In Bahrain, the army's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters on Friday left at least 95 injured.
Four pro-democracy protesters were killed and 231 others injured when riot police raided the demonstrators' encampment in the early hours of Thursday, while most of them were asleep, in an attempt to clear them out of the capital's main square.
The following is Press TV's interview with Lindsay German of Stop The War Coalition, to discuss the issue further:
Press TV:Many of the calls that we have had in the last few hours (have been) desperate cries for the International community to do something. Some callers say we don't even care (if you) bring your tanks if you need to -- just stop what's going on; but there seems to be pretty much silence from the International community….
Lindsay German:Well of course this doesn't surprise me as much, the whole role of the United States and Britain has withdrawn these regimes; the people who are being killed and injured in Bahrain today are being injured with weaponry which more likely comes from British arms dealers under the blessing of the British government .
I think this is very, very shocking, but the silence of the Americans and the British and the others who talk about democracy in the Middle East is immersed.
And this is a time when every government which says it is in favor of democracy and civil rights and the rights of protests, they should break links with the Bahraini government and the Bahraini regime and so you do not want this to be happening.
This is something where the people of the Middle East are rising up and saying that they want democracy, they are being met with brutal force; not just in Bahrain, in Yemen in Libya -- and of course, in Egypt and Tunisia, where many people have died.
What we should be doing in Britain is say (that) we are breaking silence; we are not selling any arms; we will not give them any support in any way and there should be an emergency meeting of the United Nations security council to condemn what's going on there …..
Press TV:How long can the International community be silent? I mean, in Egypt, for example, they toed the diplomatic line for as long as they could (so) that Egypt didn't see this kind of violence from the army. Do you think we might see some developments on the international political side ?
Lindsay German:Well Egypt did see violence from the police. I mean, it's estimated that hundreds of people were killed in Egypt and I think that all of these regimes have reacted in a way you might expect from dictatorships; but they are repressing their population.
The International community, as previous speakers have said, actually put many of these dictatorships in place. They never had any problem with dictatorships; they don't want democracy in the Middle East because they fear it could be anti-western and we could blame the majority of people in the Middle East, if they were to elect governments which represented their interests, but didn't represent the interests of the British or the Americans.
I think we are at an absolutely critical time and it is absolutely clear that the British and the Americans -- and the European Union, and all of these people -- will have to change their position and the job of all of us, I think -- in Britain, and other countries in Europe -- we have to be putting a lot of pressure on our government to say this is not acceptable to back these regimes in cold blood, who are not listening to the demands of democracy. And Obama should hang his head in shame; so should Hillary Clinton.
They claim they favor democracy; but of course, if you look at what has happened in the past ten years -- the war in Iraq, particularly -- when we look back on hysteria as a turning point.
It was a turning point where many people became convinced both in the West and in the Middle East that you could expect nothing from the United States and I believe these democracy campaigns now are a result of people wanting democracy and not having faith in the West that they are going to deliver. And they are quite right; the only people that could deliver this democracy are the peoples of the region, themselves. And the job of the United States and Britain is not to arm these regimes; it is to say they support the right of democracy and to impose all sorts of sanctions on the regimes, which are killing their own people.
And the question is -- why do they to stay silent? it is an absolute disgrace.
Press TV: One of the issues, really, is that these peoples' movements don't seem to have much leadership, so if there is going to be some sort of vacuum in transition, what kind of impact might that have for the region?
Lindsay German:Well, I think that in any revolutionary movement you do have a situation where there's all sorts of leaders; I don't believe there's no leadership.
I'm sure there is a leadership in all these movements; there are people who come together in committees and there are people with different points of view, who unite together to over throw these regimes or to democratize these regimes.
I don't think this comes from nowhere. I think it comes from many many years. For example, in Egypt we had the democracy movement, the anti-war movement to send aid to Gaza; all of these things have gone on the spark wave two years ago.
And what these are is combinations of all these things. Now, I think the events are happening in the Arab world and will be of world historic significance. They obviously have a very, very big significance for the Palestinian people.
One of our demands here in Britain is while we have Tony Blair as the envoy for peace in the Middle East, one of the last defenders of Mubarak; he [will be] absolutely no good for the Palestinian cause whatsoever.
I think these questions are going to come on the agenda -- the role of Israel is going to come on the agenda and will go much further. And if you look at what's happening now is a revolutionary wave going across the Arab world of a sort that we saw in the 19th century in Europe and the early 20th century in Europe, as well.
And I hope what we will see is a nation where the old dictatorships backed up by the western powers will fall and will be replaced by a genuine democracy. And after all, its up to the people of the region -- who they elect, who they decide to have as their governor. They don't need the imperialists; they don't need the western powers. They can do it for themselves.
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