Trial of Al-Qaeda suspects opens in Bahrain

Trial of Al-Qaeda suspects opens in Bahrain

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=071023174435.8hu39n4q&cat=null

The trial of five people charged in Bahrain with belonging to the Al-Qaeda terror network and plotting attacks opened on Tuesday, a lawyer said.

Three Bahraini defendants were present in court, while the two others -- including a non-Bahraini Gulf national -- remain outside the kingdom, lawyer Abdullah Hashem said after the hearing which was not open to the press.

They denied the charges of "preparing and executing attacks against another country, as well as training to use arms, being members of a banned organisation, and financing terror attacks," Hashem said.

"Our defence is based on the absence of proof," he said, adding that the trial has been adjourned until November 20.

Hashem had told AFP on October 7 that four defendants were facing charges.

The three defendants in court are members of a group of six arrested in August on suspicion of belonging to an Al-Qaeda inspired cell. The other three were released last week, their lawyer Farid Ghazi said.

Local media reported on August 9 that police had arrested three people accused of belonging to a cell plotting attacks on US targets in Bahrain.

The small Gulf archipelago is home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet and has been designated by Washington as a major non-NATO ally.

The Bahraini government has introduced tough new anti-terror laws despite strong opposition from local rights groups.

The Internet as a global village for Arab Activists

The Internet as a Global Village for Arab Activists

http://www.mideastyouth.com/2007/10/23/the-internet-as-a-global-village-for-arab-activists/

Author: Esra'a (Bahrain) - October 23, 2007

(The article below is cross-posted from the Arab Press Network.)

Social networking is becoming increasingly popular amongst young people in the Middle East who wish to interact and inspire change in the region. For many years, our only form of mass communication was via traditional media outlets, most of which were heavily moderated or state owned. Young people had no shared platform where they could collectively exchange information about subjects ranging from literature, art and music to reporting human rights violations, the latter of which is becoming more common.
With this in mind, social networking sites along with the regional blogosphere have introduced a new form of mass communication amongst the young. Many people have started to use these services productively and frequently to communicate and network with each other to achieve common goals. This level of interactive journalism has proven to be so influential in certain countries of the region where censorship is more rampant - as is the case in Egypt and Iran - that the governments have began to monitor, harass, and occasionally arrest activist bloggers. This is mostly due to the fact that blogging plays a role in organising social movements, attracting thousands of young activists whose efforts are eventually covered by prominent international news media, jeopardizing the foreign relations and worldwide reputation of the said countries. It also gives a louder voice to minorities who are usually oppressed and who face extreme censorship in mainstream media outlets. Victims of such oppression include Kurdish activists, Baha’is and homosexuals, amongst others.
In the past, traditional media outlets offered a transmissional model of communication, where messages were simply sent and received with little to no interaction from the public. As previously stated, many of these media outlets were directly run by governments, making them products for state-sponsored propaganda. The internet has completely changed this, by performing as a model where entire communities can get involved, building lasting connections with like-minded individuals and organizing new campaigns or empowering existing ones. Traditional media outlets such as newspapers, television, and radio rarely offer this opportunity. Independent publications are very difficult to finance, radio and television channels are still impossible to initiate by average young people, and it has not been common for activists to get involved in the mainstream media. The internet on the other hand is increasingly becoming more common in households and university campuses, which makes it possible for independent activists or writers to reach a much wider audience. A popular local blog is almost as influential today as a popular newspaper, and in addition to that, it has a better potential of receiving attention from foreign news media.
Although blogging is incredibly effective when it comes to grassroots activism, it is not the only thing it is being used for. Promoting cultures is another positive aspect of blogging and social networking in general, making it an educational experience as opposed to a mere political one. For example, bloggers in the Gulf can finally exchange information with bloggers in North Africa. We can see how many of them live and how they feel about the governments and social issues in their countries. We cannot successfully be exposed to local youth cultures, socio-political issues, and minorities from these various countries if we solely rely on cable television or newspapers.
Aside from building and empowering regional relations, tech-oriented media can also bring young people from different sides of the planet together, further revolutionizing the experience. For example, a group of students in Bahrain are currently working on a social networking platform that will be used to specifically serve as a cultural exchange between Arab and Japanese youth. This is being done to promote tourism, economic and diplomatic relations, as well as empowering each other’s cultures by teaching each other about our values, beliefs, and history. Another example is the way in which Arab and Chinese activists are using the internet to empower each other’s efforts for human rights. The New Youth 4 campaign was developed with the help of Arab activists to secure the release of four Chinese cyber dissidents. In return, Chinese activists are promoting the Free Kareem campaign, aimed to free the young Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer. This kind of relations were extremely rare before the internet. It shows how the internet serves as a primary platform for the “global village,” a term used to describe how technology-mediated communication allows people to interact and network with each other on a global scale.
By now, it is well-known that the internet has developed a new communication strategy that transcends all forms of traditional media outlets. The more people have access to the internet in the Arab region, the more power and influence it will eventually have, making it much easier for young activists to achieve real change in their region.

