12th November 2012

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

Bahrain Authorities Investigate After Video Shows Police Beating Up Protester (VIDEO, PICTURES)
Bahrain authorities have launched an investigation into alleged police brutality after ofcers were secretly lmed beating up an unarmed man. The lm shows a man, believed to be an antigovernement protester, being attacked by a number of ofcers, who repeatedly kick and strike him whilst dragging him across an open space towards their vehicles. Another ofcer spits in the man's face before another kicks him into the back of a 4x4. Protests continued on Monday as the demonstrations focussed on a shopping centre near the village of Makiya, where masked activists set re to tyres. Press reports have claimed that the paramilitary National Guard has been deployed by the government in an effort to suppress the protests. Read More members of Bahrains opposition.

On withdrawing nationality
31 Bahrainis had their citizenship withdrawn last week. Among them are two former members of parliament, i.e. two individuals with a certain degree of popular representation. In reality, this is newsworthy merely in order to shed a light on the following: Whether or not the aforementioned two individuals enjoy a certain degree of representation, and whether or not the 31

Bahrainis are opposition activists or have committed acts of subversion, the truth is that withdrawing ones nationality is not a punishment simply because granting [this] nationality is not a favor. Any power who acts like the Bahraini authorities by depriving 31 citizens of their nationality is virtually saying that the country is owned by one man or at the very best by one family, i.e. a man who grants [the countrys] nationality as a favor and punishes [people] by withdrawing it. Read More

reforms outlined by an independent commission of inquiry.

Bahrain Revokes Nationality Of 31 Opposition Members

As Bahrains authorities have been overwhelmed by despair about their ability to silence the opposition, they have started to take measures, hoping to contain the storm that threatens to engulf them. Then, they reached at decision to strip the nationality of 31

Abdulhadi Khalaf, an experienced politician of Bahrain, is affected by this decision and is among those who believe that glory can only be brought about by a storm eradicating every tyrant, absolutist and villain, as Abdul Rahman alMuawedah, the poet of the National Union Committee, said years before the Bahraini people rst headed to the Pearl roundabout. Read More

Bahrain upset with foreign meddling

The application of Bahrain law is internal and sovereign affairs should be left to the discretion of its leaders, the Council of Representatives speaker said. At least 40 people died last year during anti-government protests in Bahrain. The government has since committed to a series of

Last week, however, human rights groups expressed concern after authorities in Bahrain revoked the citizenship of 31 people considered a threat to national security. At least one of the people stripped of citizenship belonged to the opposition alWefaq party, which the government blamed for some of the unrest in the country. Read More

The survival of the Arab monarchies

Why does monarchy march on while republican dictatorships precariously wobble in the Arab world? The undertow of the Arab Spring reveals how unevenly revolutionary unrest spread throughout the region. While popular uprisings rocked the autocratic republics, not a single ruling monarchy fell. Opposition stood quiet in Qatar and the United

Arab Emirates (UAE), while Oman and Saudi Arabia saw only isolated agitation. Popular reform movements mobilized in Jordan and Morocco, but they zzled out. Ongoing protests in Kuwait reect a longstanding tradition of civic activism and political contestation that far predates the Arab Spring. Only Bahrain experienced new large-scale unrest, but military intervention by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ended the troubles. Read More

Bahraini Dissidents Face Deeper, Systematic Crackdown

Bahrain may appear a relatively stable Western ally in a critically important region of the world there is a dark cloud hanging over the small island kingdom. The peaceful protests in Bahrain that were once prevalent during the beginning of the countrys version of the Arab spring have succumbed

to a dangerous mix of arrests, imsy prosecutions, indenite detention, torture and violence. A signicant part of this is fueled by the Bahraini monarchys refusal to enact political reforms, much to the chagrin of international human rights activists.Recommendations to enhance the power of the legislature and prosecute senior security ofcials who are suspected of abuse have been largely ignored. Read More

Bahraini Court Sentences Nearly Two Dozen Opponents

A court in the capital reported today that it had sentenced 19 government opponents to ve years in prison, accused of wanting to kill police who suppressed protests in recent months against Bahrain monarchy. The court based its accusation on the fact that the protesters threw

homemade molotov cocktails at police who repressed public protests in favor of democracy and against the monarchy last December. The sentences are the most recent of a series of similar rulings against members of opposition parties and doctors and nurses of the Shiite Muslim community, accused of attending to participants injured by policemen during strikes in this capital and other cities. Read More The Cabinet reviewed a memorandum from the Interior Ministry on the GCC security draft and approved it, Yasser Al Nasser, the Cabinet secretary general, said following the session on Sunday. The draft aims at reinforcing security cooperation and coordination between the six member countries of the GCC, Al Nasser said. Read More

Bahraini students: the struggle continues

Students and workers in Bahrain have played a primary role in whats known as the Pearl Revolution. They continue their ght against the Western-backed Al-Khalifa monarchy despite systematic and ongoing state repression. More than a year ago, protesters ooded the streets of Manama and other Bahraini cities and villages in February 2011. They occupied the Pearl Roundabout, which was the

Bahraini version of Tahrir Square. The government forces raided the roundabout killing, injuring and arresting peaceful protestors. The Bahraini monarchy invited troops from Western-backed Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates to aid in the crackdown on peaceful protesters. Since then, forces have attacked protesters, besieged villages and cities, raided homes in search for activists, and thrown US-made tear gas canisters on peoples homes. Read More

Bahrain endorses Gulf security treaty draft

A security treaty draft that allows the tracking down of lawbreakers and wanted people across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries regardless of their nationalities has been endorsed by Bahrain.

Bahrain: Mihazza village under clampdown for days and masked men raid houses
Mihazza village in Sitra island, south of the capital Manama, has been targeted by the regime forces for more than three days. The regime forces are heavily deployed in the besieged area, tens of houses have been raided in a scene that looks more like a state of martial law. Read More

Bahrain regime forces prevent mourners from reaching funeral of the martyred teen
Regime forces in Bahrain imposed a suffocating security ring Saturday morning, around Samaheej, home of Ali Abbas Radhi, 16, who was martyred last Friday due to the regime's brutal and repressive methods to prevent citizens from reaching the weekly Friday prayer behind leading cleric, Sheik Issa Qassim. Read More