[News] Blood on the Streets of Bahrain

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/amiri02182011.html

February 18 - 20, 2011


Days of Rage; Decades of Oppression


Blood on the Streets of Bahrain

By RANNIE AMIRI

Bahrain has one of the most advanced medical 
systems in the Middle East, the best ICT sector 
in the region and the fastest growing economy in the Arab world.

But despite all these accomplishments, the 
country seems to be missing just one little 
thing: a doctor who can identify signs of torture.

– Benjamin Joffe-Walt writing for 
<http://news.change.org/stories/severe-bruising-and-burns-signs-of-torture-guess-again>Change.org, 
12 November 2010

February 14th was Bahrain’s turn for its “day of 
rage” against the striking social, political and 
economic inequities found in the tiny island 
kingdom. For those familiar with its modern 
history, however, they know there was no need to 
dub it such; Bahrainis have long raged against 
policies of exclusion, marginalization and 
sectarianism embodied in al-Khalifa family rule.

To fully appreciate Bahrain’s inherent 
volatility, it is important to understand both 
its demographics and political structure. These 
have been 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/amiri09032010.html>detailed 
in past essays which new readers can 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/amiri09242010.html>review. 
Briefly, of 1.2 million people in the Persian 
Gulf nation, only about 530,000 are Bahraini 
nationals. Of these, at least 70 percent are Shia 
Muslims. The king, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa 
al-Khalifa, and the al-Khalifa dynasty that has 
ruled Bahrain for two centuries, are Sunni Muslims.

If meaningful, representative, democratic 
institutions were present in the country, the 
sectarian incongruity would be a mere footnote. 
Unfortunately, that is far from the case. The 
civil, political and human rights of Shia 
citizens have been trampled on for decades by the 
monarchy. This wholly belies the claim that 
Bahrain is a beacon of democracy and reform among 
Persian Gulf nations (a notion likewise 
promulgated by its stalwart ally, the United States).

The notorious citizenship laws­giving 
non-Bahraini Sunnis expedited citizenship and 
voting rights in a backdoor attempt to alter the 
state’s confessional makeup­is one of many 
examples of how the monarchy has long bred 
resentment and anger among the majority population.

The disenfranchised, poverty-stricken Shia hold 
no significant positions in government. Although 
they comprise 80 percent of the labor force, they 
are absent from the public sector. They are 
completely unrepresented in the security 
services: of the 1,000 employed in the National 
Security Apparatus, more than two-thirds are 
non-Bahraini (Jordanians, Egyptians, Pakistanis 
etc.) and overwhelmingly Sunni. Bahraini Shias 
constitute less than five percent of the NSA and 
occupy only low-level positions or act as paid informants.

The paramilitary Special Security Forces operates 
under the supervision of the NSA and numbers 
20,000­90 percent of whom are non-Bahraini. The 
SSF does not include a single Bahraini Shia officer.

These security forces, housed in Manama’s upscale 
neighborhoods of course, are routinely unleashed 
on Bahraini Shia protesting their lot­imported 
henchmen serving to oppress the king’s subjects.

Last summer, the government rounded up dozens of 
human rights workers, religious leaders and 
opposition figures who demanded an end to the 
regime’s habitual use of torture. Twenty-five 
were charged with “contacting foreign 
organizations and providing them with false and 
misleading information about the kingdom.” Half 
were charged with attempting to stage a coup. . 
In total, 450 have been arrested, including the 
well-known pro-democracy blogger Ali Abdulemam.

Claiming they were tortured by security forces 
before being put on trial, the government’s 
expert medical examiner concluded the bruises, 
wounds, cuts and burns found on detainees’ bodied 
were not the result of torture.

Indeed, its specter looms over all those who oppose al-Khalifa rule.

