UN experts warn repression in Bahrain will breed unrest

GENEVA: A crackdown on human rights in Bahrain, including a resumption of executions and suppression of dissent, is likely to spark increased unrest, UN rights investigators said yesterday.

US-allied Bahrain, where the US Fifth Fleet is based, crushed mass protests by the Shi’ite Muslim majority in 2011 and the Sunni-led monarchy has kept a lid on unrest since then by closing Shi’ite-led opposition groups and prosecuting activists.

“Trying to quell protests and criticism by resorting to repression and violence is not only a violation of international human rights law, it also undoubtedly leads to an escalation of tension,” five UN investigators said in a statement.

“We fear that this increasingly hostile environment is undermining any prospect of alleviation of social and political unrest in Bahrain.”

The five investigators — Agnes Callamard, Annalisa Ciampi, Michel Forst, Ahmed Shaheed and José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez — are independent experts who report to the UN Human Rights Council on executions, freedom of assembly, human rights defenders, freedom of religion, and arbitrary detention.

They said Bahrain’s human rights situation had deteriorated sharply in the past year, since the Ministry of Justice began legal moves to dissolve the main opposition party, the Al-Wefaq Islamic Society, and stripped the country’s highest Shi’ite religious authority, Isa Qassim, of his citizenship.

“The authorities have resorted to drastic measures to curb dissenting opinions such as torture, arbitrary detention, unfounded convictions, the stripping of citizenship, the use of travel bans, intimidation, including death threats, and reprisals for cooperating with international organizations, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.”

The UN investigators also said security forces had also used excessive and lethal force against peaceful demonstrations, tragically failing in their duty to protect life. — AFP