President Barack Obama, issued a statement condemning the violence that took place across the region on Friday in Yemen, Bahrain and Libya. President Obama stated: “I am deeply concerned by reports of violence in Bahrain, Libya and Yemen. The United States condemns the use of violence by governments against peaceful protesters in those countries and wherever else it may occur.” He went on to say: “Wherever they are, people have certain universal rights including the right to peaceful assembly.” President Obama urged these governments to use restraint in their response to peaceful protesters and to respect their rights.
On Wednesday, the Middle East Institute hosted an event focused on the public opinions of Egyptians in the wake of Mubarak’s fall from power, entitled, “After Mubarak: What do the Egyptian People Really Want?”The Middle East Institute hosted two speakers; Steven Kull, Middle East public opinion expert and director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, along with, Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Saban Center of the Brookings Institution.
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Bahieddin Hassan, Director of the Cairo Center for Human Rights, wrote in a recent editorial that although Mubarak may be gone, “the textbook police state which he built up over the years, and that wasn’t much different from that of Tunisia, is still with us.” Hassan believes that the main task of the transition is to “dismantle the pillars of this police state and to lay the foundations of a secular and democratic regime that respects human rights” which he argues can be achieved by dismantling the institutions and constitutional amendments that helped to legitimize the state. Hassan calls for the constitution to be entirely re-written and states that elections should not take place immediately, because Egypt needs to foster a democratic environment capable of electing leaders who will support a democratic future in Egypt rather than “neo-Mubarakism.”
Nicholas Kristoff, writing for the New York Times, recounts the brutal crackdown of protesters by Bahraini security forces on Thursday. He says that the police have been firing tear gas, rubber bullets, and shotgun pellets at peaceful protesters, who, contrary to claims by government officials and Bahrain state TV, were entirely unarmed. He also documents the harrowing experience of hospital staff dealing with the severely injured and dead from the violence and recounts a story told to him by a nurse who said she saw police execute a young male protester of about 24 at point blank range. A doctor was also threatened with rape by security forces some of whom are reportedly from Saudi Arabia. Kristof also states that it’s possible that some of the military tanks patrolling the streets were also Saudi, although he could not confirm such claims. Ambulatory services have also been suspended with response teams only answering calls after receiving explicit approval from the Interior Ministry. Some protesters have demanded the ouster of King Hamad to which Kristof replied: “[…] when a king opens fire on his people, he no longer deserves to be ruler. That might be the only way to purge this land of ineffable heartbreak.”
On Tuesday, Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA) introduced H.Res.94, a resolution calling for “an end to violence, arrests, torture, and ill treatment perpetrated against Iranian citizens as well as the unconditional release of all political prisoners in Iran.” The resolution also calls on the Administration to condemn human rights violations in Iran and “support the Iranian people’s endeavors towards democracy” by ending the “selective approach to Iranian opponents who struggle for democracy and human rights” and removing the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, as the Iranian government uses it as pretext for cracking down on dissidents and opposition members. It also calls for the President to impose sanctions on Iran as well as on any individual or entity associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and for the President to persuade U.S. allies and other countries to enact appropriate measures preventing Iranian banks and financial institutions involved in nuclear activities and backing terrorist groups from accessing the international monetary system. The resolution has been referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The Guardian’slive blog of protests around the Middle East reports that a caller on Al-Jazeera has reportedly witnessed six people shot to death during Thursday protests in Benghazi. The caller also claimed that the government was releasing criminals from prisons to attack anti-government protesters.
Writing in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristofargues that Bahrain is a reminder that “authoritarian regimes are slow learners.” The Bahraini government, he states, has failed to learn the lessons of Tunisia and Egypt that the use of violence will “undermine the legitimacy of the government.” Kristof states that while at first the protesters were demanding the release of political prisoners, an end to torture and less concentration of power in the al-Khalifa family that controls the country, the violence against protesters have led to calls for the overthrow of the ruling family with some calling for a British-style constitutional monarchy, where King Hamad would reign without power, and others calling for the ouster of the king. “All of this puts the United States in a bind,” Kristof says, as Bahrain houses a U.S. navy fleet and has been considered a model in the region by U.S. government officials, who maintain close ties to the al-Khalifa family. Kristof calls on the U.S. to be cautious of that “our cozy relations with those in power won’t dull our appreciation that history is more likely to side with protesters being shot with rubber bullets than with the regimes doing the shooting.”
Ian Black, writing for The Guardian, notes that the Bahraini government has been hiring non-native Sunni Muslims from Jordan, Yemen and Pakistan, while also importing tanks and troops from Saudi Arabia to grow its police and security forces. Sixty-five percent of the Bahraini population is Shia while the ruling family and government elite are Sunni. Black states that there has been a concerted effort, despite lack of official statistics, on the part of the government to import Sunnis to change the demographic balance in their own favor. Bahrainis often complain about police officers of Pakistani origin who often do not speak Arabic. Black also notes that Iraqi Ba’athists have been streaming into the country since the U.S. led invasion in 2003 and points out that the Bahraini secret police, known as the Mukhabarat, is currently headed by a Jordanian.
