(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - There is an interview with Saeed Shahabi, Bahrain Freedom Movement from London in its Middle East Today program with Mariam Saleh about the hunger strikers and the impact the year long crisis in Bahrain is set to have on the upcoming Formula One race scheduled to take place in Bahrain. What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Q: As a member of the Bahraini opposition, how will the opposition deal with this issue since the humanitarian situation seems to be growing? What is the next step - I mean, you have not called for the ouster of the Kingdom, you have just called for reform, but things seem to be getting worse - what is the next step for you?
Shahabi: I think the hunger strike by Abdulhadi Alkhawaja has brought the situation in Bahrain to the forefront of the international agenda. I don't think the US or Britain, who are not interested in any change in the region, can any longer ignore the plight of the Bahraini people.
They cannot continue their support to the regime without any conditions and also they cannot ignore the calls from the international human rights bodies such as Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch and others, which have called for the immediate and unconditional release of al-lkhawaja including Amnesty International's report today in which it called for the immediate release of Abdulhadi al-khawaja.
So, both the UK and the US cannot ignore that. And then we go to the European Union of which Denmark is a part - and as we know Abdul Alkhawaja has a Danish passport. That does not mean that he should be removed from Bahrain to Denmark. I don't think that's a good answer to the crisis.
Abdul al-khawaja must remain in Bahrain and must be released; not only himself, but all the rest of the prisoners because they are prisoners of conscience who have been detained because of their expression of opinion and nothing more.
Now, what the people want we have to ask the people what they want - We have to give them the right to self-determination; we have to ask them whether they want to remain loyal to an enemy, which has proven that it is the enemy of the people, which is the Al Khalifa clan... Or they want to have their own say in running their country in accordance with the constitution that they write themselves.
So, I think we are going forward and pushing an agenda for real change and not a superficial one.
Q: How can countries like Denmark and perhaps groups like Amnesty International, how can they play a role into making these demands actual actions from the international community that there is intervention inside Bahrain to stop these life sentences; to stop the attacks on protesters and so on?
Shahabi: Well, I think there are quite a few options that are open to them. We are not asking for armed intervention - military intervention in the country - because we do not need that. I think we are capable, that our people are capable of bringing down the regime. In fact we succeeded in bringing down the al-Khalifa clan last year, within a month after the revolution the regime just collapsed and this is why the Saudi invasion came.
Otherwise, how do you explain the Saudi incursion into Bahrain other than to prop up the regime after it collapsed? - it just became hopeless and useless. So, this regime can only stand on its feet with the support of the US and the decision should come from Washington because these regimes do not have the independence in opinion or in policies - they have to refer to Washington.
And this is why the al-Khalifa has refused to acknowledge calls for release (of Abdulhadi al-Alkhawaja) and they tried to appear as if they are ready to challenge the world. I think the only reason for doing that is because they feel they are strong enough because of the support of America - because America is with us we can do anything - We can kill, we can torture, we can detain, we can expel, we can send our thugs to regions like what happened last night when they sent all their thugs to several towns…
So I think the problem and what has to change is the US unfortunately and it has always been the case.
Q: The Bahraini uprising seems to have been taken out of the realm of the major Arab changes in what the West has called the Arab Spring - Why do you think that is? What are their interests in doing that?
Shahabi: Let me point out the following:
Number 1 - I think Bahrain is the largest most populous and consistent revolution in the Arab world for several reasons; it has never stopped since it started at all. Every night including last night and today, there have been demonstrations - at least 25 to 30 demonstrations every day and this is all documented on You Tube and in some news bulletins.
Number 2 - Bahrainis have been almost unanimous the number of people taking part in those demonstrations is exceedingly high. If you take it by percentages you will see it is among the largest, probably the largest revolution in terms of ratio of participants per the population.
Number 3 - it is very clear it is the oldest because I don't think you have any other revolution that has its roots going back to the 1920s nonstop over the decades.
So I think the revolution will continue and this time it is not going to stop regardless of what the Saudis or the Americans do because the people have had enough over the decades and they are unlikely to accept talk and the overall of the system.
Q: Do you think that this might have a financial affect on the tourism in Bahrain - we heard that perhaps the Formula One will be annulled in Bahrain as a result of the protests going on. Do you think that at least in that case they will have made a stance?
Shahabi: I think over the past twelve months we have seen that the effect of the revolution has been catastrophic to the regime. Al Khalifa of today is not the al-Khalifa of a year ago or two years. They were bubbly; they were trying to show the world that they are pro-democracy, pro-Western, open, and liberal and so on.
Today they are seen and viewed by the West as villains, as a pariah state; they are seen as torturers especially after it was confirmed by their own investigation commission that they did commit systematic torture; that they did commit extrajudicial killing; they did destroy mosques… so they are seen as very reactionary repressive dictators.
Number two - they are also seen even among their own friends, the Formula One is the flag ship of their own economic development. It is in tatters - I do not believe that the F1 is going to go back to Bahrain.
Only yesterday Ben Atkinson (Formula One) talked by phone to my daughter and asked what do you want? We will allow you to have a press conference at the Formula One, but she told them that the people do not want Formula One to be held at this time in Bahrain.
