FRI 29 - 3 - 2024
 
Date: Mar 23, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
Bahrain to focus on restoring security
U.N. human rights office calls on Manama to uphold international laws

Wednesday, March 23, 2011


Bahrain’s foreign minister said Tuesday his country would focus on restoring security and pushing ahead with political consultations after Gulf troops quashed one month of protests while the U.N. human rights office called on Manama to uphold international law.


Emotions remained high Tuesday as dozens of mourners gathered in Manama to bury a Shiite woman who witnesses say had died at the hands of the military last week.


“The situation has now evolved toward calm and we will continue on this path,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa told a news conference after talks with Arab League chief Amr Moussa in Cairo.


“There is no doubt that continued political consultations are the way forward,” he said, adding Bahrain would concentrate on “restoring security, stability and unity between citizens after much polarization in recent days.”
Arab League ambassadors meeting in Cairo Tuesday said Bahrain’s use of Gulf troops was “legitimate,” based on agreements between members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.


Bahrain forces ended last Wednesday an uprising by mostly Shiite protesters that had prompted the king to impose martial law and call in troops from Gulf neighbors.
Sheikh Khaled said that the troops were called in in order to “protect key installations against any external threat to the kingdom.”


Moussa said the position of Arab countries was “very clearly to maintain stability in Bahrain and preserve its Arab identity.”
Human rights groups say at least 20 people have been killed, including two members of Bahrain’s security forces, since protests began Feb. 14.


The ferocity of the crackdown promoted Tuesday the U.N. human rights office to call on Bahraini authorities to uphold international law, underlying that protesting peacefully or giving an interview to a journalist is not a crime.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay had also received accounts of security forces beating protesters and preventing wounded demonstrators from receiving medical treatment.

 

“The situation in Bahrain remains very worrying with more people reported killed and between 50-100 reported missing over the past week,” Rupert Colville, a U.N. human rights spokesman, said.


Two people previously reported missing had been found dead, he told a news briefing, without giving details.
There were disturbing reports that people who have spoken on record to media have been detained or threatened, Colville said. “Those arrested are reported to include political activists, human rights defenders and doctors and nurses from the Salmaniya hospital,” he said, adding that some nurses had been released.


“Many of those who have been reporting on the situation to the outside world, including to us, have had their communications cut, and in some cases the mobile phones of their close relatives have also been cut off,” he said.
“It is vital that authorities in Bahrain scrupulously abide by international standards. People should not be arbitrarily arrested, they should not be detained without clear evidence of their committed or recognized crime.”


A Bahraini woman died after suffering gunshot wounds to the head and disappearing the day security forces launched a crackdown against protesters, the main Shiite opposition group Al-Wefaq said Tuesday.
Mourners at Bahia al-Aradi’s funeral demanded revenge and chanted “Death to al-Khalifa” – a reference to the country’s ruling dynasty – as they carried her body to Manama cemetery.


Aradi, 51, was driving on a main road in Manama looking for gasoline when she was shot in the head last Wednesday as she approached a military checkpoint, according to witnesses who came to her aid from nearby houses. They said they were also shot at by the military vehicles parked on a highway overpass.


A death certificate seen by an Associated Press reporter was issued by a military hospital. It listed the cause of death as severe brain injury. “This is not the real reason why she died,” her brother Habib al-Aradi said. He said he wants the military to explain what happened to his sister. – Agencies

 



 
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