Theresa May’s visit to Bahrain focused solely on security and trade. Human rights were ignored. Similarly, the Foreign Office’s recent human rights report referred to a “mixed picture” in Bahrain, enormously downplayed the seriousness of the human rights crackdown still prevailing in the country, and generally did its utmost to accentuate supposed positives.
When Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was sentenced to two years in prison for giving media interviews, we watched as international condemnation of the silencing of a brave critic came in. The USA, Germany, Norway, the EU, the UN– all deplored the sentence and called for his release. But the UK stayed quiet.
Weeks later, in response to a parliamentary question, a British minister merely said the UK had “noted” Rajab’s sentence.
The UK is giving Bahrain a free pass on abuses. The country’s National Security Agency was granted law enforcement powers in January. Activist Ebtisam Al-Sayegh was arrested and charged under anti-terrorism laws for reporting the rape and torture of another activist by its agents. Meanwhile, military courts have been empowered to prosecute civilians, torture victims have been executed, and five protesters were killed in a single day in May. The last major opposition party has also been dissolved and Bahrain’s only independent newspaper was forced to close in June.
Amnesty International has recorded “disastrous decline” in human rights in the country over the past year. But no matter – the UK is invested in a story of a “reformist” Bahrain. Since 2012, the UK has spent more than £5m on public order training for Bahrain’s security forces and on advice over supposed accountability institutions. Bahrain has been emboldened with this the government-to-government contact which has been presented by Manama’s well-oiled PR machine as evidence of “reform”.
The UK’s unethical position on Bahrain is part and parcel of a wider, post-Brexit UK policy on the wealthy Gulf dictatorships. Why else would it also cosy up to rich but repressive Saudi Arabia, selling billions’ worth of arms despite the carnage this is creating in Yemen?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/06/uk-bahrain-london-arms-fair-family-exile-arrested-government
When Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was sentenced to two years in prison for giving media interviews, we watched as international condemnation of the silencing of a brave critic came in. The USA, Germany, Norway, the EU, the UN– all deplored the sentence and called for his release. But the UK stayed quiet.
Weeks later, in response to a parliamentary question, a British minister merely said the UK had “noted” Rajab’s sentence.
The UK is giving Bahrain a free pass on abuses. The country’s National Security Agency was granted law enforcement powers in January. Activist Ebtisam Al-Sayegh was arrested and charged under anti-terrorism laws for reporting the rape and torture of another activist by its agents. Meanwhile, military courts have been empowered to prosecute civilians, torture victims have been executed, and five protesters were killed in a single day in May. The last major opposition party has also been dissolved and Bahrain’s only independent newspaper was forced to close in June.
Amnesty International has recorded “disastrous decline” in human rights in the country over the past year. But no matter – the UK is invested in a story of a “reformist” Bahrain. Since 2012, the UK has spent more than £5m on public order training for Bahrain’s security forces and on advice over supposed accountability institutions. Bahrain has been emboldened with this the government-to-government contact which has been presented by Manama’s well-oiled PR machine as evidence of “reform”.
The UK’s unethical position on Bahrain is part and parcel of a wider, post-Brexit UK policy on the wealthy Gulf dictatorships. Why else would it also cosy up to rich but repressive Saudi Arabia, selling billions’ worth of arms despite the carnage this is creating in Yemen?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/06/uk-bahrain-london-arms-fair-family-exile-arrested-government
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