Bahrain slammed for torturing, arresting children

PressTv. Bahrain’s main opposition group, al-Wefaq, has slammed Bahraini authorities for torturing children, calling on the ruling Al Khalifa regime to stop arresting and putting them on trial.

“The regime is vindictively using its authorities to target children, women and mosques in disrespect to its commitments to respect human rights,” the group said in a statement released on Thursday.

“Children rights that are guaranteed by all international law and conventions must be protected in Bahrain. The regime must immediately call a halt to all human rights violation that are being brutally perpetrated against children in Bahrain,” the statement added.

The statement also expressed anger over the Manama regime’s ongoing crackdown on children, saying, “Charging children and putting them on trial proves the travesty of justice in Bahrain. It is shocking and totally unacceptable for children at such ages to have to face ill treatment and brutal assault.”

Earlier this month, Amnesty International condemned Bahrain for harsh jail terms on children who had been arrested for allegedly participating in anti-regime protests across the Persian Gulf kingdom, saying, “Bahrain’s government purports to respect human rights yet it is brazenly flouting international obligations on a routine basis by resorting to extreme measures such as imposing harsh prison sentences on children.”

The Al Kahlifa regime is under fire for its brutal crackdown on rights activists and pro-democracy protesters.

Bahrainis have been staging demonstrations since mid-February 2011, calling for political reforms and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following its brutal crackdown on popular protests.

Scores have been killed, many of them under torture while in custody, and thousands more detained since the popular uprising started in the kingdom.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.