bahrain – Page 2

Bahrain: Repressalier mod aktivisters familie

Styret i Bahrain er nu begyndt at slå ned på familiemedlemmer til demokratiaktivister, der bor uden for landets grænser. Sådan gik det for eksempel Sayed Mohamed Shuber, hvis onkel Yasser bor i Storbritannien og er aktiv i bevægelsen for demokrati i Bahrain:

At 2.20 yesterday morning, Bahraini and Saudi forces raided 20-year old Sayed Mahmood Shuber’s home in Jidali in Bahrain. They pointed guns at the heads of his family and abducted him. They beat him. He has now disappeared.

The abduction seems to be part of a concerted effort to punish Bahrainis in Britain and their families for expressing solidarity with the revolts against the country’s regime.

Yasser, Sayed’s uncle, is a British citizen living in Bolton. His family telephoned him to tell him about their ordeal.

Yasser told Socialist Worker, “Seven jeeps and two civilian cars pulled up outside the house. They raided the house, started shouting and pushing the family around.

“Some of them were in blue uniforms–the uniforms of special branch. Others were in civilian clothes and wore balaclavas so that only their eyes were showing.

“My nephew Sayed was beaten in front of his family very badly. The men then pointed a gun at him. My sister, Sayed’s mother, says she began screaming, ‘Don’t shoot my son’.

“The men then pointed a gun at her, telling her to shut up or they’d kill them both. From the accents my sister could tell that some were Saudi and some Bahraini.”

The men took Sayed’s laptop and mobile phone. They brought with them some papers and documents into the house and went into his room. They came out with papers and documents and took them away.”

“My dad has been arrested before and held for seven days. They stopped giving him his medication and told him it was because of my activities in Britain.“The Bahraini authorities monitor people in Britain. Maybe they saw me on demonstrations in Manchester in support of the democracy movement. Now my nephew is being punished.

“I call for justice and democracy and freedom for the people of Bahrain. But you ask for freedom on Bahrain and this is what you get.”

Med hensyn til USAs rolle og håbet eller mangel på samme om hjælp fra den amerikanske regering er Yasser som de fleste aktivister i eller fra Mellemøsten særdeles afvisende:

“The British and US governments are plain hypocrites. The US has marines patrolling the Saudi boarder with Bahrain. We don’t want any military in Bahrain, we want the US bases gone.

“For 100 years the US has used Bahrain to attack Japan, Vietnam, and to supposedly free Afghanistan and Iraq.

“We don’t get anything from this apart from more repression by our own government. The Bahraini government buys arms from the US to use against the people. The US marines train the army and special forces in Bahrain. Those people are the ones killing the protesters now.

“The people of Bahrain are strong and united, and can resolve their own issues. We do not want any foreign intervention. Our real friends in Britain and the US are the people who marched against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Link: Bahrainian government targets family members of pro-democracy campaigners in Britain

EU: OK at dræbe demonstranter

EUs toprådgiver for Mellemøsten udtaler nu, at det er OK at skyde demonstranter ned med skarpt, hvis det er det, der skal til for at genoprette ro og orden i Libyen Syrien Bahrain.

Det skriver The Guardian:

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, has denounced the beating of medical personnel and the takeover of hospitals by security forces.

But Robert Cooper, one of the EU’s highest-ranking diplomats and councillor to Ashton on the Middle East and the Balkans, told MEPs: “I’m not sure if the police have had to deal with these public order questions before. It’s not easy dealing with large demonstrations in which there may be violence. It’s a difficult task for policemen. It’s not something that we always get right in the best western countries and accidents happen.”

Briefing MEPs after a fact-finding mission to the Gulf, Cooper stressed that two of those killed were police. He said that Bahrain, home to the US fifth fleet, is “a rather pleasant, peaceful place”.

While still calling for dialogue between protesters and the government, he said: “One should understand the authorities were right to restore calm and order and that’s what they’ve done.”

