{"id":3957,"date":"2011-11-22T14:25:26","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T21:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=3957"},"modified":"2011-11-22T14:25:26","modified_gmt":"2011-11-22T21:25:26","slug":"bahrain-government-under-fire-in-advance-of-report-on-abuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=3957","title":{"rendered":"Bahrain government under fire in advance of report on abuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEAD: Bahrain government under fire in advance of report on abuses<\/strong>
\nNov 22, 2011, Deutsche Presse-Argentur<\/p>\n

Cairo\/Manama – Bahrain’s largest Shiite opposition group on Tuesday accused the government of having planned the use of ‘excessive force’ on protesters calling for greater freedoms and reforms earlier this year.<\/p>\n

In a statement posted on its website Al-Wefaq said the government, by admitting to abuses, was trying ‘to escape its responsibility for violations leading to numerous fatalities and hundreds of injuries.’<\/p>\n

On Monday, the government admitted to ‘instances of excessive force and mistreatment of detainees,’ during countrywide unrest earlier this year. It said that some 20 officers are being prosecuted as a result.<\/p>\n

But according to Al-Wefaq, the ‘abuses were systematic and linked to planned government policies.’<\/p>\n

‘Abuses could not have taken place without prior knowledge and consent of influential officials … and the ultimate responsibility falls on top decisionsmakers rather than junior officials and soldiers.’<\/p>\n

More than 30 people were reported to have been killed when protesters clashed with security forces between February and March.<\/p>\n

The opposition statement came a day before the planned release of a report by an independent commission of inquiry into the crackdown.<\/p>\n

Separately Tuesday, three Bahraini human rights groups issued a shadow report criticizing the handling of dissidents, calling for reforms, and urging Western countries to halt military aid to the regime.<\/p>\n

The 84-page report was compiled by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), the Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS), and the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR).<\/p>\n

It detailed serious human rights violations, including extra-judicial killings, torture in custody and targeting of medics, and educational, media, and sports professionals.<\/p>\n

The report claimed that torture was widespread and systematic, and predated the crackdown on pro-reform protesters who hit the streets on February 14th, demanding more political rights as the Arab Spring protests spread through the region.<\/p>\n

It called on the Bahraini government to: immediately end ongoing human rights violations; unconditionally release political prisoners; end torture, arbitrary detention, and incommunicado detention; and to reduce the security presence on the streets.<\/p>\n

It also called on the authorities to put on trial all those accused of killing, wounding and torturing protesters and detainees, as well as those who ordered and authorized such acts.<\/p>\n

It also recommended the introduction of a new independent justice system and the reinstatement of all workers who were dismissed from their workplace for taking part in the protests. …source<\/a><\/p>\n

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LEAD: Bahrain government under fire in advance of report on abuses Nov 22, 2011, Deutsche Presse-Argentur Cairo\/Manama – Bahrain’s largest Shiite opposition group on Tuesday accused the government of having planned the use of ‘excessive force’ on protesters calling for greater freedoms and reforms earlier this year. In a statement posted on its website Al-Wefaq more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[1958],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3957"}],"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=3957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}