As protests continue across the Middle East, the question of US foreign policy with respect to the region looms large. In POMED’s latest policy brief, Brookings scholars Ted Piccone and Emily Alinikoff address the US approach to the United Nations Human Rights Council, particularly as it pertains to the Middle East. Click herefor the full text, and click here to sign up to receive future briefs via email.
The Obama administration joined the UN Human Rights Council in 2009 as a means to promote human rights through a multilateral mechanism as well as to strengthen the imperfect body from within. In the brief, Piccone and Alinikoff focus on the UN’s system of Special Procedures, a unique and effective mechanism which provides independent, periodic, and on the ground scrutiny of a country’s human rights record. Countries in the Middle East and North Africa have not cooperated well with the UN Special Procedures. Nonetheless, Special Procedures have had some success in changing states’ behavior. Piccone and Alinikoff argue that the United States should remain actively engaged in the Council in order to strengthen the Special Procedures and to work to address the body’s flaws. This includes challenging the candidacy of any country that has a poor record of cooperation with the Council’s mechanisms for membership on the Human Rights Council.
On Wednesday night, protesters in Lulu Roundabout, in the Bahraini capital, Manama, were attacked while they slept. Without warning, hundreds of riot police descended on the square, firing rubber bullets and tear gas on the sleeping demonstrators. POMED spoke directly by telephone with a contact, who was present at the time of the attack and described how the Lulu Roundabout was full of people, families, asleep, mostly in tents that had been set up. Here is the verbatim account, minutes after our contact escaped from the scene:
We suddenly see numerous jeeps going all the way up over the bridge that goes over the roundabout … and then we saw a lot of riot police, they came to the edge of the bridge and they just started shooting into everyone. And people started running, they started backing off, …., they were starting to retreat to one side of the roundabout, we saw that the riot police had also come from the other side and they started shooting at the people that were backing off from the riot police in the front, and they started shooting, and the thing is they were shooting from both sides and they were shooting continuously … and so people started to run in the other direction, there were women, carrying children, running, people were pushing each other, trying to get out of the way because they were shooting so much you couldn’t see from the smoke. People kept running, there were people telling people to stand, and not to run, some people actually were trying to go back into the square, to not allow the riot police to take over it. People were chanting “peaceful, peaceful!” That obviously didn’t have any effect. But, I mean, the main concern was to get the children out of there. I don’t know, when I was leaving, I heard someone screaming, “the women and children still in the roundabout!” And I also heard that one of the tents set on fire, because the tear gas that they throw, actually lights on fire when it’s thrown, so we also heard that some of the tents were on fire. And I don’t what the situation is right now because I’m not there anymore … but all the way from where I am, I can hear ambulances - I saw several people wounded and being carried.
All of the shooting described above appears to have been rubber bullets and tear gas, not live ammunition, but nonetheless there are fatalities confirmed. More recently, from the hospital, our contact confirmed that at least two people were killed, with many more injured and dozens more still arriving on stretchers, some of whom may also be dead. We were also just informed that, “the riot police are still attacking everyone. There are tanks and many riot police outside of the hospital. We fear that they will attack us at any moment.”
Update: ABC News correspondent Miguel Marquez was beaten ”by a gang of thugs” while on the phone with New York office tonight as riot police cracked down on protesters in Lulu Roundabout. “These people are not screwing around,” he said. “They’re going to clear that square, tonight, ahead of any protest, on Friday. The government clearly does not want this to get any bigger.”
A contact of POMED that has been active in the Green Movement in Iran has confirmed alarming reports around recent protests of solidarity with Egyptian and Tunisian activists. Following calls in the Iranian parliament to try reformist opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi on sedition charges, sources are now reporting that no has been in contact with Mousavi or his wife in the past 48 hours; even his daughters have not been able to reach him and his whereabouts are unknown. In addition, a Facebook page maintained by Mousavi’s supporters reports that thugs have attacked Karroubi’s residence.
Amid reports of mass arrests and missing people, the youth movement in Iran has confirmed at least 100 activists have been arrested, with some estimates ranging as high as 1,500. On Tuesday, the funeral of slain protester Sanee Zhaleh was held amidst false regime propoganda that Zhaleh was not a member of the opposition but in fact a member of the basij. The Iranian government issued similar claims against the second protester killed, Muhammad Mokhtari, although screenshots of his Facebook page clearly indicate his deep involvement in the Green Movement.