Bahrain: Abduction and Torture of Activists Return

Bahrain: Abduction and Torture of Activists Return
Activist Hassan Abdulnabi -Committee of Unemployed - kidnapped and threatened to life by the National Security Service

Two days ago, a young Bahraini (I. A.) was arrested from place of work and taken to the security command center in Muharraq. He was subjected to beatings and torture during interrogation by an executioner known lieutenant Abdullah Alhadi. ( I. A.) - in his twenties- had received threatening messages via phone that he will be "absent behind the sun", after participating in a religious ceremony in Arad village. He was critical referring to issues of public interest like that of political naturalization and its impact on the economic situation and the housing crisis. While interrogated, he was beaten by plastic hose in various places of his body and threatened with imprisonment on charges of insulting the "King and the Prime Minister". He was released after several hours of such endurance and threatened of arrest and imprisonment if what happened to him of beating and torture inside the jail, were disclosed. The young man still suffers pain and conceal what had happened to him fearing for his life and the practices of the notorious National Security Service.

On the other hand, the same body had a grip on the Unemployed Committee well- known activist Hassan Abdulnabi Hassan Ali (26 years). Hassan was abducted more than once yesterday when he tried to sit near the royal office in Refaa area , calling for state agencies lifting their hands of and stop harassing his livelihood. At 10 o'clock yesterday morning, he started sitting in near the Grievances and Complaints Bureau in the Royal Court, but after a period of time, masked members of a special patrol came to him demanded him to leave, but he refused. After being shackled and eyes blindfolded, he was taken to a place near the site of the sit- in. Hassan started up roaring and battering the door of the room he was detained, he was released, so he went back to the sit again in the same place before. In his way, he was attacked by new armed group, he was arrest, once again, and taken to Refaa Police station, with his eyes blindfolded. He was harshly interrogated, was threatened of life extermination, and would face treatment worse than what he faced previously during detention. The head the interrogation lieutenant Osama asked him to sign pledge to have him released, but Hassan rejected the offer on the grounds that he had not committed a crime.

Hassan was released from the center at about 2 pm, so he went to sit again, but this time, he could not reach the same place because he was attacked by special forces, with their face masked, his clothes were torn as he was forcibly abducted to another location. He remanded eye-blinded in the car where he was interrogated and threatened once again. The leader of the kidnapping task threatened Hassan that he will faces the same fate as his colleague Moussa Abdali, and catching him by resorting to Britain, and if he is to live safely in Bahrain, he should stop his demands, a matter strongly rejected by Hassan. This situation lasted until about 5:30pm when he was released, then he returned to his family in the Village of Marcoban- Sitra Island, as they were very concerned about his safety. It is to be noted that all efforts by his family, friends and activists did not succeed to invite the press to follow up the issue, which some thing unusual. Apparently, there were clear orders to the media not to interact with the activist or echo the case.

