US-BAHRAIN: Obama Praises Report as Groups Urge Arms Delay

• by Jim Lobe* (washington)
• Wednesday, November 23, 2011
• Inter Press Service

'We welcome today's report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), which provides a thorough and independent assessment of events in Bahrain since protests first erupted in February,' the White House said in a statement.

'The report identifies a number of disturbing human rights abuses that took place during this period, and it is now incumbent upon the Government of Bahrain to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations and put in place institutional changes to ensure that such abuses do not happen again,' according to the statement.

It also said Washington 'will closely follow' the implementation of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa's commitment to carry out the report's recommendations.

At the same time, several major human rights groups here called on the administration to further delay the transfer of a pending 53- million-dollar arms deal for Bahrain in light of the findings by the Commission, which was headed by the Egyptian-American jurist, Cherif Bassiouni.

'The U.S. shouldn't sell the arms until there's clear evidence that the Bahraini ruling family is addressing these very serious issues that the commission found and has taken action on the recommendations,' said Joe Stork, the Middle East analyst for Human Rights Watch (HRW) here.

'The Bahraini security forces have demonstrated over the past few months a willingness to use everything from weapons up to tanks in cracking down against domestic protestors,' said Sanjeev Bery, Middle East/North Africa advocacy director for the U.S. section of Amnesty International (AIUSA).

'Until its government has demonstrated complete follow-through on the recommendations, including the investigation and prosecution of anyone who may have been involved in the abuses, including those who gave the orders, there should be no arms transfers from the United States or any other country to Bahrain,' he told IPS.

Based on more than 5,000 interviews with Bahraini officials, protestors and witnesses, the long-awaited report found numerous serious and systematic violations, including the excessive use of force by the security forces; arbitrary arrests; and the abuse of detainees during the February-March government crackdown. More than 40 people — most of them Shi'a demonstrators — were killed in the violence.

Prison abuses sometimes rose to the level of torture, according to the report, which cited standing for long periods, sleep deprivation, whippings, beatings, and electrification with metal rods, among other techniques, according to the report, which noted that five people apparently died of torture.

The commission found that the 'illegal arrest and detentions could not have happened without the knowledge of higher echelons of the command structure.' On the eve of the report's release, the government announced that it had begun prosecuting 20 security officers for abuses but gave no indication of whether senior officials had been charged.

Contrary to charges by Bahrain and its Gulf allies, notably Saudi Arabia, that Tehran was inciting and supporting the Shi'a protests, the commission also found no 'discernable link between specific incidents that occurred (during the protests) and the Islamic Republic of Iran'.

The democracy movement in Bahrain, the only Gulf kingdom in which a Sunni royal family rules over a majority Shi'a population, has posed a challenge to the Obama administration and its pretensions of supporting human rights throughout the Arab world.

Although the administration initially denounced the government's crackdown against the pro-democracy movement, Washington has been relatively quiet since mid-March when it objected to the dispatch of some 1,500 troops and police from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to Bahrain in support of the regime.

Washington's reticence has been attributed primarily to its geo- strategic interests, specifically, the continued use and planned expansion of its naval base in Bahrain - home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet - and its desire to avoid further straining ties with Riyadh, particularly at a time of rapidly rising regional tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

In Riyadh's view, democratic reform, as advocated by both Washington and the opposition, risked empowering the latter's Shi'a majority which, in turn, could spur similar protests among their co- religionists in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province and strengthen Iran's regional influence and position.

At the same time, U.S. officials worried that the repression in Bahrain — which has included virtually nightly raids by security forces against Shi'a neighbourhoods and villages — was radicalising the Shi'a majority and driving them closer to Iran.

As a result, the administration tried hard - although to little avail, according to most analysts - to bolster the position of what is considered the reformist wing of the ruling Al-Khalifas, led by Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa against hard-liners in the family, including the longstanding prime minister, Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa.

It was partly in that context that the administration quietly notified Congress in September of its intent to sell some 53 million dollars worth of mainly anti-tank missiles and armoured Humvees to Bahrain, drawing strong protests from human rights groups and some senators who argued that the Humvees, in particular, could be used in the continuing repression.

While Congress did not stop the sale, enough questions were raised to persuade the administration last month to promise to delay delivery until the commission released its findings.

At the time, State Department spokesman Mark Toner stressed that Washington always monitors the 'end use' of the weapons to ensure they were used only for the intended purposes — in this case, against threats from external enemies — and not by security units with a record of serious human rights abuses.

In the meantime, however, a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the State Department lacked the ability to vet the human rights records of units receiving U.S. equipment.

'Given recent unrest in some Gulf countries,' the report warned, 'this could result in U.S.-funded equipment being misused to quell peaceful demonstrations.'

On Monday, a group of some 29 human rights groups and Gulf experts ranging across the U.S. foreign policy spectrum sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging the administration to withhold the arms 'until reforms are agreed to, implementation has begun, and the Bahraini government has clearly ceased using torture and violence against its own people.'

'The administration needs to measure the government of Bahrain on substantive progress on reform, not just promises of reform,' said Cole Bockenfeld, advocacy director of the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), the group that organised the letter.

Asked about the administration's intentions Wednesday, Toner said any decision about the arms sale will be 'based, in part, on human rights concerns'.

'We're going to provide sufficient time for the Bahraini government's follow-on committee to take concrete action in response to the report's recommendations. …As they take these actions, we'll continue to assess ongoing arms sales,' he told reporters.

'When the Bahrain government's own commission of inquiry confirms severe human rights violations and when some of those violations continue, it's hard to see how the U.S. government can proceed with the proposed sale,' said Brian Dooley of Human Rights First, who was in Manama for the report's release Wednesday.

'The onus is on the Bahrain government to show that it has stopped attacking its population,' he said, noting that the controversial trial of 20 medical professionals who treated wounded demonstrators last spring is still scheduled to resume Monday and that a police vehicle reportedly killed a protestor at a demonstration on Wednesday.

*Jim Lobe's blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at http://www.lobelog.com.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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