Calls for help as more Bahrainis are subjected to ill treatment in torture chambers
Political disturbances in various parts of the country erupted yesterday and today as the people of Bahrain continued their pro-democracy protests and called for an end to the hereditary dictatorship of the Al Khalifa clan.
At mid day today, the people of Bani Jamra staged a major protest against the allegations made by the ministry of the interior earlier in the week, that 35 of its citizens had been “trained” at a nearby farm to use Molotov cocktail against the death squads. It later transpired that the allegations were baseless and that the “box containing Molotov bottles” was the same box exhibited by the Al Khalifa last year as a proof against another group of Bahrainis. Today’s protest passed peacefully as the death squads did not intervene.
The new wave of protests came at the background of earlier arrests among citizens of Bani Jamra, Abu Saibe’ and Karrana, and the continued unlawful detention of Dr Mohammad Saeed and Hussain Abdul Aziz Al Habshi. The past 24 hours have been among the busiest in terms of anti-regime protests. A massive crackdown against peaceful protestors resulted in 16 arrests in various parts of the country. Yesterday afternoon, a demonstration in Sanabis marched peacefully to the main road before dispersing.
None of the Death Squads was present. It became clear that when those squads do not intervene, no violence happens. They are adopting violent means against the Bahraini people as a routine. Last night the area was cordoned off as more demonstrations took place near Karbabad and the Al Seef Mall. The Death Squads, in plain clothes and armed with electric batons and other arms, waged a wave of terror against the peaceful demonstrators. Several Bahrainis were arrested including a 15 years old boy. Many Bahrainis were injured while others were arrested.. Some needed hospital treatment. Those detained include: Mahmood Ali Mahdi, 22, Ahmad Ali Al Daqqaq, 14, SAyyed Ali Sayyed Akbar, 20 and Sadiq Jaffar Kadhem, 21. ]
Further protests then erupted in Sitra, Sanabis, Daih, Karrana and Zenj. Columns of black smoke were seen rising above the horizon as the demonstrators burnt tyres. Loud explosions were also heard resulting from burnt gas cylinders, a familiar form of protest in Bahrain. Death Squads reacted angrily using disproportionate amounts of tear gas, chemical gases and rubber bullets. Among the detainees from Duraz was Mohammad Yousef Zayed, 27. From Sanabis Ahmad Jamil Abdulla Radhi, 19 was arrested. The detainees were tortured by the Death Squads, apparently on orders from the royal court.
Calls went out for more protest demonstrations in the village of Saar, Abu Saibe, Karranah, Sanabis and Bani Jamrah. Public emotions are running high as a result of the heavy-handed treatment of the demonstrators by the Death Squads. The case of Saeed Ibrahim, 32 from a small village called Marwaza near Sanabis has enraged human rights activists who called for an immediate inquiry into the crime. Another Bahraini (A.A.) is being treated in a private hospital after he was hit by the Death Squads with a rubber bullets in one of his eyes.
Four Bahrainis from Daih are also among the detainees: Ahmad Bader Al Jaziri, 15, Mahdi Abdulla Sa’ad, 17, Hussain Makabees, 14, Fadhel Abbas Abdullah Mushaime’, 15 and
The people of Bahrain appeal to the world for an immediate intervention to curtail the excesses of the Al Khalifa hereditary dictatorship which has hitherto insisted on ignoring the wishes of the people for a contractual constitution to determine the shape and basis of the political system in this country.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
23 February 2007