Activist Hassan has issued a statement in which he referred to the circumstances of harassing him in his living after he was released, with the other members of what was known "Airport Case", where they were imprisoned for one year because of the expression of opinion upon the arrest of a prominent religious and intellectual figure in Bahrain Airport on December 25, 2005. The activist Hassan was the only detainee who was not allowed to resume his work in the traffic directorate at the Ministry of the Interior, while allowing all his colleagues to return to their jobs, whether in government or private institutions. Not content with the official Authorities discharging him from the Ministry of Interior, he was denied - according to his statement -work at other institutions or even obtain a license to practice taxi drive.

The activist Hassan is one of the founders of the Committee of Unemployed (CU) which imposed itself on the political arena after its founding in the year 2005 demanding provision of job opportunities for youth, setting out unemployment insurance and programs to support low-income citizens. As a result of its vigorous activities, attracting media and human rights institutions inside and outside Bahrain, members of the Committee have been subjected to all sorts of harassments and threats by members of the various security agencies, including the Ministry Interior (MI). The CU demanded the opening of doors of MI for Bahrainis unemployed to take over the large numbers of non-citizens employed by the ministry whose number exceeds 50% of its staff - according to the statements of its minister in June 2006.
Among those harassed was the young man Moussa Abdali, from Al-Ekr village eastern region of Bahrain, one of the founders of the C. The Bahraini Authorities refused to grant him a job, despite repeated deamnds. As a result of the harassment by the Authorities to the Committee and its members, activist Moussa Abdali was granted political asylum in the UK, in a short time scale from the date of his request. Moussa was subject to repeated attack by National Security and was sexually violated to deter his participation in the leadership of the CU., which did not succeed.

This is the latest incident of abduction of activists and arrests of those expressing their views in Bahrain. It reflects the deteriorating situation to freedom of expression and the defense of rights.

It should be noted that the Bahraini Authorities have been known, throughout the previous period, of the scope of targeting activists and defenders of the rights, which included kidnapping, assault and battery, prosecutions using arbitrary laws, threatening and harassment, in addition to espionage and penetration of privacy both taps on telephones or electronic communication. The reports by international organizations about such systematic violations in the previous period have increased, which was reflected on Bahrain's membership in the United Nations Human Rights Council. And if the Bahraini Authorities wish to earn membership in the Human Rights Council, its human rights record should improve, particularly with regard to the protection activists and rights defenders. The membership of this Council is not a wish nor a result of public relations, but the result of genuine exercise, maintenance and a continuous respect for human rights

The Committee of Activists hold the Bahraini Authorities the physical and psychological safety of Hassan Abdulnabi and the rest of the activists, and stop harassing him in his living, as well as the full responsibility for any implications of this harassment. The Authorities should be aware that such practices will be at the disclosure to human rights organizations and the international community.

The Committee of Solidarity with Activists and Detainees of Conscience in Bahrain
September 7, 2007

International campaign to prosecute Bahrain's butcher- Ian Henderson

Bahrain: Launching a multi-language campaign, in all world languages, against Henderson with the help of websites and blogs

Manama, 25 July 2007

Begin now and support justice,Selected Banners for your blog or website from here http://byshr.org/?p=51


Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) launched a campaign, today, to call for “trying the butcher of Bahrain, the British Officer, Ian Henderson.” The campaign started on 23 July 2007; i.e. one day after Henderson's arrival to Bahrain. BYSHR attributed a special section on the website (http://www.byshr.org/) for monitoring Henderson's case.

BYSHR clarified that the next step of the campaign shall focus on spreading the word in almost all universal languages: (Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Persian, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Urdu, Turkish, Chinese).

BYSHR asserted that this step will be implemented through designing some banners in different languages. These banners will be distributed via international, regional, and local online forums and blogs. The moderators of targeted blogs and online forums will be asked to post the banners on prominent places on their websites. Bloggers and online forums moderators will be allowed to select their preferred language.

