(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - In Manama, hundreds of recently-fired workers have stormed into the Ministry of Labor, demanding their jobs back.
Reports say the ministry is surrounded by regime forces. Human Rights Watch says more than two-thousand workers have been sacked from their jobs since late March for taking part in anti-regime demonstrations.
On Monday, people took into the streets in several cities including the capital Manama, to call for an end to King Hamad's long-time rule.
In an interview, Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, shared his insights on the latest developments in the Persian Gulf kingdom.
The following is a rush transcript of the interview:
Q: Mr. Rajab, new developments have come to light in Bahrain. First of all, more workers have been sacked for partaking in anti-regime demonstrations; a protester was killed when regime troops fired teargas to break up a rally on Sunday and also a young boy was tortured for a number of hours and was left in coma. Please describe these events for us.
Rajab: Well, first of all, the protest today was in the Ministry of Labor. We expect hundreds of people were participating. As you know, at least five persons of Bahraini men power were fired in the past few months due to their participation in the protests calling for democracy and many of them; they are at least financing their families of which we say are of 20 to 25 percent of the Bahraini population.
As you know, last night we had a man in [his] fifties who has died because of the suffocation of teargas two weeks ago and he was in the hospital since then and died last night. A man was also shot in his head with a teargas a few nights ago. He is in a serious condition. He has a brain damage and skull damage.
We had somebody who was kidnapped by the security forces two nights ago [and] was taken to a police station. [He was] tortured, beaten and punched. They beat him outside near one of the gardens in his village.
Of course the Ministry of Interior [and] the government of Bahrain denied all the cases and have [acted] normally and they haven't admitted to any of those allegations.
Last night also, as people started Ramadan, they had a majlis [gathering] of Quran [recitation]; one of those majlises has been raided [and] 11 young boys from 12 to 20 years old were arrested. They were beaten and tortured and they were fired with cigarettes. [The purpose was] marking their bodies.
In fact, the investigation and inquiry commission has heard about the story and they went to the police station and they were able to see a 14 year-old boy and all the marks of torture on his body. So they have ordered to release him. The boy was released but you could see the marks on his body.
[We were] witnessing, last night, the protests in many villages and areas in Bahrain but at the same time you have to know [that] thousands of soldiers and mercenaries were brought in the past few weeks from Pakistan, mainly from [the] Baluchistan [province].
They are taking part in the crackdown. It is very clear in the streets now. You can see the increase [in] the number of the security forces and very huge you can see now in each and every village in Bahrain which was not there in the past February and March. You can see the difference in numbers very clearly.
Government is still continuing their repression, the bloody crackdown, kidnapping people, arresting people, beating people in the streets. We [have] always heard promises that more people will be released. We have heard that there was a decree from the king [that] people will be released but now we came to know that those people who were released were those people [who were] involved in drugs and not all those political prisoners or people involved in the protests in the past few days.
So the situation stays as critical as it was. We think [in] Ramadan we are going to have more tensions as we see more people [being] kidnapped, more people [being] beaten in the streets and more people are dying again starting from the past one month.
Q: Mr. Rajab, speaking about the overall situation, my first question is if emergency rule has been removed, how come the crackdown on peaceful protesters continues and there is also the question about the duration of the Saudi forces remaining and participating in the crackdown?
Rajab: Well, no. This is something that the government does not want to admit and the Saudis do not want to admit, the Saudis participation [and] the Emirate's participation in the crackdown ... and anything except negative reaction by the people.
The crackdown and the emergency law and the bloody reaction from the government and killing at least 40 people as of now, injuring thousands of people, firing thousands of people and students from their schools have resulted in more reactions by the people and it did not solve the problem.
The ruling family or the ruling elites try to introduce what they call a dialogue which is something which is not a real dialogue. People [are] talking with themselves like a chatting forum of groups close to government or who were created by government. But now they can see after all ... pulling the situation and the people into sectarian conflict.
They are leading the people into sectarianism [by] firing thousands of people, firing thousands of students, killing many people and wounding and injuring a lot of people. We have come back to the same scene that started on the 14th of February.
All these bloody actions did not stop. People are demanding their legitimate rights of raising their grievances that is legitimate and guaranteed by International Convention. I think we need a political solution which we do not think Bahrain government or Bahrain's ruling elites have the political willingness to introduce such a dialogue or such a reform.
