Angry Al Khalifa lambasts UK over asylum cases
The appointment of yet another member of the ruling family to a ministerial post has increased the share of the Al Khalifa in the government to 18 out of 29 (24 cabinet ministers and five senior posts with ministerial status.
Mai Al Khalifa has been appotinted minister of information replacing Ahmad Bu Kamal who had spent less than a year in his post. The reason is simple.
A member of a political society, Ibrahim Sharif, mentioned in a television interview the budget of the ruler saying that the 1973 Constitution had specified the budget at 6 million Bahrain Dinars. Since 2000, the budget has been off record and no one knows how much it is now.
The ruler now controls the whole oil income with no limit to his expenditure. The minister was summarily sacked and replaced by Mai Al Khalifa, a female member of the ruling family. Since Sheikh Hamad rose to power in 1999, he increased his family’s share in the cabinet from one third to almost two thirds at the expense of the share of non-Al Khalifa members. He has enforced a stringent policy of occupation unseen before.
As the Day of the Martyrs approaches, preparations are underway to mark the 17th of December with great enthusiasm and determination to turn it into a national struggle against the hereditary dictatorship. Writings on the walls have become common phenomenon and there are daily reports of pockets of demonstrations and small fires on the main roads.
Riot police have been deployed in many areas in anticipation of major breakouts of demonstrations and riots. Last year, the day was marked on a large scale and a young man, Ali Jassim, was mercilessly killed by the notorious death squads which is under the command of the royal palace. A local demonstration in Bani Jamra on Wednesday afternoon to commemorate the death anniversary of the late Sheikh Abdul Amir Al Jamri was attacked with tear gas and riot bullets. Young participants were scattered in the surrounding villages as the smoke filled the air and caused breathing difficulties to many.
Meanwhile a seminar to highlight the people’s concerns about the political naturalisation has been banned by the ruling family. The seminar is due in few days time but the hotel where it had been scheduled to take place was threatened by the ruling family of serious consequences if it was allowed to be held there. Discussing the ethnic cleansing policies of the ruling family has become a taboo as a policy of repression has now dominated the political scene in the country. The banning of the seminar coincides with the convening of a government-sponsored show conference on human rights. Only government-supported NGOs are allowed to speak at the conference while real human rights activists are pursued relentlessly by the secret service which is noted for its dirty methods of silencing opponents. The ruling family has been offering financial support to international bodies in order to silence them and prevent international condemnation of the bleak human rights record of the ruling Al Khalifa.
On another level, the people were disgusted by the news that the ruler’s son, Abdulla, had been involved in “close personal relationship” with the singer, Michael Jackson and that he is now pursuing the singer for money allegedly owed to him, estimated at more than 7 million dollars. It is reported that Abdulla had paid millions of dollars to Mr Jackson to enable him to produce a single based on poems written by Abdulla Al Khalifa. The court case by him is continuing in London, with little sympathy from the public for him. Michael Jackson was invited by the ruling family to settle in Bahrain following his infamous court case about allegations that he had mistreated a boy under his care in his Neverland ranch.
The foreign minister of Bahrain, Khalid bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, has waged an attack against UK for granting political asylum to few Bahraini exiles.
He expressed his anger in an interview with a local newspaper, saying that he had contacted his British counterpart and complained about the decision to grant three young Bahrainis refugee status after their serious ordeals under the secret service of the ruling family. In the past seven years only three Bahrainis have applied and succeeded in getting asylum in UK. Earlier this month, two Bahrainis were granted asylum in the United States. The Al Khalifa minister has failed in his bid to influence the British decisions which are based on facts and figures and not emotions and sensations.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
24 November 2008