BYSHR pointed out that a special section on the website will be dedicated to trace the websites and blogs that support the campaign. That is in order to identify the websites interested in promoting international justice and advocating human rights. Simultaneously, this will also help to recognize other blogs and websites which do not care for bringing justice for all humans. Those who will post the banners are requested to notify BYSHR in order to enlist their websites on “Human Rights Supporters Section”. (If you put campaign banners on your site or blog, sent us the name of your blog or site to solidarity@byshr.org)
BYSHR stated that each of Mideast Youth – Thinking Ahead (http://www.mideastyouth.com/) and Softcopy Translation Center for NGOs (http://www.softcopytranslation.org/) participated in the campaign through providing translation and technical solutions.

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights have great expectations that all international, regional, and local websites and blogs will support BYSHR campaign against Henderson, the British officer accused of committing inhuman crimes in Bahrain in 1966-2000.
_______________________________________________

Bahrain Youth Society For Human Rights

Mohammed AL-Maskati

President

P.O BOX : 18597 - bahrain

Mobile : (+973)39813867

Tel : (+973)17643721

Fax : (+973)17643721

Bahrain: Activists once more, Security Authorities persist to harass Rajab

The human activist Nabil Ahmed Rajab (1964) - Vice Bahrain Center for Human Rights- has been exposed, once again, to severe and continued harassment, exemplified recently in the daily pursuits by civilian cars to and from home since last Sunday. Mr Rajab stated to «Al-Wasat» newspaper that: «the work of human defenders and activists in Bahrain, since 2001 and even today, is public and not confidential, as it was during the era of state security. The Government does not need to adopt methods of surveillance, tapping phones and trailing activists in front of their homes and workplaces». He continued «the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) is well informed of what we are doing, as it is on my email list. What is sent to the press and people is also sent to the MOI. This method of surveillance is not the first, but already been practiced by more than one car in 2005, and this shows that the State does not believe in transparency».

This is not the only case, not the first of its kind, which Rajab was exposed to, in a campaign by the Bahraini Authorities targeting activists. In last March, the Public Prosecution Office in Bahrain summoned Mr. Rajab to investigate charges of defamation by one of the persons whose name was among implicated in the Bandergate[1] scandal. At the same instance, the same office has not shown any form of interaction-even for once - with the numerous complaints made by Mr. Rajab, and his wife, concerning the threatening messages of threat, slander and intimidation which were unusually delivered via mail and short text messages.
Not sufficient to the security body, Mr Rajab was targeted by the military forces while being ready to participate in a march of the unemployed on July 15, 2005, which caused a sliding disc in his back, as a result the attack on him along with a small group of activists and demonstrators. He was transferred instantly to a Government hospital[2]. The members of the military troops attacked Rajab, using plastic batons and kicked him in various parts of the body, especially the back and head, after he made himself known to them, and was recognised.

In order to learn about human rights issues in which Nabil Rajab was involved, it is sufficient to click his name in any of the search engines to obtain a long and assorted list, reflecting the diversity of the issues and active pursuits. Suffice it to refer to his participant management of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), which was dissolved by the Bahraini Authorities in September 2004, via administrative decision supported, endorsed later by the known to be independent jury as well as through the Court of Appeal. This is after BCHR’s addressing human rights, considered sensitive by the Bahraini Authorities. Among the issues, in which Rajab was involved through his post in the BCHR, include the sectarian discrimination and favoursim, poverty and economic rights, corruption and misappropriation of public lands, torture and prosecution of those accused of murder and torture in Bahraini jails and prisons, human trafficking, women's rights and migrant labours, freedom of expression and laws violating basic rights, activists, detainees of conscience and human rights defenders. Rajab supported- through BCHR also- effectively and directly the activities of the detainees of expression and various popular committees, which resulted in his exposure, and his colleagues, to repeated severe attacked and brutal beating in several occasions, which were treated in hospital, more than once.

