{"id":14222,"date":"2012-11-21T08:58:29","date_gmt":"2012-11-21T15:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14222"},"modified":"2012-11-21T09:04:55","modified_gmt":"2012-11-21T16:04:55","slug":"us-echos-its-pretense-of-concern-over-human-rights-in-bahrain-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14222","title":{"rendered":"US echos it’s pretense of concern over Human Rights in Bahrain – again"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. concerned about Bahrain violence, weak follow-up on reforms<\/strong>
\n20 November, 2012 – Reuters – Online News<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (Reuters) \u2013 U.S. officials voiced concern on Tuesday that Bahrain\u2019s failure to implement key reforms outlined in an independent 2011 report is making political dialogue more difficult and widening fissures in society in ways that would benefit Iran.<\/p>\n

Bahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based, has been under Western pressure to implement recommendations for police, judicial, media and education reforms made by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), an independent commission of international legal experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are worried that this society is moving apart rather than coming together in a way that would ensure both human rights and stability,\u201d said a senior U.S. official, speaking to reporters on condition he not be identified by name.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely clear that if society breaks apart, Iran will be the big winner and beneficiary,\u201d added the official.<\/p>\n

Shi\u2019ite protesters complain they continue to be marginalized by Bahrain\u2019s Sunni rulers. The strategically located island state is a key U.S. ally in Washington\u2019s stand-off with Shi\u2019ite Iran.<\/p>\n

The BICI report, issued last year, said 35 people died during unrest which erupted in the Persian Gulf monarchy in February 2011 after revolts overthrew dictators in Egypt and Tunisia.<\/p>\n

The U.S. official said Bahrain had \u201cfollowed a number of the recommendations\u201d including allowing Red Cross access to prisoners, issuing arrest protocols and modest police training and setting up an ombudsman in the Ministry of Interior.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the hardest issues, the government has not followed through,\u201d he said, citing people still being held in prison or facing prosecution for the early 2011 demonstrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain concerned about increasing violence in Bahrain, by limits on free expression and assembly and a political environment that\u2019s become increasingly difficult and that\u2019s made reconciliation and political dialogue more difficult,\u201d said the official.<\/p>\n

Washington also lamented fresh violence in the past month, including Molotov cocktails and other violent actions by protesters, as well an \u201cexcessive use of force by police and security forces,\u201d said the official.<\/p>\n

A second U.S. official said the 60-year-old U.S. security relationship with Bahrain was critical to regional stability and required a balancing act by Washington.<\/p>\n

American policy aimed to \u201cbalance those requirements and those interests with those we have at the same time in encouraging reform, given our commitment to the fact that reform is the only way we can see that genuine stability and prosperity will emerge in the region,\u201d said he second official. …source<\/a><\/p>\n

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U.S. concerned about Bahrain violence, weak follow-up on reforms 20 November, 2012 – Reuters – Online News WASHINGTON (Reuters) \u2013 U.S. officials voiced concern on Tuesday that Bahrain\u2019s failure to implement key reforms outlined in an independent 2011 report is making political dialogue more difficult and widening fissures in society in ways that would benefit more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[3724],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14222"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14224,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14222\/revisions\/14224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}