Bahrain's police face brutality accusations

After several young men were shot dead in protests that turned into riots, opposition politicians have called for a check on the abuse of police powers.

epa01617292 Protesters set fire to the road during a rally in Jid Hafs village on the outskirts of the Bahraini capital Manama 28 January 2009. Tension over the 26 January 2009 arrest of three Bahraini Shiite opposition figures continued to mount in the Gulf island, sparking further criticism from opposition groups and a third day of straight clashes between supporters of the trio and police in most parts of the island.  EPA/MAZEN MAHDI
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MANAMA // Bahrain's police and security forces are in the spotlight this week over renewed allegations by opposition politicians and rights activists that authorities are given to heavy-handedness, especially when dealing with the regular protests that occur here.

In meetings with opposition politicians last week and Human Rights Watch (HRW) this week, the miniser of interior, Lt Gen Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla al Khalifa, fielded accusations made by both groups against the authorities that they violate suspects' rights and use excessive force. The politicians, MPs from the opposition Shiite Islamic Al Wefaq parliamentary bloc, also accused the ministry of discriminating against Shiites in its employment policy.

During both meetings, the minister rejected the charges of discrimination and violating suspects' rights. However, in his meeting with the MPs on June 1, he said some force - including the use of firearms - had to be used in dealing with the country's frequent protests, but that it was directly proportionate to the threat posed to security officers. In recent months, several young Bahraini men have been shot by police during riots, which typically occur in poor villages and suburbs, and in which Molotov cocktails are often hurled at police.

The riots usually begin as protests, which take place almost every weekend and in which demonstrators call for more political freedoms, more job opportunities and and better services, such as housing. Lt Gen Shaikh Rashid also told the MPs that employment within the ranks of his ministry was open to any Bahraini who is "keen on his country's security and has proven his loyalty", according to a statement circulated by the interior ministry following the meeting.

On Monday, Lt Gen al Khalifa met with HRW's Middle East and North Africa division director, Sarah Leah Whitson, and her deputy director, Joe Stork. He told them that allegations raised in an 89-page HRW report in February, titled Torture Redux - that Bahraini officials have repeatedly resorted to torture for securing confessions from suspects, since the end of 2007 - were unfounded. "Upon further scrutiny of the alleged cases brought up by the report, an investigation carried out by the ministry found that some cases need further looking into, but most of the claims mentioned in the report lacked objectivity and did not merit further investigation," he told the HRW officials, according to a ministry statement issued after the meeting.

The report also spoke about issues of discrimination against minority groups in Bahrain, but the ministry statement said "that references to discrimination in the report were not accurate and that the use of the term 'second-class citizens' does not exist in our society". The release of the HRW report angered the Bahraini government, while opposition groups and human rights activists came out in support of the findings.

"Discrimination is one the biggest security challenges facing the country today," Jalal Fairooz, a member of parliament's foreign affairs, defence, and national security committee, said in an interview. "We - meaning Al Wefaq - successfully managed to propose a law to combat discrimination but that proposal has not been adopted into law yet and we hope to have it passed when parliament reconvenes.

"One of our key efforts these past four years inside the parliament has centered on attempts to mitigate the effects of sectarianism and discrimination. We pushed for revisal of unfair proposed laws and blocked those which were infringing on the rights of citizens," Mr Fairooz said. Mr Fairooz, who is one of 17 members of the Al Wefaq bloc in parliament, added that discrimination also existed in voting rights as a result of the uneven distribution of voting districts.

He also suggested that his parliamentary bloc is discriminated against because they are Shiite, pointing out that despite having the largest bloc inside the 40-seat parliament, Al Wefaq is only allocated two out of the seven seats on the security committee. Mr Fairooz's party colleague, Abdulhussain al Metqawie, said their parliamentary bloc had tried unsuccessfully to alter the country's naturalisation laws, which they continue to believe are used by minority Sunnis to try and alter the country's demographics in order to reduce the Shiite majority.

"We wanted the naturalisation rights to be limited to the minister of interior alone because having more than one official responsible for that limits the parliament's ability to oversee and hold accountable those responsible for it," he said. "Centralising responsibility for specific key matters was at the heart of all of efforts to bring about better public accountability of the government, but we had strong resistance to achieving that."

Mr al Metqawie also said he and his colleagues were working to bring an end to the authorities' "security lists" of certain names, which they claim are used to refuse Bahraini citizens, including MPs, who are critical of the government re-entry to the country. "One proposed solution has been an offer by the ministry of interior to issue a letter for those who had complications at the borders certifying that they are not subject to any travel ban," he said.

mmahdi@thenational.ae