Rajab has been eminent in media participations, as well as in many international conferences, courses, and in sponsorship and support of numerous petitions -personal and institutional- and international appeals to protect activists, detainees of conscience and the rights being blatantly and systematically violated. The latest petition addressed to Bahraini Authorities on the first Bandergate report. Rajab was part of the 22 national figures set the invitation and participated in a popular sit-in and march on, respectively, 17 and 24 November 2006 in protest to the contents of the scandalous report, demanding impartial inquiry commission and prosecute those implicated in the scandal. It was also among the initiators of the march in protest to the honor of the Bahraini prime minister, which was prevented by force by the Security Authorities and threatened to use live ammunition against the advocates.

The act of the Bahraini Authorities in the harassment of Nabil Rajab comes within a campaign to target activists and defenders of the rights, and is backed by influential posts in Authority to control their activities and prevent them from delivering. The Authorities have not been able to face popular demands to deal positively with what was addressed in Al-Bander reports which refers to the involvement of individuals and institutions in relation to the ruling family. Therefore, start in the targeting program was expected in order to introduce diversion to the popular demand, in relation to what were stated in the scandalous report and turned it into legal and security issues led by guided prosecution, impartial judicial system, to engage those activists and defenders, as well as ferocious security body known of crossing norms and international charters.

Targeting rights activist Nabil Rajab is a reaction of the security lead Bahraini Authorities to his, and his colleagues, human rights and media activities at the local and international levels, aiming to break the will of those activists, including Rajab. Accordingly, the Committee of Activists:
Ø Holds the Bahraini Authorities liable and responsible for any incidents to Nabil Rajab and his family-physically or psychologically-and in any format produced.
Ø Calls for rationality and desist from these methods, which have proven to be fruitless, characterized the previous era and led the country to a state of crisis and loss of security and stability.
Ø Invite the UN Special Rapporteur for the protection of activists and human rights defenders to intervene to the protection of rights activist Nabil Rajab and the rest of the activists in Bahrain from the ruling Authorities prejudice and maliciousness attacks of various security organs.

Committee of Solidarity with Activists and Detainees of Conscience in Bahrain
July 8th , 2007
[1] http://69.64.48.18/art.php?aid=45159
[2] http://www.hrinfo.org/bahrain/bchr/2005/pr0906.shtml

LA Times: Strategic rift in Bahrain's Royal Court

Los Angeles Times
Strategic rift in Bahrain's royal court

Some members of the ruling family reportedly back hard-line Sunni groups; others advise helping disenfranchised Shiites.

By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer
July 7, 2007

MANAMA, BAHRAIN — Leading members of Bahrain's royal family have thrown their weight behind hard-line Sunni Muslim groups, some of whom share the outlook of Al Qaeda, in an attempt to counter a perceived Shiite threat, government officials and critics say.The strategy, first exposed in a government report that surfaced last year, has revealed a rift within the court of the ruling Khalifa family. One faction believes in reconciliation with the Persian Gulf nation's disenfranchised Shiite Muslim majority. The other believes in suppressing Shiite aspirations, even if it means supporting Sunni groups propelled by the same ideologies that inspire Osama bin Laden. A ranking government official who is a member of the royal family said there was "no doubt" that a hard-line movement existed within the Bahraini power structure."Then, there are the moderates who believe that cohesion is the way to go forward," he said.

The official, who counts himself among the moderates, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Members of the royal family are unanimous in public, and analysts say they rarely discuss internal rifts. But Bahrain, a small, oil-rich nation of 750,000 people where the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet is based, is anything but united.It rests uneasily on the increasingly volatile sectarian fault line rattling the Middle East. Impoverished Shiites, some of whom share close religious and cultural ties to Iran, demand more power from the dominant Sunnis, who have ties to Saudi Arabia. Intermarriage between the sects has become rare.

Bahrain's Shiites and Sunnis have different last names and speak Arabic with different accents. Crown Prince Salman ibn Hamed Khalifa, a 37-year-old graduate of American University in Washington and Cambridge University in England, leads the moderates, who have focused on creating job opportunities for Bahrain's young as a way of staving off sectarian tensions. Khalid ibn Ahmed Khalifa, minister of state for royal court affairs, is known as the leader of the hard-liners. Few know where King Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa, the ultimate authority in Bahrain, stands.