Breaking news: Bombetogterne over Libyen afblæses. “One should understand that Gaddafi was right to restore calm and order and that’s what he’s done”, udtaler EUs udsending for området. Eller Assad. Eller Ahamadinejad. Hvorfor er det lige præcis, det ikke fungerer lige sådan med hensyn til krav om frihed og demokrati i lande, vi ikke er allieret med?

Demo in support of Bahrain, Copenhagen 18.3.2001

“Situationen i den arabiske verden er nu, at i kølvandet af alt det, som skete i Egypten, har folket fået nok. Folket har fået nok af undertrykkelse, og nu siger de stop. Dette er ikke en religiøs kamp. Det her handler rent og skært om basisfriheder: Frihed, rettighed og lighed til alt!”

Via Fatima Al-Hashimi.

Hvor er FN-resolutionerne for at beskytte civilbefolkningen i Bahrain?

Eller Yemen, for den sags skyld. Hykleriet har spist dem: Yemen har ingen olie, og det er vores allierede Saudi-Arabien der har invaderet Bahrain. Og Bahrain har heller ikke selv noget olie. Så det taler vi ikke om, som Tom Scocca skriver i Slate:

The helpful thing, if you’re overwhelmed by so much news going on at once, is that Bahrain is roughly the same story as Libya—only instead of pro-democracy protesters being murdered by a terrorist-sponsoring monster of a dictator who has been on America’s enemies list for ages, the pro-democracy protesters are being murdered by a government that is America’s very own dear ally. And where Qaddafi brought in foreign mercenaries for support, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain brought in troops from our even more vital ally, Saudi Arabia.

So basically, take all those proud feelings about the United States standing up for freedom and human rights in Libya and turn them inside out, and vomit into them. That’s Bahrain.

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are the same rotten royalist dictatorships they’ve always been. And they’ve been on our side. The helicopters over the square were reportedly American-made Cobras, because the Royal Bahraini Air Force flies what we sell them; the rifles on the ground are American M16s. Freedom and democracy are what we talk about. Values are what we do.

Så, som Scocca skriver – tag al snakken om demokrati og menneskerettigheder og bræk dig på dem; så ved du, hvad alle de gode ord om demokrati og menneskerettigheder og beskyttelse af civilbefolkningen i Lbyen er værd.

Link: Would a No-Fly Zone Over America Save the Democracy Movement in Bahrain?

Også på Boing Boing.

Bahrain bløder – solidaritet med Bahrain 18. marts på Rådhuspladsen i København

Som Erik Ernst skriver i en kommentar:

Et opråb til alle frihedselskende sjæle.

Et opråb til alle, som er imod tyranni og despoti.

Et opråb til alle, som er imod undertrykkelse og for humanisme.

Et opråb til alle, som er for ytringsfrihed og universelle menneskerettigheder.

Ethvert frit menneske bedes deltage aktivt i kampen mod undertrykkelse og tyranni fra Al Khalifa-dynastiet i Bahrain.

Demonstrationen afholdes Fredag 18-03-2011 kl. 14:00-16:00.

Optog fra Rådhuspladsen til Christiansborg Slotsplads.

Send venligst videre til alle dine kontakter.

Fatima Al-Hashimi er ikke den eneste, der undrer sig over den tilsyneladende accept af Saudi-Arabiens invasion af Bahrain, mens man er klar til både bombning og invasion af Libyen, og det på trods af den libyske oprørsbevægelses erklærede ønske:

Lande, som råber allerhøjst om basale menneskerettigheder og frihed, synes sjovt nok tavse som aldrig set før. Behandlingen af de politiske fanger, den manglende ytringsfrihed, uhyrlige drab og skud, synes nu ikke særligt vigtige for disse lande, og man “overser” dem blot. Det må man sige. Hvis ikke dette er hykleri, ved jeg ikke hvad ordet ‘hykleri’ indebærer.

