{"id":5607,"date":"2012-02-06T13:46:48","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T20:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=5607"},"modified":"2012-02-06T13:46:48","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T20:46:48","slug":"bahrain-a-gathering-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=5607","title":{"rendered":"Bahrain a “Gathering Storm”"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Bahrain Report Documents \u201cGathering Storm\u201d Ahead of Uprising Anniversary<\/strong>
\n06 February, 2012 – Human Rights First<\/p>\n

Washington, DC \u2013 Escalating attacks on civilians, fresh reports of torture in custody, and a decision by the Bahraini government to block independent human rights observers from entering the kingdom mark a \u201cgathering storm\u201d of renewed unrest ahead of protests on the first anniversary of the Bahrain uprising on Feb. 14.<\/p>\n

In a new Human Rights First report issued today, the organization urged the United States to take immediate steps to publicly call for an end to ongoing violence in Bahrain and it renewed its call for the Bahraini government to cease its violent attacks on citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cFebruary 14 is a highly significant date, with large rallies expected to be mounted by the opposition in the days leading up to it. Shut out of the airwaves and most print media in Bahrain, those calling for reform have few options to make their dissent known to the regime other than to take part in marches and rallies,\u201d noted Human Rights First\u2019s Brian Dooley, author of today\u2019s report, Bahrain: The Gathering Storm. \u201cThe regime\u2019s security forces\u2019 preferred method of policing marches appears to be attack them, and so significant clashes are very possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Bahrain report is the fourth by Dooley, who has traveled to Bahrain several times in the last year, but was recently denied entry ahead of this year\u2019s Feb. 14 anniversary. Bahrain: The Gathering Storm provides an analysis of today\u2019s situation in Bahrain, including first person accounts of the government\u2019s efforts to silent dissent. Among the evidence of ongoing abuse documented by Dooley is a copy of government orders for medical workers to report all injuries to authorities or face prosecution, and first-person accounts from members of the Bahraini police force who were arrested and abused because they refused to participate in the Kingdom\u2019s brutal crackdown.<\/p>\n

The report also documents efforts in Congress to block military transfers to Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the months since the Bassiouni Commission released its findings and recommendations, Bahrain\u2019s leaders have responded with little but lip service,\u201d Dooley notes, \u201cThe abuses are intensifying. The sham trials and prosecutions drag on, and the government has blocked observers from entering the Kingdom to report on what\u2019s happening there. It\u2019s time for the U.S. government and other nations to make clear that such abuses and secrecy will not be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

To address these concerns, Human Rights First is calling on the U.S. government to make clear that the future of U.S.-Bahrain relations hinges on how Bahrain responds to calls for reform, to publicly condemn abuses by the Bahrain government and call for accountability, and to announce that it will closely monitor the upcoming anniversary events in Bahrain to ensure that its security forces adhere to international standards and law in protecting peaceful protesters. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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New Bahrain Report Documents \u201cGathering Storm\u201d Ahead of Uprising Anniversary 06 February, 2012 – Human Rights First Washington, DC \u2013 Escalating attacks on civilians, fresh reports of torture in custody, and a decision by the Bahraini government to block independent human rights observers from entering the kingdom mark a \u201cgathering storm\u201d of renewed unrest ahead 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":[1712],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5607"}],"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=5607"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5609,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5607\/revisions\/5609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}