Bahrain: Concern at continuing detention and torture of innocent Bahrainis
As the plight of tens of political prisoners remains continues to be shrouded in mystery, the people are raising their voices in protest against the ruling Al Khalifa family and pleading to the world to intervene to end the suffering of Bahrainis.
Yesterday, burning tyres were seen at the Budayya Road, in the vicinity of Abu Saibe’ village. Road traffic was disrupted for a while as fire engines rushed to the scene to extinguish the raging fires. The aim of the organisers of this protest was to highlight the plight of the prisoners of conscience who had been taken hostage by Sheikh Hamad’s death squads. They are known to have suffered extensive injuries as a result of torture and maltreatment.
Bahrain has not ratified the special protocol within the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Several human rights organisations have recently urged the ruling family to sign the protocol as a step forward to prevent the administration of torture against prisoners. On 12th September six NGOs signed a declaration urging the authorities to undertake this step. The signatories are: The Bahrain Society for Human Rights, The Bahrain Centre of Human Rights, Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, The Bahraini Society to Support civil Liberties, Haq Movement and the Women Petition Committee. They based their call on several factors: Bahrain’s commitment as a signatory of CAT (it singed it on 6th March 1998), its obligation under Article 7 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights which was signed by Bahrain on 20th September 2006 and in light of the damning comments against the ruling family during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) undertaken in April by the UN Human Rights Council. The international community was appalled by the failure of the ruling family to investigate the horrendous crimes of torture by granting of impunity to torturers in accordance with the notorious Law 56/2002. It is unlikely that the Al Khalifa will heed the call to ratify the international conventions relating to torture for feat that it may implicate senior figures of the ruling family including ruler and the prime minister.
In another serious development, a high profile human rights activist was sacked from his post as a senior Mechanical engineer with BAPCO (Bahrain Petroleum Company). Mr Abbas Al Omran was arbitrarily dismissed from his job after fifteen years of outstanding service. For the past two years he has been targeted by the company for two main reasons. First because of his record as a human rights activist. Second, his activities in BAPCO’s trade union. Immediately after his election to the union, he found out a web of intrigues by both the union and the company and raised the alarms to the members. He was faced with extreme hostility from both the company and the president of the union. Since then Mr Al Omran has been denied any promotion, and found himself trailing behind his colleagues as a result.
He wrote to both the company and trade union about this but to no avail. He threatened to go on the picket line if his complaints were not addressed. He picketed outside the company’s offices and after the third picket (yesterday) he was sacked. There is country-wide support for his case and utter condemnation of the decision to target him both for political and professional reasons.
Mr Abdul Hadi Al Khawaja, the former President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) has been appointed as the Middle East Coordinator for Frontline, the international body for the defence of human rights defenders. The Dublin-based organisation also has an office in Brussels, near the European Parliament. Mr Al Khawaja has a long record of human rights works that he started when he was in exile in the eighties. The BCHR committee held a meeting to decide the next step following Mr Al Khawaja’s resignation. It is now headed by Nabeel Rajab who has been elected the new President.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
17th September 2008