Vi så i det mindste, at demonstranterne ved den tunesiske og egyptiske revolution fik noget, som vi i nogen grad kan kalde “støtte”(i mine øjne er det et spil for galleriet, da jeg ikke er naiv og tror, at USA og co. virkelig ønskede at slippe af med de to tidligere diktatorer i Tunesien og Egypten. De var jo trods alt vigtige allierede), men hvad angår Bahrain, ser man passivt på Saudi Arabiens indtræden i denne arabiske stat, og sjovt nok er der ingen snak om brud på diplomatisk snak med dem, eller noget der ville minde om dette. Intet.

Jeg kan ikke selv komme til demoen i morgen, men vil gerne opfordre folk til at deltage. Hvis nogen gør det, er de velkommen til at lægge deres oplevelse af demonstrationen på en mail eller som kommentar til dette indlæg, så vil jeg skrive et indlæg om, hvordan den er faldet ud.

Demonstrationer i Saudi-Arabien – blodig vold i Bahrain

Demonstrationer i Saudi-Arabien. Hvis blot dette forbandede regime ville falde:

Imens slår saudi-arabiske styrker og andre fremmede lejetropper ned overalt i Bahrain:

FN advarer om forfærdende menneskeretskrænkelser i Bahrain – hvis nogen skulle være i tvivl om, hvad der foregår:

UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay says reports of arbitrary arrests and killings amount to shocking and illegal conduct by the Bahraini regime.

“There are reports of arbitrary arrests, killings, beatings of protesters and of medical personnel, and of the takeover of hospitals and medical centres by various security forces,” she said.

In recent days at least six people have been killed as Bahraini security forces moved in to crush the month-long protests that have shut down the capital, Manama.

With the help of foreign troops, the regime has driven protesters off the streets using tanks, tear gas and live ammunition.

Key opposition leaders calling for the overthrow of Bahrain’s ruling family and the resignation of the government have also been arrested.

Five Shiite activists and one Sunni dissident were arrested Thursday after the army imposed a curfew on parts of Manama using its powers under newly imposed martial law, opposition sources said.

“Four men arrived around two in the morning. One of them put a revolver to my husband’s temple and took him away without even giving us time to call his lawyer,” Farida Gulam, the wife of detained leftist Ibrahim Sharif, told reporters.

Opposition MP Khalil al-Marzouk also said Dr Ali al-Ekri, who had been accused on state TV of spreading “fabrications” about conditions at Salmaniya hospital, was arrested there on Thursday.

Bahrain’s military confirmed it had arrested a number of people for crimes including sedition, murder and having contact with foreign states but gave no details.

Meanwhile, in Bahrain

Folk fortsætter med at demonstrere for frihed og lighed mellem shiaer og sunnier:

256709837 — Unge i Bahrain demonstrerer mod regeringen.

Og sikkerhedsstyrkerne slår ned, godt hjulpet af de ca. 1000 saudiarabiske soldater, der er rykket ind i landet:

258194817 — Demonstranter forsøger at skaffe lægehjælp til en hårdt såret kammerat.

I mellemtiden erklærer USA, at de ikke betragter den saudiske indrykning som en invasion, og Hillary Clinton opfordrer igen “begge sider” til at udvise tilbageholdenhed.

Angry Arab viderebringer denne opsummering af de seneste begivenheder:

Pro-government thugs attack nurses at the university of Bahrain while mingling with riot police. They can be heard trashing the building (whereas the state television claims the protesters did it). When one of them attacks the nurses, he says “قاعدة اتعالجهم؟” or “she’s treating them?”

Two videos: 1) thugs inside the university; 2) thugs entering the university, freely mingling with cops. When spotted, the cameraman was shot at by the cops and attacked by a thug 14/3/2011

Video of police using live rounds: Same incident from a different angle:

A paper allegedly confiscated from a thug. it lists shi’a villages and block numbers. It has the Ministry of Interior logo on the top.

