PolicyMic- By John Horne and Ahmed Ali
An unlikely, unexpected, and dangerous trade has formed between South Korea and Bahrain. South Korea has been exporting loads of teargas to Bahrain, turning a blind eye to the deadly harm that it is causing in the government’s efforts to crack down on protesters.
The Bahrain government has engaged in a relentless crackdown since February 2011 against a population calling for democracy, human rights, and socio-economic justice. Western governments, with strategic and commercial interests in the Kingdom, have continually turned a blind eye to ongoing torture, extrajudicial killing, suppression of free expression, and arbitrary persecutions. However, while policing equipment manufactured by U.S. and UK companies was documented in Bahrain in 2011, the scale of the violations has made further exports of purported “crowd-control” weapons unpalatable by those countries.
Accordingly, Bahrain has been turning further afield for assistance. One such country is South Korea, a G20 member and staunch Western ally, whose companies have found a ready market in Bahrain for teargas and other repressive equipment. The two states have formed closer commercial and security ties since the start of the 2011 uprising, despite Bahrain’s appallinghuman rights record since then.
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