Bahrain tries 21 activists on trumped-up charges

The kingdom, with the underhanded support of Washington, and the overt support of tyrannical Saudi Arabia, has committed all manner of atrocities against unarmed demonstrators, but neither the US media nor politicians ask for military intervention.  (See bonus below feature about protesters condemned to death by kangaroo court.)

By Niall Green | WSWS.org
11 May 2011

On Sunday, authorities began the trial of 21 people involved in the recent anti-government protests in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain.

From February until mid-March, the island kingdom was rocked by massive protests and strikes involving hundreds of thousands of workers and youth. Many of the protesters were Shiite Muslims, who make up the majority of Bahrain’s citizens but are discriminated against by the Sunni Muslim royal family and government.

On March 15 Bahrain’s King Hamad al-Khalifa declared a state of emergency and imposed martial law. Backed by hundreds of troops from the neighboring Sunni kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Bahraini security forces unleashed a wave of violent repression against protesters.

In the following weeks an estimated 800 have been arrested for allegedly taking part in or organizing protests. Many of those detained are being held incommunicado, with families uncertain if they are alive or dead. So far, four opposition activists are known have been tortured to death in police custody.

While the state of emergency was officially lifted last week, police and pro-regime gangs still roam working-class Shiite neighborhoods to terrorize the population. Meanwhile, opposition political groups and media outlets have either been banned or prevented from freely operating. Over 1,000 government workers have been fired for taking part in street demonstrations.

The trial of the 21 activists—seven are being tried in absentia—is part of this campaign of fear and intimidation by the Bahraini state. They face trumped-up charges of plotting to overthrow the monarchy as part of a conspiracy concocted by “a terrorist organization abroad working for a foreign country.”

These charges are an attempt by the Bahraini authorities, and their principal regional backers in Saudi Arabia, to blame the mass protests on neighboring Iran.

The Shiite clerical regime in Tehran is seen as the main rival of the Saudi monarchy in the Persian Gulf. Seeking to portray itself as the defender of Shiites in the Persian Gulf region, the Iranian foreign ministry issued a statement this week warning against “adverse and negative” consequences of the crackdown on Bahraini protesters. However, Tehran has denied any involvement in the Bahraini protests.

An Iranian pro-regime organization announced on Tuesday that it plans to send a convoy of aid to Bahrain as an act of “solidarity” with the protesters. The chief of Iran’s Association of Islamic Revolution Followers, Mehdi Eghrarian, told a press conference in Tehran that the convoy would leave the Iranian port of Bushehr on May 16.

While Bahraini and Saudi monarchs are seizing on their long-standing rivalry with Iran to justify repressing the protests, the uprising in Bahrain—as in the other Arab nations—was a product of deep social inequality and dictatorial rule.

Bahrain’s royal family and a thin layer of its associates monopolize political power and the country’s oil wealth at the expense of the working class—be they Sunni, Shiite, native-born or immigrant. Decades of sectarian discrimination against Bahrain’s Shiite majority, who are barred from many government jobs and often face obstacles getting housing and services, only exacerbated social tensions.

The mass protests, moreover, were non-sectarian. Demonstrators in the capital, Manama, routinely chanted, “Not Sunni, not Shiite, only Bahraini,” and appealed for support across the religious divide. It was the al-Khalifa monarchy that sought to whip up sectarian divisions, encouraging gangs of better-off Sunnis and plainclothes police officers to attack Shiite businesses and neighborhoods.

Deepening its offensive against the Shiite majority, the government has demolished some Shiite mosques that authorities claim are centers of opposition to the al-Khalifa regime.

The 21 people on trial have been denied access to lawyers throughout their incarceration. “Lawyers were called less than 24 hours before the trial started,” said Nabeel Rajab of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. “They did not have time to prepare.”

There are also reports that some defendants have been tortured while awaiting trial. US-based Human Rights Watch reported last week that one of the accused had been hospitalized after being beaten in custody.

The trial is being held before a special military-civilian “hybrid” court, with military prosecutors and a panel of two civilian judges and one military judge. The defendants could face the death penalty under Bahrain’s draconian anti-terrorism laws.

Among those accused by the Bahraini regime are Hassan Mushaimaa, the leader of the Haq Shiite organization, who only returned from exile in London in February. Also standing trial are Ebrahim Shareef, the leader of the liberal Sunni-based Waad party, as well as Shiite clerics, human rights activists, and Internet bloggers.