Official statement from the left-leaning National Democratic Action Society (Waad) about its headquarters being trashed by thugs

Thugs caught 14/3/2011

Costa in Riffa trashed by thugs 14/3/2011

Bahrain army meets US Fifth Fleet Commander on the same day Saudi troops entered the country:

Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) stops exporting oil due to general strike

picture of man shot in the head 15/3/2011 (VERY GRAPHIC)

pro-gov thugs protected by riot police 15/3/2011

protesters surround Saudi embassy 15/3/2011

Thugs attack opposition-friendly Al Wasat newspaper

Amnesty International’s condemnation of state violence:

Amnesty: Bahraini human rights activists being threatened with death.

Saudierne har indledt “Operation Bahraini Freedom”, for nu at hugge udtrykket fra et andet indlæg hos Angry Arab.

Se også dette indslag fra Al-Jazeera om nødretstilstanden og myndighedernes eskalering af situationen:

Saudi-Arabien sender styrker til Bahrain for at slå oprøret ned

Som vi læser i The Guardian. Men selvfølgelig skal vi intervenere i olie, jeg mener Libyen. Demokrati er en god ting, især i lande, vi ikke er allieret med.

Good morning, Bahrain!

De helt bevidste drab på fredelige demonstranter torsdag og fredag medførte en så voldsom reaktion, at styret i Bahrain lørdag eftermiddag valgte at trække miltær og politi bort fra urolighederne. Kronprins Salman lover dialog og opfordrer folk til at gå hjem, men demonstranterne er vrede og nægter at gå hjem, før deres krav er efterlevet.

Mange har givet udtryk for skuffelse over den amerikanske regerings manglende eller i bedste fald særdeles valne støtte til demokratibevægelserne i den arabiske verden. Den megen tale om “stabilitet” er under alle omstændigheder en fornærmelse – har en undertrykt befolkning brug for stabilitet? Nej, de har brug for frihed, frihed og mere frihed, som den palæstinensiske journalist Naser Alsehli forklarede til et møde om situationen, jeg deltog i forleden.

En anden måde at sige det på er, at det ville være godt, hvis USA fra starten havde tilkendegivet en klar støtte til protesterne i Tunesien og Egypten – for USAs egen skyld! Folk i området er ligeglade og ønsker ikke længere USAs støtte, som Robert Fisk forklarer i The Independent:

“The Americans interfered in our country for 30 years under Mubarak, supporting his regime, arming his soldiers,” an Egyptian student told me in Tahrir Square last week. “Now we would be grateful if they stopped interfering on our side.” At the end of the week, I heard identical voices in Bahrain. “We are getting shot by American weapons fired by American-trained Bahraini soldiers with American-made tanks,” a medical orderly told me on Friday. “And now Obama wants to be on our side?”

Folk er allerede begyndt at tale om den “anden afkolonialisering” – 50-80 år efter, at den arabiske verden holdt op med at være vestlige kolonier af navn, holder de også op med at være det af gavn. Vestens og USAs indflydelse er måske ved at være forbi. Hverken krigen i Irak eller Obamas og Clintons fumlen har gjort det lettere for USA at hoppe på toget. Det er endnu alt for tidligt at sige, hvad det hele ender med, men herfra skal ønskes masser af held og lykke til de gode oprørere i Bahrain, der nu er begyndt at tage deres egen by tilbage. Måtte de få alle deres krav opfyldt.

Samtidig, i Bahrain

Erklæring fra Amnesty International. Fik jeg nævnt, at regeringen i Bahrain er en af USAs allervigtigste allierede i Golfen, og at Hillary Clinton opfordrer til tilbageholdenhed “fra begge sider”? Ifølge Al Jazeeras live-dækning er mindst 66 sårede indlagt i dag, værre tilredt end ved gårsdagens demonstrationer. Antallet af døde og sårede kan forventes at stige.

Øjenvidner fortæller, at det både er hæren og politiet, der skyder på civilbefolkningen. Herunder endnu et klip, der viser nogle af resultaterne af disse skyderier: