ANYTHING GOES
In January 2015, Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), was hauled into court for “insulting a public institution” over Twitter. He had accused the security forces of encouraging violent beliefs similar to those held by ISIS. On Sept. 5, 2016, Rajab, who faces up to 15 years’ imprisonment, was also charged with publishing an op-ed in the New York Times on Sept. 4, 2016. At the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council, held in Geneva on Sept. 13, 2016, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein expressed concern about Manama’s continuing harassment, arrests of human rights defenders and political activists and criticized legislation that can strip Bahrainis of citizenship. He called for Manama “to comply with the recommendations of the Human Rights mechanisms” and engage more productively with his office and the Human Rights Council’s special procedures. Bahrain’s human rights record will be examined under the Universal Periodic Review in 2017. He stressed, “Only by working together can we solve our common problems. There is no alternative.” Abdulhadi Abdulla Hubail al-Khawaja, 55, a Bahraini-Danish human rights activist, was imprisoned on April 9, 2011. On June 22, 2011, a military court sentenced him and eight other activists to life imprisonment. He is a former Middle East and North Africa Protection Coordinator for Front Line Defenders, a former BCHR president, as well as a member of the International Advisory Network of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre headed by former Irish president Mary Robinson. He has worked with Amnesty International and, in 2005, was named “Activist of the Year” by the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists. The BCHR reported that during Nov. 21-27, 2016, 34 people were sentenced to a total of 4,834 years in prison. Of them, 15 were sentenced to life imprisonment and one was stripped of his citizenship. Washington lifted military aid restrictions on June 29, 2015, claiming that Manama had supposedly taken steps to improve its human rights record and was an ally in the fight against ISIS. It had held back a $53 million arms sale after Manama crushed the 2011 Arab Spring-related protests. Human rights groups and some members of Congress had sharply criticized this sale. And yet this decision came less than two weeks after a Bahraini court sentenced Sheikh Ali Salman, the country’s highest-profile opposition figure, to four years in jail for publicly
criticizing the government. Salman is the secretary general of Al Wifaq, the country’s largest legally recognized opposition political party. The Human Rights Watch report of July 2, 2015, noted that Washington’s claim of “meaningful progress” contrasted with the conclusions of the State Department’s 2014 Human Rights Report, released on June 25, 2015, that “The most serious human rights problems included citizens’ limited ability to change their government peacefully; arrest and detention of protesters (some of whom were violent) on vague charges, occasionally leading to their torture and mistreatment in detention; and lack of due process in trials of political and human rights activists, students, and journalists, including harsh sentences.” A sign of this “meaningful progress” was
obtained by ProPublica states that military equipment worth $51 million was delivered during the year, starting in October 2010. According to the State Department, the U.S. has sold it $1.4 billion worth of weapons since 2000. The sales only came under scrutiny after Manama killed at least 19 people in the early months of the 2011 crackdown. Following congressional criticism, in fall 2011 the administration froze a proposed sale of Humvees and missiles. But Foreign Policy reported that other unspecified equipment was sold without any public notification. The new documents offered more details, such as the sale of a “Blackhawk helicopter armament” in November 2011 and a missile system in January 2012. In May 2012, the administration announced that it was
THE HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH REPORT OF JULY 2, 2015, NOTED THAT WASHINGTON’S CLAIM OF “MEANINGFUL PROGRESS” CONTRASTED WITH THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT’S 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ... the June 19, 2015 release of Ibrahim Sharif, former head of the Waed secular group, after spending four years in jail for his involvement in the 2011 Shiite-led anti-government protests. He was re-arrested three weeks later for “violating the law.” U.S. Defense Department documents released to ProPublica in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, covering a yearlong period ending in Feb. 2012, revealed arms sales that included ammunition, combat vehicle parts, communications equipment, Blackhawk helicopters and an unidentified missile system — supposedly only for the country’s defense. Human rights advocates assert that the documents raise questions about items that could be used against civilian protesters, wrote Justin Elliott of ProPublica (Jan. 15, 2013). Time magazine reported in mid-March 2011 that Cobra helicopters had conducted “live ammunition air strikes” on protesters. The Obama administration stood by Bahrain’s minority Sunni dynasty during the almost two years of protests. After all, this autocratic kingdom is a longtime ally, home to the large American naval base that hosts its Fifth Fleet, and viewed as particularly important given the ongoing tensions with Iran. The itemized arms sales list does not include dollar values. A separate document
releasing some unspecified items to Bahrain’s military that “are not used for crowd control” while withholding the Humvees and TOW missiles. State Department spokesman Noel Clay told ProPublica, “We continue to withhold the export of lethal and crowd-control items intended predominately for internal security purposes, and have resumed on a case-bycase basis items related exclusively to external defense, counter-terrorism, and the protection of U.S. forces.” In November 2012, an Amnesty International report found that despite government promises, “the reform process has been shelved and repression unleashed.” According to the International Business Times (8/22/2016), “between 2010 and 2012 the [Hillary] Clinton-led State Department approved $630 million worth of direct commercial arms sales to Salman’s military forces in Bahrain. That was a 187 percent increase from the period 2006 to 2008, and the increase came as Bahrain was violently suppressing uprisings.” The paper also stated that the State Department “approved the sale of over $700,000 worth of ‘toxicological agents’ to a regime accused of using chemical agents like tear gas against its own people. ih Umberine Abdullah is a freelance writer.
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