Why US Interests Are More Important Than Bahraini Lives

TEHRAN (FNA)- Bahrain's main opposition group, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, has censured the recent jail terms handed down to scores of people over taking part in a sit-in in 2017.

Al-Wefaq has condemned Manama’s judiciary of convicting innocent people after a court handed down prison terms to 167 Bahrainis for holding a sit-in in protest at the regime’s decision to revoke the citizenship of prominent Shia Muslim cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim almost two years ago.

The movement has called on the international community to wake up and take note of the human rights violation unfolding in Bahrain. The defendants convicted have received 

sentences ranging from one to 10 years behind bars. They were charged with rioting and taking part in an illegal gathering.

On May 23, 2017, the Al Khalifah regime forces raided the village of Diraz, which had been under a military siege for almost a year, and stormed into the home of Sheikh Isa Qassim, putting the cleric under house arrest. The ailing cleric has since left the country to receive medical treatment. During the crackdown, regime forces killed at least five demonstrators, wounded dozens and arrested over 280 people.

What’s sad in all this is that the regime’s justice system instead of trying those who killed innocent protesters, unarmed citizens and shot them with live rounds alive in cold blood has done the opposite. It has imprisoned many protesters, stripped the cleric of his citizenship, and later dissolved the Islamic Enlightenment Institution founded by Sheikh Qassim as well as the opposition al-Risala Islamic Association.

Into the argument, the anti-regime protesters never took up arms. They are peacefully demanding that the un-elected Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just and elected system representing all Bahrainis to be established.

This is yet to be the case, as Al Khalifah regime receives diplomatic impunity from the United States and its European allies. They even allow the kingdom to use wealth to whitewash its legacy of abuses, human rights violations, and silences those who try to draw attention to this pattern.

As is, in Bahrain there are no consequences and accountability for killing and imprisoning the dissent. The regime has been emboldened thanks to President Donald Trump, who has made it clear to Bahrain that “there won’t be strain with this administration.” The United States is in a position to help end these human rights violations, but instead it chooses to stay silent, to keep its Fifth Fleet naval base, and to sell its weapons.

Washington also always sends its Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to Bahrain to praise the “strategic partnership between the two countries”. He never bothers to make any mention of unjust court cases and verdicts for protesters or raise the issue of human rights. The United States has the means to use its leverage, since Bahrain is a close ally and host of the Fifth Fleet, but it never bothers to take a stance. Britain, similarly and shamefully, avoids offering support for peaceful protesters and those behind bars.

If Bahrain has learned anything from all this injustice, it is that the regime can arrest, torture and repress its own people and countries like the United States and Britain will continue to look the other way. It can  flout international human rights law and get away with anything too.

Using mentality of exceptionalism as a free-floating abstraction from reality, as well, the United States and Britain consider their own interests more important than the lives of Bahraini protesters. These tricksters are abandoning human rights at a time when things are worsening in Bahrain and will only continue to deteriorate.

Trump officials claim the US is a “moral beacon.” For that, they need to define themselves in deeds not only by what they are for but by what they are against in Bahrain. In the present instance, what they are against in Bahrain is its long-suffering citizens.

Let’s get real: It’s a fantasy to think American officials would ever find themselves criticizing the Al Khalifah regime over murder, torture, and cruel treatment of its people, much less hold them to account. The US government, which has enthusiastically supported the regime’s war crimes over the years, will never allow it to happen.

Free Bahraini Women Activists

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TEHRAN (FNA)- Despite so-called democratic reforms, some 1,000 Bahraini women activists are still behind bars in the Al-Khalifa regime’s prisons.

According to Bahrain’s Al-Wefaq party, some 994 women who demand the establishment of democracy, social justice and freedom in the country are currently in jail.

They are subject to the most repressive and discriminatory actions. This includes the worst forms of torture and incarceration. The regime has also stripped some mothers of their nationality without paying attention to the situation of their children and families.

The glaring absence of human rights from the West’s arms sales to Bahrain and diplomatic support at the United Nations has only embolden further such violations in Bahrain where the regime flouts the rights of men and women activists - its own people - in the name of security and in breach of International Humanitarian Law.

The regime imprisons women using counter terrorism as an excuse. It uses the same excuse to ruthlessly crush and persecute critics, peaceful dissidents and human rights defenders. Even as protesters are killed, detained and tortured, the Trump administration has approved multi-billion-dollar arms deals with Bahrain. This brazen disregard for human rights, people's right of sovereignty and international norms will only serve to further embolden the regime in Manama in its pursuit of “security” and “legitimacy” at the expense of its own people’s basic rights.

Meantime, Western governments insist that they are continuing to discuss human rights issues with Bahrain, and are encouraging reform. These are the same discussions and reforms that have led to the imprisonment of so many women. These are the very same reforms that the Trump administration has used as an excuse to turn a blind eye to Bahrain’s abuse of women activists.

After all, this is a country where even the US government accepts that serious human rights abuses and atrocities are taking place, yet it is still pushing arms to the regime. It is not that hard to know what atrocities and abuses these arms may fuel, or who they will be used against. All the US needs to do is go through various reports by human rights organizations that openly condemn rights abuses in Bahrain. The US will no doubt tell the world how rigorous and robust its system supposedly is, but it is actively arming and supporting one of the most brutal dictatorships in the Persian Gulf.

The same is true about European governments. If they want to promote human rights and democracy in Bahrain then they must first stop weaponizing the Al Khalifa and other repressive regimes in the Persian Gulf. They face particular criticism over their sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia, which is leading a dirty war against Yemen in alliance with other Persian Gulf Arab states, including Bahrain.

To make things worse, the United Nations is yet to scrutinise arms exports, much less say it likely that American and European weapons have been used to violate International Law in Bahrain. The Bahraini regime, and to a greater extent, the Saudis stand accused of bombing civilian objects like international hospitals, as well as schools, wedding parties and food factories in Yemen. So far, tens of thousands have been killed in Saudi-led, US-backed air strikes.

All in all, Western arms trade and diplomatic support provide the destructive hardware and software used in human rights abuses, atrocities and conflicts in Bahrain in particular and across the Middle East in general. It undermines democracy and reforms, contributing to the repression and suffering of millions.

It is high time for the United Nations to call for regulation of arms sales to Bahrain and a resolution that demands the regime frees all women prisoners immediately. The world body needs to take action to stop a dictatorial regime that has taken a nation hostage on a tiny Persian Gulf island, where people are getting killed and tortured only because they demand true and geniune elections to exercise their right of sovereignty to see respect for their human rights and get rid of "an illegitimate regime".