AhlulBayt News Agency

source : Exclusive ABNA.ir
Tuesday

13 December 2011

8:30:00 PM
283946

Cameron Urges Bahrain's King Hamad to Implement Reforms or Crackdown?

Prime Minister David Cameron has urged Bahrain's king to implement concrete reforms, and has offered UK support while the kingdom is to hire some former police chief from US and UK to offer support to Bahraini security forces in their crackdown on popular protests.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) -  An independent commission last month found that Bahraini police had used excessive force against anti-discriminate protesters earlier this year.

King Hamad has traveled to Britain even though the Saudi-backed Bahraini forces continue their deadly crackdown on anti-regime demonstrations in towns and villages across the Persian Gulf country.

Mr Cameron met King Hamad Al-Khalifa during talks at Downing Street, on the king's first visit to the UK since the clashes in which 48 people martyred.

King Hamad said he wanted UK advice on the reform of the police and judiciary.

The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner says King Hamad told him he had had a "very good meeting" with Mr Cameron.

On December 2, the Manama regime announced it would hire John Timoney, a former police chief from Miami, and John Yates, the former assistant commissioner of the UK Metropolitan police, to offer support to Bahraini security forces in their crackdown on popular protests.

The monarch said he had decided to invite all parties, including those in opposition, to post an adviser in his office to monitor the reconciliation and reform process.

Downing Street said Mr Cameron emphasised the "importance of strengthening respect for human rights" in Bahrain during his "useful" meeting with King Hamad.

"He urged the king to deliver swiftly on the commitments he has made to implement the recommendations from the inquiry and to drive forward reform and reconciliation in the country, engaging with the opposition as part of that process," a spokesperson said.

The Bahrain government's response to the Arab Spring demonstrations sparked international condemnation.

The Persian Gulf kingdom's Shia majority has been demanding action to tackle economic hardship, the lack of political freedom and employment discrimination in favour of the ruling Sunni minority.

Bahraini activists said, Sajida Faisal Javad, six-day-old baby martyred of asphyxia from inhaling tear gas fired on protesters in a residential area near the capital Manama on Thursday.

Saudi-backed Bahraini forces continue attacks on anti-regime demonstrators in towns and villages across the country.

On Wednesday, 27-year-old Zahra Saleh, who was brutally hit by regime forces in the head during an anti-government demonstration in the northern village of Daih on November 18, succumbed to her injuries.

More than 53 people have been martyred and thousands more have been arrested or fired from their jobs since February as part of the regime's crackdown on demonstrations in Bahrain.

The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) issued a report on November 23, saying that the ruling Al Khalifa regime had used “excessive force, including the extraction of forced confessions against detainees,” in their efforts to crush demonstrations in the country.

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