One Year on Bahrain’s Pearl Revolution, Amnesty Slams Regime’s HR Violations
In a report issued on Monday, Amnesty International stated that the "Bahraini government remains far from delivering the human rights changes that were recommended by an independent international commission".
In this context, Amnesty International has warned that the government risked falling short of meeting its self-imposed deadline of the end of February to implement the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry's (BICI) recommendations.
The report also indicated that the organization called on the Bahraini government to release all prisoners convicted or held solely for peaceful participation in protests, and to "bring all those responsible for gross human rights violations committed during the last year to account".
"Despite promises made by the government, victims and families of victims of the serious human rights violations - torture, arbitrary detention and excessive use of force - that have taken place since protests began a year ago are still waiting for justice", said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Program.
Also, she added, "The government has made a number of announcements of that it has done to improve the human rights situation, but the fact is that it has still not delivered in the most important areas".
"Only when we see prisoners of conscience being released and perpetrators, including those who gave orders, being brought to justice will we be able to judge whether this is more than a Public Relations exercise", the Amnesty International official went on to say.
Since February 14, 2011, International Human Rights organizations have been urging the Bahraini government to ease its arbitrary practices against peaceful protesters.
The Saudi-backed forces reached the maximum rate in violating human rights. Since the beginning of the peaceful pro-democracy Pearl revolution, forces destructed at least 30 religious structures, mainly Islamic Mosques, which violates the right of freedom of religion.
Moreover, the ruling authorities have dismissed more than 4000 people, including teachers, students, nurses and doctor from their jobs or universities, because they either supported or rook part in the wave of anti-regime protests.
In addition, hundreds of activists and peaceful protesters, including medics, teachers, journalists, students, and other civilians, were arrested during the days of protests throughout the past year. Most of the arrests came without any warrants, and later reported torture and ill-treatment during the period of detention and interrogation.
However, the torture was not only witnessed inside the detention cells, but also on streets where protests were held. The Saudi-backed Bahraini forces used excessive force, exploiting rubber bullet, shotguns, and other types of live munitions, toxic teargas, and metallic rods. Lately, the Bahraini forces started using a new method of "running over" protesters by police vehicles.
The aforementioned types of weapons and attacks led to the death of 63 Bahrainis since February 14, 2011 till February 6, 2012, not to mention the hundreds of critical injuries.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org team
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