Finally, Iran’s clerical establishment has called for a major rally in Tehran on Friday, to express what it calls its “hatred” of reformists who organized major anti-government protests earlier this week.
Anti-government protesters continue to occupy Pearl (Lulu) Square in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, after two days of violent clashes left at least two demonstrators dead. Two protesters have been killed so far by attacks from riot police. On Tuesday, Bahrain’s ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa made a television appearance in which he expressed his condolences for “the deaths of two of our dear sons” and said a committee would investigate the killings. State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley responded to the protest violence stating: “The United States is very concerned by recent violence surrounding protests in Bahrain.” Crowley also supported Al-Khalifa’s comments and called for a quick investigation into the killings of protesters and urged, “all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from violence.”
On February 15th, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and 23 other Senators submitted a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for the creation of an independent U.N. human rights monitor on Iran when the U.N. Human Rights Council convenes this March. Sighting the numerous human rights abuses that have occurred in Iran especially in response to the democratic uprising in late 2009 the letter states:“Establishing an independent U.N. human rights monitor charged with monitoring and reporting on Iran’s human rights violations is an important effort to provide some protection for Iran’s human rights and democracy movement.”
Jamal Abdi, National Iranian American Council Policy Director supported this effort stating: “Iran’s destiny can only be decided by the Iranian people, but as human rights violations continue in Iran, the international community must be loud and clear that universal rights must be respected.”
The Freedom Messenger Channel on YouTube posted several videos of Monday’s protests in Iran, which The Guardianreports took place across the country, not just in the capital, Tehran. In addition to using tear gas and batons to try and beat back protesters, the riot police and Basij militia also opened fire on demonstrations in some cases, with one protester was reportedly killed. Opposition websites, including Mir Hossein Mousavi’s Kaleme.org have been blocked. The semi official Fars news agency and the Basij commander Mohammed Reza Naghdi blamed “western intelligence agencies” and “spies” for the unrest. Accounts from tehranbureau, which was live blogging the protests, put the crowd estimate in Tehran at 350,000 people; however, this number has not yet been confirmed by any news agency.
U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, applauded the news of protests in Iran: “We support the universal human rights of the Iranian people. They deserve to have the same rights that they saw being played out in Egypt and that are part of their own birthright, and … we think that there needs to be a commitment to open up the political system in Iran, to hear the voices of the opposition in civil society.”
The leading Shiite opposition group in Bahrain, Al-Wefaq, reports that Ali Mushaima, a 27 year-old Bahraini demonstrator, died today after being shot by police during peaceful protests. POMED’s contacts tell us that people have gathered outside of the hospital where officials have stated that “the deceased protester was shot and killed by a live round and not a rubber bullet.”
One contact has also given us the following report:
“Women are being chased in to their homes; they are being threatened and have been told to not come back or they will be ‘arrested, tortured and raped.’ Many protesters, including young children and women, are wounded and many have fainted. I was visiting the wounded in the hospital and witnessed a young girl being brought in from injuries, she was shot at with rubber bullets by the riot police. Protesters refuse to seek care from hospitals because of fear from being arrested. Hundreds of riot police arrived on buses in Sitra village, where one of the peaceful marches is taken place. The police are still trying to keep the peaceful protests from uniting!”
Video of Protesters Fleeing From Clouds of Tear Gas
On Sunday and Monday, Bahraini police clashed with protesters with state news agencies reporting that at least three police officers and one demonstrator were injured. According to eyewitnesses, Bahraini riot police chased protesters in and around the capital Manama and have stepped up their presence both across the capital and the Shiite Muslim-dominated villages like Sitra. They have also fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators in Manama who stood waving Bahraini flags and chanting “our demand is a constitution written by the people…We demand the release of all political prisoners.” POMED’s contacts on the ground tell us that “peaceful protest continue as the use of violence by the riot police have exceeded…I was at a peaceful protest and people were chanting legitimate demands asking for parliament, constitution, basic human rights, and etc… Out of nowhere, riot police then came charging down attacking the protesters with rubber bullets, tear gas and sound bombs.” Our contact also tells us that protesters are being threatened and that roads leading to Shiite villages south of the capital, Sehla and Daih, have been closed “to prevent people from witnessing any attacks on peaceful protesters.”
In an interview, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid al Khalifa said, “Bahrain is used to having protests…but we need to make sure this is done with law and order. There should be no violence.”
Syrian blogger, Tal al-Mallouhi, a 19 year old female high school student, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison by a state security court on charges of spying for the U.S. Embassy in Egypt. She was first detained in December 2009 and had been held since then without charge. The UK - based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights released a statement (in Arabic) acknowledging al-Mallouhi’s sentencing. P.J. Crowley, State Department spokesman, also released a statementcondemning the sentencing and “secret trial” of al-Mallouhi, called for her immediate release, and denied all charges that she is an American spy.