"The royal court minister is backed by the Sunni extremists and he backs them," said one Bahraini analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It's a very dangerous game. They're going down a slippery road." Even opposition figures say that the most extreme of their nation's Sunnis are moderate compared with Al Qaedainspired insurgents fighting governments in Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan. One Sunni hard-liner has said he welcomes the presence of American and British military officials in Bahrain if it keeps the Iranian influence at bay.Yet secular and Shiite Bahrainis have become alarmed by the growth of Sunni fundamentalism. Figures allied with the Muslim Brotherhood or more extreme groups have gained the upper hand over the ministries of information, finance and large parts of the military, government critics and human rights groups say. Banks owned by Muslim charities or organizations have grown rich with the return of Arab funds from the United States and Europe after the increased post-Sept. 11 scrutiny of Persian Gulf money in the West. Islamic charities have morphed into powerful political groups, with the government's encouragement, critics say. Some likened the rapid buildup of Sunni groups to the U.S. and Saudi support for Islamist Afghan warriors during the 1980s Soviet occupation."This is the Saudi Frankenstein," said Ebrahim Sharif Alsayed, a member of the National Democratic Action Society, a secular opposition group. "I don't think terrorism is a serious threat. But this is the same play. They think they can manage the Islamists."

Critics worry that in a country long a bastion of relative moderation, clerics are glorifying holy war. Islamic newspapers have grown more strident and anti-American. One, Akhbar Khaleej, refers to Bin Laden as a "sheik," a title of honor.Two controversial Sunni figures who left the United States have found refuge and employment in Bahrain: Wagdy Mohammed Ghoneim, the head of an Orange County mosque who was suspected of giving speeches in support of terrorist organizations and arrested in November 2004 on suspicion of overstaying his U.S. visa; and Salah Soltan, a scholar.

"Every week they appear on television, telling people how to be clean and religious and pious," said one journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Evidence of government support for Sunni extremists first emerged in a report prepared by former government official Salah Bander, which detailed ties between regime officials and hard-liners as part of a plan to crush Shiite aspirations.Sunnis' fear of the country's Shiite majority has been heightened by events in Iraq, where newly empowered Shiites rule over the once-dominant Sunni minority.Though shimmering with ostentatious wealth, Bahrain has not been immune to political and sectarian violence.

Shiites say that for decades they've received a disproportionately small share of the country's riches and opportunities. Shiite districts west of Manama, the capital, tend to be poor and run-down. Independent observers have criticized the government for regularly staffing security forces with non-Bahraini Sunnis.Anger and resentment bubbled up in the 1970s. And in 1981, a group of Bahraini Shiites, allegedly backed by elements in Iran, attempted to overthrow the monarchy. Violent clashes between Shiites and security forces erupted in the late 1990s, sending prominent Shiites into exile. Many Sunnis regard Bahrain's Shiites as an Iranian fifth column."Sunnis and Shiites are all in the same boat," said Mohammed Khaled, a Sunni lawmaker who has been described as a hard-liner. "But we won't allow anyone to guide that boat. We will not accept any foreign interference, not from the Americans nor the Iranians.

"Many of Bahrain's Shiites maintain strong ties to the burgeoning Shiite movements throughout the Middle East. The homes and cars of pious Shiites are adorned by posters of the leader of the Lebanese militant Shiite group Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah; Iraqi cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani; and Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

King Hamed launched a plan of reconciliation and democratic reform when he ascended to the throne in 1999, but many say it has stalled, in part because of fears that giving Shiites more power would open the way for an Iranian takeover of the island nation, over which Iran once claimed sovereignty.Moderates in the government, including the crown prince, argue that democratic reform and economic opportunity will be far more effective in coaxing Shiites away from Iran."The hard-liners haven't succeeded," the government official said. "They have only done one thing: turn a lot of people against them."