The US government has backed its ally in Manama throughout the weeks of brutal repression against protesters. The White House and the State Department in Washington have only issued the most tepid calls for “restraint” and “respect for fundamental rights” in Bahrain.

Bahrain is home to the US Navy Fifth Fleet, which patrols the Persian Gulf, and the country is seen as a critical beachhead for US imperialism in the oil-rich region. This was confirmed by recent visits to Bahrain by the US Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who last month declared the al-Khalifa monarchy to be an ally that was “serious about real reform.”

So muted has the Obama administration been on the crackdown in Bahrain, that even the nominally liberal Washington Post newspaper felt compelled to editorialize on Monday that US interests were being damaged. The editors of the Post, one of the main organs of American imperialism, are concerned that blatant US double standards in the region—staying silent on the abuses in Bahrain while waging a war against Libya on the bogus grounds that it is trying to protect civilians—exposes the fraudulent character of Obama’s “humanitarian” rhetoric.

After excusing the Obama administration for focusing its efforts on Libya, the Post stated that, “Bahrain could prove crucial to the outcome of this year’s Arab uprisings—and to whether it advances or damages the strategic interests of the United States.”

The paper counsels that “tolerating the repression” in Bahrain may endanger “long-term US interests, since the crackdown is likely to boomerang, sooner or later, against the Bahraini and Saudi ruling families.” To make matters worse for Washington, the Postwarns that the Bahraini regime’s “crude political strategy” of blaming the Iranians for the protests “has had the effect of polarizing the country along sectarian lines,” a development that might strengthen Iran’s hand in the region.

The Obama administration has shown no sign of criticizing its allies in Bahrain, however. Even if Washington did voice token criticisms of the crackdown in Bahrain, it would, in the language of the Washington Post, only be in order to advance US “strategic interests.”

BONUS FEATURE

Bahraini military court sentences four protesters to die

By David Walsh
30 April 2011

On Thursday, a military court in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, condemned four young anti-government protesters to death at the conclusion of a shameless frame-up trial. Three others were sentenced to life in prison. The seven Shiite Muslims were charged with premeditated murder in the deaths of two policemen during last month’s mass protests in the small island nation.

The two-week trial, condemned universally by human rights organizations, was held behind closed doors, with the defendants having only limited access to legal counsel, relatives and supporters. One of the most prominent lawyers representing the defendants, Mohammed Al Tajer, was arrested during the recent round-up of government critics.

The foreign press was banned from the proceedings, and the Bahraini media forbidden to speak or write about them.

The four condemned to death, all 20 or 21, according to Reuters, have been identified as Ali Abdullah Hassan al-Sankis, Qassim Hassan Matar Ahmad, Saeed Abduljalil Saeed and Isa Abdullah Kadhim Ali.

All seven men pleaded not guilty to the charges. Critics of the autocratic Bahraini regime of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, along with human rights activists and opposition politicians, dismissed the “confessions” from the condemned men—aired on Bahraini television—as having been obtained under torture.

Information minister Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa told the media that the defendants “confessed that they deliberately targeted the security men in order to cause casualties, take lives, terrorize people and exact revenge.” An official government statement claimed that “the long arm of the law” would catch “all those who betrayed the nation and undermined its security.” The seven were accused of running over the policemen in automobiles during the March protests.

The sister of one of the convicted men, who understandably chose to remain anonymous, told the Christian Science Monitor “that her young brother was a peaceful protester whose confession was fabricated and forced.

“She says that in the few minutes her family was allowed to see him after each trial hearing, he told them that he was kept constantly blindfolded and did not know where he was being held. He refused to reveal more about his treatment because he did not want to worry them, says the sister, who asked to remain anonymous to protect both herself and her brother.

“Today, after hearing his own death sentence, her brother tried to tell his mother not to worry, that he would appeal it. ‘But my mother was crying,’ she says. ‘I couldn’t stay because I didn’t want him to see me crying. All of Bahrain is crying.’”

Another relative of one of the prisoners told the National, “Even the accusations contradicted each other.” The Abu Dhabi newspaper also reported that, according to this individual, “there were discrepancies between statements by prosecutors and coroner reports issued at the time of the killings.”