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Reports say the ministry is surrounded by regime forces. Human Rights Watch says more than two-thousand workers have been sacked from their jobs since late March for taking part in anti-regime demonstrations.
On Monday, people took into the streets in several cities including the capital Manama, to call for an end to King Hamad's long-time rule.
In an interview, Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, shared his insights on the latest developments in the Persian Gulf kingdom.
The following is a rush transcript of the interview:
Q: Mr. Rajab, new developments have come to light in Bahrain. First of all, more workers have been sacked for partaking in anti-regime demonstrations; a protester was killed when regime troops fired teargas to break up a rally on Sunday and also a young boy was tortured for a number of hours and was left in coma. Please describe these events for us.
Rajab: Well, first of all, the protest today was in the Ministry of Labor. We expect hundreds of people were participating. As you know, at least five persons of Bahraini men power were fired in the past few months due to their participation in the protests calling for democracy and many of them; they are at least financing their families of which we say are of 20 to 25 percent of the Bahraini population.
As you know, last night we had a man in [his] fifties who has died because of the suffocation of teargas two weeks ago and he was in the hospital since then and died last night. A man was also shot in his head with a teargas a few nights ago. He is in a serious condition. He has a brain damage and skull damage.
We had somebody who was kidnapped by the security forces two nights ago [and] was taken to a police station. [He was] tortured, beaten and punched. They beat him outside near one of the gardens in his village.
Of course the Ministry of Interior [and] the government of Bahrain denied all the cases and have [acted] normally and they haven't admitted to any of those allegations.
Last night also, as people started Ramadan, they had a majlis [gathering] of Quran [recitation]; one of those majlises has been raided [and] 11 young boys from 12 to 20 years old were arrested. They were beaten and tortured and they were fired with cigarettes. [The purpose was] marking their bodies.
In fact, the investigation and inquiry commission has heard about the story and they went to the police station and they were able to see a 14 year-old boy and all the marks of torture on his body. So they have ordered to release him. The boy was released but you could see the marks on his body.
[We were] witnessing, last night, the protests in many villages and areas in Bahrain but at the same time you have to know [that] thousands of soldiers and mercenaries were brought in the past few weeks from Pakistan, mainly from [the] Baluchistan [province].
They are taking part in the crackdown. It is very clear in the streets now. You can see the increase [in] the number of the security forces and very huge you can see now in each and every village in Bahrain which was not there in the past February and March. You can see the difference in numbers very clearly.
Government is still continuing their repression, the bloody crackdown, kidnapping people, arresting people, beating people in the streets. We [have] always heard promises that more people will be released. We have heard that there was a decree from the king [that] people will be released but now we came to know that those people who were released were those people [who were] involved in drugs and not all those political prisoners or people involved in the protests in the past few days.
So the situation stays as critical as it was. We think [in] Ramadan we are going to have more tensions as we see more people [being] kidnapped, more people [being] beaten in the streets and more people are dying again starting from the past one month.
Q: Mr. Rajab, speaking about the overall situation, my first question is if emergency rule has been removed, how come the crackdown on peaceful protesters continues and there is also the question about the duration of the Saudi forces remaining and participating in the crackdown?
Rajab: Well, no. This is something that the government does not want to admit and the Saudis do not want to admit, the Saudis participation [and] the Emirate's participation in the crackdown ... and anything except negative reaction by the people.
The crackdown and the emergency law and the bloody reaction from the government and killing at least 40 people as of now, injuring thousands of people, firing thousands of people and students from their schools have resulted in more reactions by the people and it did not solve the problem.
The ruling family or the ruling elites try to introduce what they call a dialogue which is something which is not a real dialogue. People [are] talking with themselves like a chatting forum of groups close to government or who were created by government. But now they can see after all ... pulling the situation and the people into sectarian conflict.
They are leading the people into sectarianism [by] firing thousands of people, firing thousands of students, killing many people and wounding and injuring a lot of people. We have come back to the same scene that started on the 14th of February.
All these bloody actions did not stop. People are demanding their legitimate rights of raising their grievances that is legitimate and guaranteed by International Convention. I think we need a political solution which we do not think Bahrain government or Bahrain's ruling elites have the political willingness to introduce such a dialogue or such a reform.
/129