past few days, the walls of karzakkan were painted with anti-regime slogans, calls for an immediate end to this barbaric regime and demand the immediate release of the political prisoners.
Similar slogans were painted on the walls of Bilad Al Qadeem. The feelings of the public are running high as the fear of obliteration of the country’s identity has spread among the people. The sectarian attacks against the majority of the Bahrainis by the newly-naturalised foreigners, mostly extremist elements, have increased in recent weeks.
The earlier debacle of levelling unsubstantiated allegations against innocent Bahrainis that they were planning terrorist acts, has tarnished the reputation of the regime among the international human rights bodies. The political prisoners had succeeded in overturning the table on the head of the Al Khalifa in the last court appearance on 24th March. The regime was forced to swallow the poison and release the Bahraini hostages.
This situation has forced Miss Ghada Jamshir, the woman activist who had been targeted for smear and banning from writing in the local media, to write to the US President, calling for international intervention to save the people of Bahrain from the claws of the Al Khalifa state-terrorism.
The letter was handed to the First Secretary at the American Embassy in Manama. Miss Jamshir described the intensification of repression against the activists, the lack of transparency in the judicial system and the employment of foreigners as additional forces in security to attack the Bahrainis. She appealed for US pressure on the ruling family to introduce real reforms and end the misery that has engulfed the country for decades.
An article published by the Los Angeles Times has claimed that there are two factions within the ruling Al Khalifa family with regards to the ongoing instability in the country. The hawkish factionm, led by Khalid bin Ahmad, the head of the royal court, adopts a strategy of empowering the extremists among the Sunnis to enable them to stand up to the challenges from the pro-democracy movement. The other, led by the crown prince adopts a softer approach towards the Shia majority. The article is seen as vindication of the people’s stands to achieve a lasting settlement of the crisis through a democratic constitution and abandonment of the political naturalisation policy that has infuriated the people.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
22 May 2009