الإستحواذ على السواحل - ساحل المالكية مثال

عطية الله سيطير قبل البرلمان أو في أول أسبوع من البرلمان

Bahrain: Khalifa step down -تنحى يا خليفة

مسيرة المطالبة بتنحي رئيس الوزراء البحرين
الشيخ خليفة بن سلمان آل خليفة

HRW-UN: Bahrain Prime Minister Poor Choice for Habitat Award

For Immediate Release
United Nations: Bahrain Prime Minister Poor Choice for Habitat Award(New York, July 1, 2007) –

The United Nations Habitat Program made a poor choice in presenting its annual award for 2006 to the prime minister of Bahrain, Human Rights Watch said today. Habitat is giving its Special Citation of the Habitat Scroll of Honor Award to Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa in Geneva on July 2.

Shaikh Khalifa, who has served as Bahrain’s only prime minister since the country’s independence in 1971, presided over several decades of severe political repression in the country, including the systematic torture, arbitrary arrest, and forced exile of political opponents. Shaikh Khalifa and his late brother, Shaikh Isa, the country’s emir, suspended the country’s first constitution and partially elected parliament in 1975 and set up a system of State Security Courts that, until the new ruler abolished them in 2001, sentenced thousands of suspected dissidents to long years in prison, many on the basis of confessions obtained under torture.

“A person with a human rights record as poor as that of Shaikh Khalifa should not be getting a UN award of any kind,” said Steve Crawshaw, UN advocacy director of Human Rights Watch. “Political repression cannot simply be put to one side.”The Habitat press release announcing the award to Shaikh Khalifa cited “his impressive efforts in lifting the living standards of all Bahrainis” and applauded his “efforts to place the urban poor at the center of [Bahrain’s] modernization strategy.”Bahrain’s human rights activists take a different view of the prime minister’s achievements in the field of housing. According to the independent Bahrain Center for Human Rights, the government’s housing budget has long failed to address the country’s serious housing crisis. Inside Bahrain, the prime minister is known more for his considerable personal financial stake in corporate skyscraper projects such as his Financial Harbor complex in the capital, Manama, than for providing adequate housing for Bahrain’s many low-income families.

“Even from the narrow perspective of right to adequate housing, Shaikh Khalifa appears a dubious choice,” Crawshaw said.

For more information, please contact:
In New York, Steve Crawshaw (English, French, German): +1-646-596-3348 (mobile)

In Jerusalem, Joe Stork (English): +972-054-241-2279; or +1-202-299-4925 (mobile)

In Erbil, Gasser Abdel-Razek (Arabic, English): +964-750-741-2934 (mobile

Bahrain, low ranking in peace sustainability

Bahrain, low ranking in peace unsustainability

The Economist Intelligence Unit, (EIU), in conjunction with an international team of academics and peace experts, produced Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 121 nations according to their relative peacefulness.
www.visionofhumanity.com/index.php

The GPI is composed of 24 indicators, ranging from a nation’s level of military expenditure to its relations with neighbouring countries and the level of respect for human rights. The index has been tested against a range of potential “drivers” or determinants of peace—including levels of democracy and transparency, education and material wellbeing. The study is based on the latest available figures (mainly 2004-06) from a wide range of respected sources, including the International Institute of Strategic Studies, The World Bank, various UN offices and Peace Institutes and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The team produced the results of the analysis into each of the 121 nation's peace in a table, the Global Peace Index section, in which countries are ranked from most peaceful to least peaceful, highlighting their ranking as well as their score. www.visionofhumanity.com/rankings/. Click on a country to see the detail of its peace indicators and drivers.

While Norway was found the most peaceful country with a rank of 1, Iraq was ranked the worst in peace sustainability at the bottom of the scale at 121. Bahrain was ranked 62 out of 121 showing great tendency for political instability and vulnerability for peace non-sustainability. www.visionofhumanity.com/rankings/show_country/7