Deep anger at Saudi martyrs funeral; Alkhalifa torture recorded on video

Deep anger at Saudi martyrs funeral; Alkhalifa torture recorded on video

The eight victims of the terrorist attack on Al Dalwa town in the Eastern Province of Arabia were laid to rest on Sunday 9th November. Thousands of people turned out and the funeral became a landmark in the political strife in that region. Members of the Saudi ruling family attempted to exploit the situation by taking part in the funeral and appearing to take action against the takfiri terrorists. The people, however, are aware of the role played by the regime, the scholars of the royal courts and the media in fomenting sectarianism and spreading hatred along the sectarian divides. The regime cannot be absolved of responsibility in fanning the feelings of hatred and demonizing the Shia Muslim community which makes up to 20 percent of the population of the Arabian Peninsula. They live in the main areas where the largest oil fields in the world exist, but who benefit little from the oil revenues. In the past four years 25 people from Eastern Province were killed by regime forces.

In one of the most bizarre developments, the GCC foreign ministers meeting scheduled to be held in Doha on 10th November was cancelled due to intractable differences among member countries. This means that next month’s annual GCC summit in Qatar will unlikely be held. If that happens it will probably signal the end of the Saudi-dominated and controlled regional alliance. This means that the Arab Spring whose flame was distinguished by GCC member may have succeeded in shaking and weakening one of the  most stumbling blocks on the way to democracy in the Middle East.

In the past few days a video has been circulating which shows a known officer from the Alkhalifa Death Squads torturing a native Bahraini in a police vehicle. The terrified youth was surrounded by several other officers and was being subjected to questioning relating to his religious beliefs. Suddenly, the clip shows, the officer started his ferocious attack with a police baton on the boy whose head was covered with his own sleeveless short. The crime is believed to have happened recently. Caught red-handed the regime hurried to claim that it had taken place in 2011 and that it would “investigate” it. Human Rights activists who are familiar with the Bahraini situation confirm that it is a new video and the crime happened recently. This is the second hard proof of systematic torture since a British team from the Prison Inspectorate went to Bahrain apparently to run the Alkhalifa torture chambers.

The first crime happened last week when a young Bahraini, Hassan Al Sheikh, was tortured to death by Alkhalifa torturers. Again, they said they would “investigate”. Despite the international outcry at the “systematic torture” findings of the BICI in 2011, none of the known torturers has been made to pay for their heinous crimes. The dictator is aware that crimes of torture are not dropped with time but remain to haunt their perpetrators for life. Alkhalifa regime is also aware that without torture, it will fall because more people will resist its occupation and dictatorship. Torture and banning public freedoms will grant it respite from imminent fall especially with the continuing support from some Western governments.

Meanwhile the revolutionary youth have organized a plebiscite to determine the destiny of the people. It will take place at the same time as the Alkhalifa pseudo-elections planned for 22nd November. The revolutionary forces are planning to make it a historical day by staging massive demongythuystrations, disrupting the regime’s deceptive election exercise and ensuring that the regime’s crimes are exposed more to the expected flood of sponsored journalists. The political societies have now joined the revolutionary body and are determined to continue the political strife until the Alkhalifa regime is brought down.

The regime has maintained its tight grip on the people with the most vicious means. Scores of native Bahrainis have been detained in the past week, and many houses raided. Among the newly-detained are: Saleh Al Asfoor, from Duraz where seven houses were raided on 8th November, Sayed Ali Taj and Mahdi Hassan from Bori Town. From the town of Nabih Saleh, Fadhel Abbas, 29, has been taken to the notorious Jaw Prison eight days after his abduction by members of the Death Squads. His mystery caused enormous fear for his life. It is now clear that in those eight days he was severely tortured and abused. He had previously been sentenced in absentia to seven years imprisonment. Sayed Ahmad Sharaf has also disappeared ten days ago and nothing has been heard of him since. It must be pointed out that the regime seeks to avoid accusations of torture in different ways. Among them is snatching native Bahrainis, taking them to torture houses, inflicting maximum pain and injuries through torture, before taking them to the known prisons.

Bahrain Freedom Movement
12th November 2014