Why US Interests Are More Important Than Bahraini Lives

Bahrain's main opposition group, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, has censured the recent jail terms handed down to scores of people over taking part in a sit-in in 2017.

News ID: 443708

Date: 03 March 2019 - 23:48

RNA - Al-Wefaq has condemned Manama’s judiciary of convicting innocent people after a court handed down prison terms to 167 Bahrainis for holding a sit-in in protest at the regime’s decision to revoke the citizenship of prominent Shia Muslim cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim almost two years ago.

The movement has called on the international community to wake up and take note of the human rights violation unfolding in Bahrain. The defendants convicted have received sentences ranging from one to 10 years behind bars. They were charged with rioting and taking part in an illegal gathering.

On May 23, 2017, the Al Khalifah regime forces raided the village of Diraz, which had been under a military siege for almost a year, and stormed into the home of Sheikh Isa Qassim, putting the cleric under house arrest. The ailing cleric has since left the country to receive medical treatment. During the crackdown, regime forces killed at least five demonstrators, wounded dozens and arrested over 280 people.

What’s sad in all this is that the regime’s justice system instead of trying those who killed innocent protesters, unarmed citizens and shot them with live rounds alive in cold blood has done the opposite. It has imprisoned many protesters, stripped the cleric of his citizenship, and later dissolved the Islamic Enlightenment Institution founded by Sheikh Qassim as well as the opposition al-Risala Islamic Association.

Into the argument, the anti-regime protesters never took up arms. They are peacefully demanding that the un-elected Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just and elected system representing all Bahrainis to be established.

This is yet to be the case, as Al Khalifah regime receives diplomatic impunity from the United States and its European allies. They even allow the kingdom to use wealth to whitewash its legacy of abuses, human rights violations, and silences those who try to draw attention to this pattern.

As is, in Bahrain there are no consequences and accountability for killing and imprisoning the dissent. The regime has been emboldened thanks to President Donald Trump, who has made it clear to Bahrain that “there won’t be strain with this administration.” The United States is in a position to help end these human rights violations, but instead it chooses to stay silent, to keep its Fifth Fleet naval base, and to sell its weapons.

Washington also always sends its Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to Bahrain to praise the “strategic partnership between the two countries”. He never bothers to make any mention of unjust court cases and verdicts for protesters or raise the issue of human rights. The United States has the means to use its leverage, since Bahrain is a close ally and host of the Fifth Fleet, but it never bothers to take a stance. Britain, similarly and shamefully, avoids offering support for peaceful protesters and those behind bars.

If Bahrain has learned anything from all this injustice, it is that the regime can arrest, torture and repress its own people and countries like the United States and Britain will continue to look the other way. It can  flout international human rights law and get away with anything too.

Using mentality of exceptionalism as a free-floating abstraction from reality, as well, the United States and Britain consider their own interests more important than the lives of Bahraini protesters. These tricksters are abandoning human rights at a time when things are worsening in Bahrain and will only continue to deteriorate.

According to Fars News Agancy, Trump officials claim the US is a “moral beacon.” For that, they need to define themselves in deeds not only by what they are for but by what they are against in Bahrain. In the present instance, what they are against in Bahrain is its long-suffering citizens.

Let’s get real: It’s a fantasy to think American officials would ever find themselves criticizing the Al Khalifah regime over murder, torture, and cruel treatment of its people, much less hold them to account. The US government, which has enthusiastically supported the regime’s war crimes over the years, will never allow it to happen.

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