A Security Alert and an Organized Media Fright and Artificial Amassing the People Following the Aggravating Speech by the King and his Uncle the Prime Minister
17/8/2010
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights received with great concern news on the mounting security deterioration and increase of arrests which this time targeted three well-known human rights activists and defenders, in an organized suppression campaign released by the escalating speeches by the country’s King Hamad Al-Khalifa, and his uncle the Prime Minister Khalifa Al-Khalifa, and the Minister of Interior Rashid Al-Khalifa, accompanied with an artificial public and media fright that incites hatred and smearing the reputation of those detainees and criminating them before they are even brought forth to the Public Prosecution and Court which are affiliated with the Executive Authority.
A Security Alert and an Organized Media Fright and Artificial Amassing the People Following the Aggravating Speech by the King and his Uncle the Prime Minister
17/8/2010
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights received with great concern news on the mounting security deterioration and increase of arrests which this time targeted three well-known human rights activists and defenders, in an organized suppression campaign released by the escalating speeches by the country’s King Hamad Al-Khalifa, and his uncle the Prime Minister Khalifa Al-Khalifa, and the Minister of Interior Rashid Al-Khalifa, accompanied with an artificial public and media fright that incites hatred and smearing the reputation of those detainees and criminating them before they are even brought forth to the Public Prosecution and Court which are affiliated with the Executive Authority.
After the Security Authorities arrested the well-known human rights activist Abdul-Jalil Al-Singace in the morning of Friday 13 August 2010, three activists were arrested simultaneously in the dawn of Sunday, 15 August 2010, and they are Abdul-Ghani Khanjjar and he is a well-known Bahraini human rights activist and heads the National Committee of Martyrs and Torture Victims – it is the Committee that works on documenting the violations of the past period and forming local and international pressures to question the perpetrators of the torture crimes witnessed by the country during the past period and where the Prime Minister and several current political and security leaders are involved in – Khanjjar is also the spokesperson of the Bahraini Coalition for Truth and Equity, and it is a coalition that is made up of 11 Bahraini political and human rights societies. Al-Khanjjar and along with the detainee Dr. Abdul-Jalil Al-Singace and representatives of a group of local and international organizations had taken part in the symposium held recently in London and which addressed the violations of human rights in Bahrain. The symposium was under the patronage of Lord Avebury, Deputy Chairman of the Human Rights Committee at the House of Lords. It seems, by the statement published in the local newspapers in the name of a security source, that this symposium was one of the reasons that pushed the Authority to arrest Al-Khanjjar and his colleague Dr. Al-Singace.
The second detainee is Sheikh Mohammed Habib Al-Muqdad, (48 years old) from Bilad-al-Qadeem area; he is a Shiite cleric and a social activist who heads the Al-Zahraa Charity Center for Orphan Care. Sheikh Al-Muqdad is known for delivering straightforward speeches that criticize the Authority at various areas in Bahrain, and that aim at raising public awareness on the human rights issues of the community, among them fighting poverty and corruption and educating people on human rights, and fighting sectarian discrimination, arbitrary detention and torture and demanding the release of the detainees. Al-Muqdad had led a group of victims and those affected to file complaints against the Bahraini Minister of Interior in the Public Prosecution, for the assaults practiced by the Special Forces and for their use of shotgun against the participants in the protests. The BCHR fears that targeting Al-Muqdad is as a message to him and a warning to all who resort to filing legal lawsuits against the security officials for the violations witnessed in the country. Al-Muqdad had been summoned for interrogation last month in the Public Prosecution, on the charge of leading an unauthorized demonstration to Salmaniya Government hospital to visit someone who was injured with shotgun. The third detainee is Sheikh Saeed Al-Nori and he is a Shiite cleric and one of the Bahraini opposition figures, as well as a leader in the Islamic Wafaa Movement which is a Bahraini opposition movement demanding democracy and fighting sectarian discrimination and political naturalization since its establishment in the beginning of 2008, after a protest and hunger strike carried out by a group of political and human rights figures demanding the release of the detainees. Sheikh Al-Noori’s latest activity was during the last months when he participated in organizing demonstrations demanding the release of the detainees and delivering a number of speeches in public areas to demand democracy, liberties and respecting human rights.
