Bahraini Regime Delays, Avoids Human Rights Investigators’ Visit
Once again, the Bahraini regime has imposed restrictions on rights groups which seek to monitor alleged reforms, and requested to delay the UN delegation to investigate the regime's "torture" against civilians.
The Geneva-based UN human rights office stated on Thursday that Bahrain formally requested that the UN special rapporteur's visit would be delayed until July. Previously in January, the Saudi-backed Bahraini government told human rights organization that they should delay their fact-finding trips to the country until after February 22.
According to media sources, February was the date the Bahraini government had set to review potential changes in the management of the police, judiciary, education, media and other departments, Al-Jazeera reported.
Furthermore, during meetings with Bahraini representatives, UN investigator "Juan Mendez would express his regrets over the last minute postponement", said Xabier Celaya, a spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Celaya added that Mendez is determined the secure new dates for his investigation, "as he remains committed to undertaking this important visit".
On another hand, although the Bahraini government claims to have interest in implementing the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) recommendations, it "actually" seems less eager for the said implementations.
On this level, media reports stated that the Bahraini "Human Rights and Social Development" Ministry informed international rights groups, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), that the entry visas to Bahrain have been limited to 5-day visas.
In response, Brian Dooley, director of the Human Rights Defenders Program with the Human Rights First group, stated, "After the BICI report the Bahraini government was supposed to improve its human rights record, but limiting NGO access like this is a step backwards".
The intensive "human rights" awakening on the Bahraini regime's crackdown against peaceful protesters is now spreading. Recent HRW and Amnesty International reports condemned the Saudi-backed regime "military" attacks on unarmed pro-democracy protesters, and its unlawful detention and conviction of political and civilian prisoners.
Last Tuesday, HRW issued a 94-report in which is lambasted the unfair "politically motivated" sentences against the detainees.
"Grossly unfair military and civilian trials have been a core element in Bahrain's crackdown on pro-democracy protests", said deputy Middle East director at HRW, Joe Stork, in the report entitled "No Justice in Bahrain: Unfair Trials in Military and Civilian courts".
"The government should remedy the hundreds of unfair conviction to the past year by dropping the cases against everyone convicted on politically motivated charges and by adopting effective measures to end torture in detention", Stork added.
"The egregious violations of fair trial rights in political cases do not just reflect poor practices of individual prosecutors and judges, but serious, systematic problems with Bahrain's criminal justice system", the report further noted.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org
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