Formula One is not going to take place and many other conferences and exhibitions have cancelled their presence in Bahrain because Bahrain is no longer the safe haven it wants to show itself to be.
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Q: As a member of the Bahraini opposition, how will the opposition deal with this issue since the humanitarian situation seems to be growing? What is the next step - I mean, you have not called for the ouster of the Kingdom, you have just called for reform, but things seem to be getting worse - what is the next step for you?
Shahabi: I think the hunger strike by Abdulhadi Alkhawaja has brought the situation in Bahrain to the forefront of the international agenda. I don't think the US or Britain, who are not interested in any change in the region, can any longer ignore the plight of the Bahraini people.
They cannot continue their support to the regime without any conditions and also they cannot ignore the calls from the international human rights bodies such as Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch and others, which have called for the immediate and unconditional release of al-lkhawaja including Amnesty International's report today in which it called for the immediate release of Abdulhadi al-khawaja.
So, both the UK and the US cannot ignore that. And then we go to the European Union of which Denmark is a part - and as we know Abdul Alkhawaja has a Danish passport. That does not mean that he should be removed from Bahrain to Denmark. I don't think that's a good answer to the crisis.
Abdul al-khawaja must remain in Bahrain and must be released; not only himself, but all the rest of the prisoners because they are prisoners of conscience who have been detained because of their expression of opinion and nothing more.
Now, what the people want we have to ask the people what they want - We have to give them the right to self-determination; we have to ask them whether they want to remain loyal to an enemy, which has proven that it is the enemy of the people, which is the Al Khalifa clan... Or they want to have their own say in running their country in accordance with the constitution that they write themselves.
So, I think we are going forward and pushing an agenda for real change and not a superficial one.
Q: How can countries like Denmark and perhaps groups like Amnesty International, how can they play a role into making these demands actual actions from the international community that there is intervention inside Bahrain to stop these life sentences; to stop the attacks on protesters and so on?
Shahabi: Well, I think there are quite a few options that are open to them. We are not asking for armed intervention - military intervention in the country - because we do not need that. I think we are capable, that our people are capable of bringing down the regime. In fact we succeeded in bringing down the al-Khalifa clan last year, within a month after the revolution the regime just collapsed and this is why the Saudi invasion came.
Otherwise, how do you explain the Saudi incursion into Bahrain other than to prop up the regime after it collapsed? - it just became hopeless and useless. So, this regime can only stand on its feet with the support of the US and the decision should come from Washington because these regimes do not have the independence in opinion or in policies - they have to refer to Washington.
And this is why the al-Khalifa has refused to acknowledge calls for release (of Abdulhadi al-Alkhawaja) and they tried to appear as if they are ready to challenge the world. I think the only reason for doing that is because they feel they are strong enough because of the support of America - because America is with us we can do anything - We can kill, we can torture, we can detain, we can expel, we can send our thugs to regions like what happened last night when they sent all their thugs to several towns…
So I think the problem and what has to change is the US unfortunately and it has always been the case.
Q: The Bahraini uprising seems to have been taken out of the realm of the major Arab changes in what the West has called the Arab Spring - Why do you think that is? What are their interests in doing that?
Shahabi: Let me point out the following:
Number 1 - I think Bahrain is the largest most populous and consistent revolution in the Arab world for several reasons; it has never stopped since it started at all. Every night including last night and today, there have been demonstrations - at least 25 to 30 demonstrations every day and this is all documented on You Tube and in some news bulletins.
Number 2 - Bahrainis have been almost unanimous the number of people taking part in those demonstrations is exceedingly high. If you take it by percentages you will see it is among the largest, probably the largest revolution in terms of ratio of participants per the population.
Number 3 - it is very clear it is the oldest because I don't think you have any other revolution that has its roots going back to the 1920s nonstop over the decades.
So I think the revolution will continue and this time it is not going to stop regardless of what the Saudis or the Americans do because the people have had enough over the decades and they are unlikely to accept talk and the overall of the system.
Q: Do you think that this might have a financial affect on the tourism in Bahrain - we heard that perhaps the Formula One will be annulled in Bahrain as a result of the protests going on. Do you think that at least in that case they will have made a stance?
Shahabi: I think over the past twelve months we have seen that the effect of the revolution has been catastrophic to the regime. Al Khalifa of today is not the al-Khalifa of a year ago or two years. They were bubbly; they were trying to show the world that they are pro-democracy, pro-Western, open, and liberal and so on.
Today they are seen and viewed by the West as villains, as a pariah state; they are seen as torturers especially after it was confirmed by their own investigation commission that they did commit systematic torture; that they did commit extrajudicial killing; they did destroy mosques… so they are seen as very reactionary repressive dictators.
Number two - they are also seen even among their own friends, the Formula One is the flag ship of their own economic development. It is in tatters - I do not believe that the F1 is going to go back to Bahrain.
Only yesterday Ben Atkinson (Formula One) talked by phone to my daughter and asked what do you want? We will allow you to have a press conference at the Formula One, but she told them that the people do not want Formula One to be held at this time in Bahrain.
Formula One is not going to take place and many other conferences and exhibitions have cancelled their presence in Bahrain because Bahrain is no longer the safe haven it wants to show itself to be.
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