Bahrain Cracks Down on Further Protests

Photo Credit: AFP/Mohammed al-Shaikh

Unrest continued in Bahrain today as government forces dispersed hundreds of protesters, injuring dozens. Zainab al-Khawaja, daughter of prominent human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja was arrested during the demonstrations, and Al-Wefaq has reportedly said that leading member Ahlam al-Kuzai was arrested, as well. Witnesses said that riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades at crowds numbering in the hundreds, while the state news agency in Bahrain reported that a government ministry bus was attacked with Molotov cocktails. A representative of the prosecutor-general said that two 14-year-old boys were arrested in connection with an attack on a police station. Former Wefaq MP Matar Matar denied that the government is implementing the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission Inquiry report: “More than 16 months since the imposition of martial law, and with the BICI report being there for nine months, more violations were committed and not fewer…whatever was done to implement the BICI recommendations was actually empty… and did not help to change the situation on the ground.”

Meanwhile, six NGOs reacted to French President Francois Hollande‘s meeting with Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. Bahraini state news reported that they discussed the two countries’ relationship, including military cooperation aimed towards “achieving GCC military complementarity for the sake of regional security.” Six human rights organizations signed a public letter to President Hollande expressing concern with the secrecy of the meeting, and the “announcement [that] bilateral military cooperation will be consolidated.” The letter asks Hollande to “state clearly that France deplores Bahrain’s failure to date to implement the most important recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, namely to free those jailed solely for exercising their rights to free expression and peaceful assembly, and to hold accountable senior officials implicated in torture and other serious human rights violations.”