Bahrain’s HR record bleaker, 60 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Several calls have been made to participate in major demonstrations on the Day of the Martyrs, 17th December 2008. The Committee of Martyrs and Victims of Torture, which is the main organiser, has urged people to take an active role in turning the anniversary of the killing of Bahrainis by the Death Squads of the Al Khalifa into a Day of Fury in order to attract the attention of the world to the bleak plight of Bahrainis.

Senior religious and political figures are taking part in those demonstrations against the tyrannical rule that has claimed the lives of many Bahrainis over the decades and continues to shed more blood of the innocent. The Day of the Martyrs marks the first martyrs  murdered by the Al Khalifa on 17th December 1994. Last year, a young Bahraini, Ali Jassim, 22, was also killed, adding more significance to that day. None of the killers has ever been made to account for the crimes of murder or torture.

As preparations get underway to mark that historic day, pockets of civil resistance are emerging in many places of the country. In the town of Al Musalla, to the South of Manama, scores of youth went to the streets near the main roundabout  on Friday 5th December to protest the killing and torture of the citizens by the Al Khalifa occupiers. They were confronted by riot police in heavy gear, who used chemical and tear gases against the unarmed civilians. Rubber bullets were deployed as the youth fought street battles with those mercenaries. Images of the confrontations have uncovered the use of illegal arms and a unproportional amount of force as the Al Khalifa occupiers attempt to regain their domination through intimidation and unrestrained use of terror. To see images of the confrontations, please visit:

http://bahrainonline.org/showthread.php?t=223097

The walls in the town of Al Malikiya, in the South of Bahrain, have been painted with images of the martyrs and slogans calling for removing the immunity granted by the ruler, Sheikh Hamad, to the torturers.

In the history of the Al Khalifa occupation of Bahrain, no actions has ever been taken against torturers or murderers despite the abundance of evidence of the use of these illegal methods to quell the people’s activism and movement to achieve a degree of democracy and human rights. Some of the slogans painted on the walls refer to the policies of ethnic cleansing, political naturalisation and the lack of independent judiciary.

Meanwhile the lawyers of a group of political prisoners, falsely accused of taking part in the burning of a police car, have threatened to boycott the trial, presided over by a member of the ruling family, Mohammad bin Ali Al Khalifa, who has failed to head the calls for independent investigations into allegations of torture and abuse against those innocent people. Although he had called for the transfer of those political prisoners from the torture chambers of the investigation department to other cells, they have remained behind the thick walls of this notorious torture place. They have repeatedly exhibited clear signs of torture and abuse, but the Al Khalifa ruler, who is both the judge and enemy, has refused to order an investigation.

To the annoyance of the Al Khalifa senior figures, another Bahraini refugee has been granted political asylum in the UK. This has come shortly after Al Khalifa’s foreign minister, Khaled bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, had lambasted the British authorities of undermining the rule of his family by granting asylum to political opponents. It seems that he is still unaware that such outburst of anger only help to confirm what the opposition has all along said about the arbitrary policies of the ruling family. Instead of dispelling fears, such comments have only confirmed the suspicions of fair-minded people of the horrors that take place behind the iron walls of Bahrain where torture, repression, ethnic cleansing and discrimination, have been rampant.

On the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Day of Human Rights (10th December) the Bahraini opposition has urged the international community to take serious steps to stop the gross human rights abuses of the people of Bahrain. They have also called on the UN Secretary General to put pressure on the ruler of Bahrain to end his reign of terror and restore the constitutional life that he had repealed by this unilateral decisions and tailor-made constitution.

Bahrain Freedom Movment
7th December 2008