We have interviewed Saeed Shahabi, from the Bahrain Freedom Movement in London, about the causes and the growth of these protests, the determination of the people to achieve their goals and the stance by the West and United Nations. What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview. Q: This was the biggest rally by some accounts to date by the Bahrainis. Tell us, isn’t this a test of the Bahraini’s will versus the Saudi- and Western-backed suppression by the regime? Shahabi: It is clearly probably the largest ever demonstration in Bahrain in the past decades, probably centuries. It only confirms what we have been saying that the people’s resolve is still there and strong and that both the suppression by the Al Khalifa hereditary dictatorship and the Saudi invasion and occupation have failed. The people will not budge this time; they will continue their process of engaging in peaceful protests until they get what they want. Of course, they want to be recognized as people first of all, to stop this political naturalization process; secondly, they want to write their own constitution; they want to elect their own government; they don’t want this regime anymore. This Al Khalifa is an antiquated, repressive, outdated regime that has to go. However, the West is still clamping to it and I think it is time that the West recognizes the power of the people and give away its support to this dictatorship. Q: Please clarify for us if there are any people out there who are under the illusion what this US strategy is because it seems pretty obvious that unlike their views of being behind protesters, and other Arab countries, they have a military approach to quell the protests such as our guest Sara Marusek talked about with the Florida police commissioner who had been deployed to train the Saudi-backed regime forces there? Shahabi: Unfortunately, the US has always supported the losing side in any conflict. They supported the apartheid regime in South Africa; they and the British supported Ian Smith in Rhodesia in the 60s and 70s; they supported Saddam Hussein during the war with Iran; they continue to support all the repressive regime; they continue to support the Saudi regime, which is the most oppressive, repressive and reactionary regime in the world. So, unfortunately, their approach to humanity and human rights is lukewarm to say the least. They are very much against the popular movements, against the revolutions, against toppling their allies who are dictators, and let us not forget their stance even in the Philippines in the 80s - only at the last minute did they intervene and ask Ferdinand Marcos to move out. So, unfortunately, their tactic has not really yielded any political results for them. In Bahrain as you correctly mentioned, they sent to us - to our people - a man who was described by the … Times in 2007 as the worst American policeman. And he is there. Since he came, with John Yates from the British Metropolitan police, both have really contributed to worsening the crisis of human rights. Many more people have died; more repressive means of attack against the people; more lethal gases have been used against demonstrators and against people inside their own homes. So, all these tactics have failed to dislodge the people from their demand and what we saw today is testimony to the fact that the American policy has failed and unless they really change their tactic and switch their allegiance and alliance with this dictatorial regime their credibility will really diminish - the last of their credibility - because they are already on the losing side on world affairs. So I think Mr. Obama has a lot to consider if he is going to win the elections in the next few months. Q: Nothing has worked in this past year; even concessions haven’t come into play to bear any results. More and more people though from regional countries are siding with the Bahrainis; we saw what happened in Iraq yesterday, of course Eastern Saudi Arabia protests are almost on a weekly basis if not every week; and countries that have experienced revolutions recently like Tunisia and Egypt, we’re seeing people coming out more. Do you think, since nothing else is working, that may be these countries somehow are going to be involved in the situation in Bahrain and if you can tell us if it is a possibility, in what form? Shahabi: Well, I think those countries especially those that have experienced revolutions must be aware of the counterrevolutionary forces. This counterrevolution is working very hard - financed by the Saudis and the Americans - the aim of which is to dislodge those revolutions. As we saw in Egypt, that the military council is still in charge and in Tunisia with the Salafi movement trying to disrupt life and to undermine the revolution. Of course, what we saw yesterday in Iraq, in other countries and in Tunisia, support that is coming out to the Bahraini revolution is astounding and is very much appreciated by the people of Bahrain who have felt, so far, of being abandoned by the international community. At least now something is beginning to trickle down and the people of the region are aware that sectarianism is a tool of the counterrevolution and it is not only going to be used only in Bahrain, but also it will be used and it is being used in Egypt and Tunisia, in Yemen and elsewhere. Of course, it was used in Iraq extensively; however, the Iraqis now are becoming more aware of it and abandoning that tool. The Bahrainis are aware that there will be, eventually, some support coming from regional powers, from regional countries and regional people, but also at the same time, that in the West itself there will be a realization that there is no use of continuing to support dictatorships that will only help to build up the tendency toward fanaticism, radicalism and terrorism. And terrorists have come from countries, which are dictatorial like Saudi Arabia, not from countries, which have a degree of democracy. So it is in the interest of the international community to help and support a peaceful transfer to civilian rule in Bahrain, otherwise even Saudi Arabia will fall in the next few months or next few years because these regimes are not sustainable. They cannot be sustained and they have to go and the sooner they go the better for the world otherwise the world will have to pay the consequences of terrorism and extremism supported and financed by the Saudi oil money.
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