Bahrain: Murder of a citizen; death squads suspected
The Al Khalifa ruling family has refused to form an inquiry into the crime that has shocked Bahrain, despite numerous calls to that effect. In the early hours of Friday 30th March, a young Bahraini citizen was shot while on duty as a security guard at Al Bustan Hotel in Manama.
He fell among two of his colleagues who could not identify the source of the shooting. He was transferred to the hospital where he was said to be “clinically dead”. The ruling family gave credence to rumours that he may have been shot by an armed American soldier attending late night party at the hotel. The US Navy yesterday sharply denied claims that one of its sailors was involved in the shooting.
“Our investigations and our cooperation with the Bahraini authorities indicate that no US Marine was involved in the terrible tragedy,” Lieutenant Commander Charlie Brown, spokesman for the Bahrain-based US Navy, told Gulf News. The Al Khalifa have refused to form an independent committee to investigate the murder attempt on the life of Mr Al Shakhouri. It is also rumoured that Sheikh Hamad’s death squads may be responsible for the crime. Last Summer, another Bahraini citizen, Mahdi Abdul Rahman, was killed in suspicious circumstances. After intensive pressure on the ruling family, his killer was given a light sentence.
What added to the anger of the people is the vicious attack on a peaceful demonstration on Sunday that started from Shakhoura (the town where the victim lives) and marched to nearby Abu Saibe’. The foreign-staffed riot police attacked the demonstrations using chemical gases and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. Several fires were seen on Budaya’ Road as demonstrators fought battles with the death squads.
The crime came amid fears within the Al Khalifa ranks that a new phase of a showdown between the people of Bahrain and the ruling family may have begun. For the past two months civil strife has continued with daily demonstrations, pickets, slogan-writings on the walls and internet articles against the hereditary dictatorship. On Saturday a large demonstration took place in the twon of Bani Jamra to mark the “Black Saturday” when on 1st April 1995 the Al Khalifa murderers shot two young Bahrainis at the town.
It was one of the blackest days of the uprising. The late Sheikh Abdul Amir Al jamri’s house was surrounded by Henderson’s men for three weeks before he was transferred to jail. The demonstration was attended by hundreds of people who shouted anti-regime slogans and called for democracy and human rights in the country to replace Sheikh Hamad’s hereditary dictatorship.
In another development intended to curtail the activities that are outside the Al Khalifa control, the ministry of social development has asked the charitable trusts to register themselves as societies to be governed by the 1989 societies law, imposed by the ruling family on the people of Bahrain. These trusts have existed over the past 20 years to help the poor in the absence of any social help by the ruling Al Khalifa system.
It is estimated that Sheikh Hamad and his clique have been plundering more than US$3 billion each year from oil revenues. They themselves set the country’s budget and allow no one to interfere in the policies concerning oil production levels, prices or revenues. This is in addition to expropriating more than 80 percent of the country’s land, shore and territorial waters, while the natives are encouraged to migrate to neighbouring countries in pursuit of jobs and shelter. It is the rape of a country at an unprecedented scale.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
1st April 2007