In February 2010, Human Rights Watch released a 
landmark report titled 
“<http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2010/02/08/torture-redux-0>Torture 
Redux: The Revival of Physical Coercion during 
Interrogations in Bahrain.” It chronicles the 
routine use of torture and degrading treatment 
for the purpose of extracting confessions from 
political opponents. The organization’s 
<http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2011/world-report-2011-bahrain>2011 
World Report reaffirms the practice continues. 
Even more disturbing, Bahraini 
<http://www.bahrainrights.org/en/node/3719>children 
have not been spared physical and sexual abuse at 
the hands of the secret police.

But choosing Feb. 14 as Bahrain’s day of rage was 
not done randomly. It marked the tenth 
anniversary of the referendum on the National 
Action Charter, which Sheikh Hamad promised would 
transform the Kingdom into a constitutional 
monarchy, and the ninth anniversary of the 2002 
constitution purportedly enacting it.

It was all for show. Despite Bahrain’s elected 
parliament, real power lies with the upper house 
Shura Council. The Shura Council has the 
authority to approve or rescind any legislation 
passed by the lower house Council of 
Representatives. Shura members, unsurprisingly, 
are directly appointed by the king.

Monday’s protestors, who acted peacefully by all 
<http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/02/15/bahrain-stop-attacks-peaceful-protesters>accounts, 
were met by riot police using live ammunition. 
Scores were injured. The uprising’s first martyr, 
27-year-old Ali Abdul Hadi Mushaima, was killed 
by a gunshot wound to the back. At his funeral 
procession Tuesday, security forces fatally shot 
Fadel Salman al-Matrouk, 31, a mourner who had 
gathered with others in front of the hospital where Mushaima died.

Sensing the potential for unrest, the king 
granted each Bahraini family $2,650 in cash 
before protests even began. After Mushaima and 
al-Matrook’s deaths, he went on television to 
express his regret and promise an investigation 
into their deaths. As in Egypt, the regime’s 
actions woefully lagged behind events on the ground.

Thousands of Bahrainis occupied Manama’s Pearl 
Roundabout Tuesday and Wednesday, with the youth 
at the helm. They chanted, “No Shiites, no 
Sunnis, only Bahrainis.”  Tents were set up and 
preparations were made for a long peaceful encampment.

Early Thursday morning, while protestors slept, 
the situation took an ugly, violent turn. Riot 
police 
<http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hm4-UsJZW15taF3FqXQHmqLXPkdQ?docId=CNG.527c915435c26814aef6a943e8f70089.641>stormed 
through the camp, killing four and injuring 100. 
Sixty people are reported missing (numbers at the 
time of this writing, all likely to increase). 
Tanks were out in full force as hundreds flooded 
into hospitals. Manama is now in lock-down.

Statements of those present come from an 
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_bahrain_protests>AP 
report:

“They were beating me so hard I could no longer 
see. There was so much blood running from my head 

 I was yelling, ‘I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor.’ But they didn't stop.”

“We yelled, ‘We are peaceful! Peaceful!’ The 
women and children were attacked just like the 
rest of us 
 They moved in as soon as the media 
left us. They knew what they're doing.”

“Then all of a sudden the square was filled with 
tear gas clouds. Our women were screaming. ... 
What kind of ruler does this to his people? There 
were women and children with us!”

Bahrainis’ demands are clear: the resignation of 
Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa­who 
has governed since 1971­to be replaced by an 
elected premier, the release of all political 
prisoners, a new constitution, an end to the 
systematic discrimination against Shias and all 
forms of sectarianism, repeal of the citizenship 
laws, fairness in distribution of jobs and 
housing, freedom of the press and religion, and an end to torture.

The al-Khalifa monarchy and its imported 
mercenaries are at a crossroads. The protestors’ 
demands are reasonable and legitimate. The king 
would be wise to accede to them before overthrow 
of the entire regime becomes their only 
acceptable alternative. After Thursday’s violent 
crackdown against unarmed civilians, there may now be no other option.

Rannie Amiri is an independent Middle East commentator.




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