Date: Jul 25, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
Manama panel to investigate security role in protests

By Praveen Menon
REUTERS
MANAMA: A commission tasked by Bahrain to investigate weeks of protests that rocked the Gulf island kingdom said Sunday it would look at the role of the security forces in the unrest and examine charges of torture.


At a news conference marking the launch of the five-member panel’s investigation, chairman Cherif Bassiouni said his team would look at 30 police officers being investigated by the Interior Ministry for allegedly not following procedures.
He said the army would also be investigated. “We will investigate the role of the army. The army is not above the law and not beyond the law,” Bassiouni said, adding most of the incidents under investigation happened while the military was in charge.


Bahrain’s Sunni rulers imposed martial law and crushed weeks of pro-democracy protests led mostly by the Shiite majority in March, lifting the state of emergency four months later.
During the crackdown, hundreds of people were arrested, most of them Shiites, and some 2,000 were sacked.
Tensions are still simmering in the Gulf Arab state, with small protests erupting daily in Shiite villages ringing the capital since emergency law ended on June 1.


King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa set up the panel of human rights and legal experts in June after facing international criticism for the crackdown, including from long-time ally the United States, whose strategic Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain.


Panel chief Bassiouni is an Egyptian-American law professor and U.N. war crimes expert who was involved in the formation of the Hague-based International Criminal Court and recently led a U.N. inquiry into events in Libya.
The commission also includes Canadian judge and former ICC president Philippe Kirsch, British human rights lawyer Nigel Rodley, Iranian lawyer Mahnoush Arsanjani and Kuwaiti Islamic law expert Badria al-Awadhi.
Bahrain has said it will give the commission access to official files and allow it to meet witnesses in secret. Opposition groups, however, have argued that bias may mar a mission set up by the government.