13th/ 14th/ 15th September 2013

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

Bahrain insists political groups seek approval before dealing with international community
Bahrains government has issued a new resolution prohibiting political groups from holding meetings with foreign governments, diplomats and overseas organisations without ofcial approval. The resolution said groups must contact the foreign ministry three days before they plan to hold a meeting, and that a representative from the Bahraini government must be present. The new rules were rst announced on September 4 but the full details were provided by Bahrains justice minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa, on Wednesday. Read More Abdulkarim, had been charged of attempting to kill three policemen "with premeditation" on February 16, in the Shiite village of Karzakan, southwest of Manama. The public prosecution had also accused the men of "possessing homemade shotguns, as well as employing violence against police, and participating in an unauthorised protest." Read More according to RTs video agency, Ruptly.

The Face of Human Rights Violations in Bahrain

At least 12 protesters have been arrested in the north of Bahrain after a mass funeral of an opposition activist turned into a violent rally. Protesters threw stones and street debris at riot police in the north of Bahrain, following a mass funeral of a 22-year-old activist in the village of alDaih on Thursday,

Demonstrators, who blocked roads with burning tires and cement blocks, were confronted by Special Security Forces ofcers, who arrived on tanks and riot jeeps and red tear gas at the rally participants. Mohammed Abduljalil Yousif, an opposition activist, died on Wednesday and was immediately pronounced a martyr by his fellow protesters, who believe he was run over by a police car. Read More from victims, families and rights groups suggest that children are often targeted and subjected to similar forms of mistreatment as adult detainees, including beatings and threats of torture. In one incident reported by the rights organisation, a group of 14 people, including nine boys under 18, were arrested earlier this month at a swimming pool in the suburbs of the capital, Manama. Read More

Bahrain jails 3 Shiites for trying to kill police

A Bahraini court jailed on Sunday three Shiite Muslims for 10 years each after convicting them of attempting to kill police ofcers during antigovernment protests, lawyers said. The trio, Jaafar Ali, Hussain Mansur and Mustafa

Bahraini children 'beaten by security'

Security forces in Bahrain routinely detain children without cause and subject them to ill-treatment that may rise to the level of torture, a report by Human Rights Watch claimed today. The Gulf kingdom has faced a series of antigovernment protests since 2011 that have been brutally put down by government forces. Reports

Bahrain: Security Forces Detaining Children

Bahrain security forces routinely detain children without cause and subject them to ill-treatment that may rise to the level of torture, Human Rights Watch said today, based on reports from victims, family members and legal rights activists.

On September 12, 2013, the European Parliament issued a further resolution on the deteriorating rights situation in Bahrain, urging it, among other things, to respect the rights of juveniles, to refrain from detaining them in adult facilities, and to treat juveniles in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Bahrain is a party. Read More

Bahrains rebellion continues in spite of domestic and regional pressures

As the debate over diplomatic solutions and possible military intervention in Syria continues, developments in other countries have taken a second place in international news. However, one event struck me as particularly interesting and especially nonexistent in the US media: Bahrain has been chosen to host a pan-Arab human rights court. This choice was made at an Arab League meeting in Cairo and announced by

the ofcial Bahrain News Agency at the beginning of September. Aljazeera English cited the Bahrain foreign minister as saying that The initiative to establish the court stems from the Kings rm belief in the importance of human rights and basic human liberties, which was naturally met with much criticism from human rights activists in the country, as well as internationally, after King Hamad Al-Khalifa went to the Gulf Council Cooperation (GCC) to seek help in smothering Bahrains political uprisings in 2011. Read More

Bahrain dialogue sparks mixed reactions

As the multi-coloured spotlights swayed across the vast coffee shop and Gulf tunes blared from the small speakers, Ebrahim was quietly smoking his shisha, elated to be among the mixed crowd that reected the wide variety of the Bahraini society. I want to believe there is at least a slight chance for the ongoing national dialogue

to help heal the wounds that have scarred our lives, but I see nothing that supports my bold dream, he said. Like many of the young men and women at the coffee shop in the posh area of Adliya in the capital Manama, Ebrahim, an ofcer, did not have much hope about the outcome of the talks launched more than seven months ago to address thorny political issues following months of unrest. Read More Nuaimi, told Asharq AlAwsat by telephone that the session was positive and fruitful.... Therefore, it managed to emerge with a mutual vision and a unied formula for the consensual principles, values and fundamentals that will serve as a basis for the dialogue, pushing it towards achieving national consensus among the different participants, including representatives of the government, the political societies and independent [gures] from the legislative authority. Read More this even worse one in Miami, where he ended up. As I wrote early last year in a Daily News cover story, our man John of Arabia took the money and ran to Bahrain, where the monarchs (yes, they still have these) needed some advice on how to put down the Arab Spring and prodemocracy protesters without getting all torture-y about it. Timoney is still earning his king's ransom. Read More

hatred, and extremist radical ideologies.

Bahrain Bans Books on Hizbullah because they 'Spread Hatred, Sectarianism'

Bahrain authorities banned books on Hizbullah, and published by a publishing house linked to the party, during a cultural exposition, reported the Bahrain News Agency on Friday. The Bahrain Ministry of Information Affairs said in a statement that the books promote sectarianism,

Bahrain: National Consensus Dialogue nears agreement on core values

In a session held Wesneday, the working group of Bahrains National Consensus Dialogue reached a consensus on a number of principles and fundamentals values, Asharq Al-Awsat has learned. Bahrains education minister, Majid Ali bin Al-

These ideologies are a direct threat to the safety and security of Bahrain, it explained. The attempt to import these books is a blatant and heinous violation against the will and sovereignty of Bahrain due to the poisonous sectarianism and ideologies that target the unity of the Bahraini society, it added. Read More relations with Bahrain in 1971 following its independence from the United Kingdom. The U.S. embassy at Manama was opened September 21, 1971, and a resident ambassador was sent in 1974. The Bahraini Embassy in Washington, D.C., opened in 1977. The American Mission Hospital has operated continuously in Bahrain for more than a century. Read More

Fact Sheets: Bahrain

More information about Bahrain is available on the Bahrain Page and from other Department of State publications and other sources listed at the end of this fact sheet. U.S.-BAHRAIN RELATIONS The United States established diplomatic

How's that John Timoney in Bahrain thingee working out?

So you remember John Timoney, right? Philadelphia's police commissioner in the late 1990s/early 2000s, the man responsible for a) fairly effective crime control but b) civil liberties ascoes like this one in the City of Brotherly Love in 2000 and