AhlulBayt News Agency

source : Presstv
Wednesday

19 September 2012

5:58:00 AM
349066

International Rights groupBahraini regime fails to implement reforms

An international rights group says the Bahraini regime has failed to make good on a promise to implement political reforms in the Persian Gulf kingdom.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - An international rights group says the Bahraini regime has failed to make good on a promise to implement political reforms in the Persian Gulf kingdom.

"Despite the King's promises, the reforms remain widely insufficient," the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said.

The report is based on more than a year of investigations into regime behaviors and policies in the aftermath of the mass demonstrations that rocked the kingdom's capital Manama in February 2011.

The Bahraini government promptly launched a brutal crackdown on the peaceful protests aided by Saudi-led Arab forces.

"… the report concludes that the government continues to deny a majority of Bahraini's fundamental rights on a daily basis," said FIDH President Souhayr Belhassen.

According to the report, some 80 people have been killed since the beginning of the uprising and at least 34 people died since the commission of inquiry released its findings last November.

FIDH urged the Bahraini authorities to release all political prisoners and "to support the establishment of an international monitoring mechanism ... to monitor the implementation of the recommendations" of the independent commission of inquiry.

Prominent Human rights figure, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, and opposition leader, Hassan Mushaimaa, are among those sentenced to life in prison.

Scores of others have been killed, many of them under torture while in custody, and thousands more are held in jail as part of Manama's Saudi-backed crackdown on the popular revolt.

Bahrainis hold King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa responsible for the death and arrest of protesters.

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