Thousands of Bahrainis protested outside a Shiite mosque on Friday, denouncing the government for its brutality. Moussa, one of the protesters, told Reuters, “It’s not true that they killed them. The government made it up just like a movie.” He was referring to a video broadcast by Bahraini officials claiming to show two policemen smashed by a vehicle speeding through a crowd of protesters.

According to Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, the seven Shiites “were activists in their villages and we think they were targeted because of their activities. This will deepen the gap between the ruling elite and the population.”

A death sentence is highly unusual in Bahrain. Thursday’s verdicts were reportedly only the third time in over 30 years that authorities there have issued such a sentence. Only one execution has actually taken place during that time.

The suspects in the recent case, in a sinister precedent, were the first civilians to be tried in a Bahraini military court, known as the Lower Security Court. The regime promises more trials and vindictive sentences to come.

The head of the government’s Information Affairs Authority told the media that hundreds of cases involving protesters were being transferred to courts. He declared that 23 doctors and nurses would be charged with crimes next week. As the Monitor noted, “Healthcare professionals, particularly those who provided care to wounded protesters, have been targeted in the government crackdown.”

The Bahraini government claims the right to use military courts under the state of emergency declared March 15, as authorities prepared to brutally disperse protesters in Manama’s Pearl Square, backed by as many as 2,000 troops from neighboring Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Al Khalifa regime has detained more than 800 people since it launched the savage repression in mid-March. Another 200 individuals are said to be missing. At least four detainees have died in custody, with signs of abuse and torture evident on their corpses.

The state violence came in the face of massive protests and demands for elementary democratic rights, along with anger over festering economic grievances. The protests, which brought Shiites and Sunnis together, have been painted by the Bahraini regime as a Shiite sectarian conspiracy organized by Iran and Hezbollah. Shiite Muslims make up 70 percent of Bahrain’s population, but are largely excluded from positions of power. The Al Khalifa clan dominates the government.

The recent repression has been directed primarily at Shiite organizations and protesters. Shiite mosques (ten in the village of Nuwaidrat alone) and shrines have been demolished by security forces, some of whom are allegedly Saudis and Jordanians. Reports of beatings and abuse of Shiite civilians at military checkpoints are also widespread.

One Bahraini woman told Agence France-Presse “she was dragged from her workplace along with other Shia Muslim colleagues. In the bus to the police station, policewomen slapped their faces and made them chant pro-monarchy slogans.” She alleges she was later threatened with rape if she did not confess to taking part in protests.

The woman told AFP that “she shared a cell with several doctors, nurses and teachers. While being released, she said she saw teenage female students being dragged into a police station and beaten mercilessly by policewomen.

“‘They used to punish us psychologically by opening a door leading to the men’s section of the police station so we could see them being beaten. We would hear their screams under torture,’ she said.”

The arrest of 71 women during the recent tumultuous events was described by Rajab of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights as “a new phenomenon” in the history of the country.

As many as 1,000 Shiite public employees have also been singled out and fired, according to government critics, including many health care workers. Al Jazeera adds, “Even sports professionals were targeted. An investigatory committee has suspended 150 players, coaches and staff over their alleged involvement in protests.”

The foul Al Khalifa regime is a loyal ally of Washington, and Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. The current wave of mass arrests, torture, and now military-style kangaroo court trials has not shifted the Obama administration from its policy of support for the Bahraini authorities.

In an emailed statement in response to the death sentences, which Reuters characterized as a ”rare, mild rebuke” to the Bahraini government, US State Department spokeswoman Heide Bronke-Fulton blandly asserted that “Security measures will not resolve the challenges faced by Bahrain.” She added that “We are also extremely troubled by reports of ongoing human rights abuses and violations of medical neutrality in Bahrain. These actions only exacerbate frictions in Bahraini society.” Such a “rebuke” is equivalent to a green light from the US to continue the repression.

The Los Angeles Times commented Thursday, “The trial itself bore the trademarks of the kind of shadowy security courts common in drab dictatorships such as Iran, Myanmar or Syria rather than a country that is chummy with Washington and hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.” On the contrary, the record of US imperialism in the region is one of plundering its resources, propping up dictatorships, intervening militarily with great violence and generally assisting in the oppression of the broad masses of the population.

DAVID WALSH writes for the World Socialist Web Site.

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