Saudis continue Qatif, Yemen killings, Crimes Against Humanity in Bahrain

On 27th July young citizen from Qatif in the Eastern Province of Arabia was cold-bloodedly shot and killed by regime forces. Mohammad Al Faraj was added to the list of victims of Saudi regime’s terror campaign against activists seeking political change. More than 30 people were killed in those attacks. In addition, there have been two terrorist attacks by regime’s allies on two mosques in the past three months in which scores were martyred. Several others were gunned down in Al Ihsa last year by those groups. The killing came as hundreds of Yemenis were killed by Saudi air attacks in the past few days despite declaring a temporary ceasefire to allow humanitarian work. The Saudis and their Alkhalifa allies have been bombing Yemen mercilessly for four months in an unprecedented aggression. Human rights groups have described some of the atrocities committed by the unholy alliance of evil forces as “war crimes”.

A public statement was issued on 27th July by Amnesty International calling on the Bahraini authorities to make public investigations into allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of prisoners during a riot in Jaw prison, south of the capital Manama, on 10 March and other abuses that continued for several weeks afterwards and to bring to justice any officials responsible for ordering or committing such acts.  The call came after the trial of 57 individuals, including on charges of assault on public officials and destruction of public property, started on 23 July. It was postponed to 17 September. Many people were severely tortured as the regime sent Jordanian troops to the jail to attack native Bahrainis.

The wave of arrests and detentions has continued unabated. In the week 20-26th July at least 38 people were arrested including six children. Last night four people from Sitra-Wadyan were detained from their homes. Hussain Taqi and his brother, Sadiq, Khalil Ibrahim AlTawq and Abdulla Essa Khudayyer were snatched from their homes. They were arrested within hours after an “explosion” that killed two Pakistani mercenaries attacking native Bahrainis in the area. The circumstances of their death are not clear. Bahraini Revolution is the most peaceful among the Arab Spring protests; the opposition has condemned violence and called for peaceful transformation to democracy. The regime has used violence as main tool against native Bahrainis. The Community Care Advisor at the Embassy of Pakistan in Manama, Maqsoud Lader Jah, revealed that 100 thousand Pakistanis live in Bahrain, most of whom work in construction and driving. But he said that 20% of them work as security guards in t he Bahraini Ministry of Interior (nearly 20 thousand Pakistanis). Other sources said estimated that more than 25,000 Pakistanis have been naturalised at a time when hundreds of native Bahrainis had their nationality revoked.

On 27th July Salah Saeed was kidnapped from Satra-Wadyan by masked members of the regime’s Death Squads.  Another youth, Sadiq Jaffar Al Asfoor from Sitra was detained on 21st July. Concern is rising for the safety of two native Bahrainis; Sadiq Thamer, Jaffar Sultan and Abdul Hamid Nasser who had been kidnapped by regime’s Death Squads on 8th June, but their families haven’t heard from them.  Reports of systematic torture have continued. It is now established that the under-aged Ahmad Al Arab has been repeatedly tortured at the toilet facilities, while other private houses and farms have become the new torture centres, away from the main prisons.

On  25th July Ali Abdulla AlAradi, 50, was kidnapped from his home, tortured with heavy tools before being drowned in the pool of a house, several miles from his town of Arad. The torture included the use of blunt instrument that split his head with deep wound. It is now almost a week but the regime has failed to catch the killers while claiming to have caught the alleged perpetrators of the Sitra explosion within hours. The general belief is that Mr AlAradi has been liquidated by regime’s Death Squads to send a message to the native Bahrainis that Alkhalifa, Saudi occupiers will stop at nothing in their war on the natives.

In recognition of the sad episode of Dr Abdul Jalil AlSingace who has been on hunger strike for more than four months, the English PEN has adopted him as a chained writer and thinker. It has urged its members to adopt Dr AlSingace and protest against his continued incarceration. A protest has been organised by English PEN at the Bahrain’s Embassy  in London on Wednesday 29th July to highlight the plight of Dr AlSingace.

On 24th July, The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) declared an additional eight Bahraini prisoners of conscience to be arbitrarily detained. Last week, the group of experts issued a series of official decisions on the Bahrain government’s detention of Jassim al-Hulaibi, Mohamed Sudaif, Abdulaziz Mousa, Ebrahim al-Sharqi, Ahmed Abdulla Ebrahim, Taleb Ali Mohammed, and two unnamed minors. The Group found that these detentions were arbitrary and in contravention of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Bahrain acceded to the ICCPR in 2006. Additionally, the WGAD held that the detention of one of the minors contravened the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Bahrain acceded in 1992. The opinion also pointed out, “Under certain circumstances, widespread or systematic imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law may constitute crimes against humanity.”

Bahrain Freedom Movement