The use of sound bombs and tear gas to disperse a number of activists in front of the Public Prosecution
Since the moment of their arrest which was initiated with the arrest of Dr. Al-Singace last Friday and until writing this report, all the detainees are being held in custody in unknown places that are isolated from the outside world, and their families or lawyers are prohibited from visiting them. Through the nature of arrest and detention, it seems that the Bahraini Authority is heading towards charging the activists according to the Bahraini Anti-Terrorism Law, and which is the law that has been internationally condemned by the UN Special Rapporteur on Promoting and Protecting Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the context of counter-terrorism[1], and the International Commission of Jurists[2], Amnesty International[3], Human Rights Watch[4] and several other human rights organizations. In addition to that, arresting the four activists had sparked a wave of commotion in several Shiite-dominated villages. In the last two days, the fully armed Special Forces surrounded the villages and used sound bombs, teargas, rubber bullets and shotgun to suppress the angry demonstrators who threw stones back at the Security Forces, and blocked the roads with stones, tires and garbage containers blazed with fire.
unrest at the Bahraini villages
The arrest and detention was accompanied with a media fright and artificial amassing of the people to create a hostile environment towards the detainees and the institutes they belong to, and towards the protest acts witnessed in the country as a result of the policies of the ruling regime. The villages and areas of Bahrain are witnessing escalating public protests as a result of the Authority’s policy in the continuous arbitrary arrest, systematic torture in the detention centers and prisons, political naturalization which aims at changing the demography, systematic discrimination against the citizens who belong to the Shiite sect, and raiding their villages by the Special Forces who are brought as mercenary forces which the Authority takes it strength from against the country’s people. This is in addition to the increasing level of poverty and the spread of corruption in the polity by taken over public lands and wealth, as well as the Authority, represented by the Royal Court, entering as a party in fueling the differences between the Shiite and Sunnis, and marginalizing the role of the Parliament and humiliating its members, in addition to enabling individuals from the group of officials and the covert groups revealed by the report of the former government adviser and which is executing the a serious plot to marginalize the Shiite sect and penetrating the opposition and civil society institutions. The Authority, and instead of turning to dialogue and laying down radical solutions to sort the unresolved files that stand behind the political and social tension, the Authority resorted to the security solutions by taking strength in the foreign forces to suppress the protests and to pursue the activists and smear their reputation and charge them with incitement to violence.
It is known about the Authority in Bahrain that every time the external and internal pressures increase to improve the human rights conditions, it resorts to creating fabricated stories about the presence of a terror plot that is related to the outside or that there is someone who is targeting destabilizing the security, and it uses this to carry out a campaign of arrests that target the political opposition and human rights defenders; however, the facts quickly find their way out to the local and international public opinion, and the Authority end up having to release the detainees under the pretext of pardoning them. The last of these various stories was announcing in December 2008 that a terror plot which was targeting the stability of Bahrain was revealed, and it was known as Al-Hujira Case.
Based on many of the previous cases, and the increase of the suppressive procedures by the Authorities against the opposition and human rights defenders, and by studying the nature of work and speeches of the four activists, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights has strong grounds to believe that the arrest and charges against the abovementioned activists is related to their engagement in peaceful and legitimate activities related to democratic reform and promoting human rights, and practicing their fundamental rights, and especially freedom of expression, assembling and forming societies.
Therefore, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights demands the following:
1. The immediate release of the four detained activists and to stop the prosecutions related to the peaceful and legitimate activities they are practicing;
2. Ensuring the rights of the four activists during the detention, including the immediate rights of calls and family visits, and the legal advice and appropriate health care;
3. Annulling the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2006 and amending the Penal Code of 1976 and the other laws related to public liberties, for them to be compatible with the international conventions of human rights, especially those related to practicing the fundamental human rights such as the right to expression, organizing, assembling and defending human rights;
4. Putting an end to the use of excessive force, arbitrary arrest, abuse, torture and unjust trials;
5. Putting an end to targeting human rights defenders and taking the legislative and practical measures to provide protection for them;
6. Prosecuting the ones responsible for all those violations and redress the victims and those affected.
[1] UN Statement on Anti-Terrorism Law [2] International Commission of Jurists Statement on Anti-Terrorism Law [3] Amnesty Statement on Anti-Terrorism Law [4] HRW Statement on Anti-Terrorism Law