Three years on from the brutal crackdown on the Pearl Square protest

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The month of March once again brings back the bloody memories of the brutal crackdown on the iconic Pearl roundabout, where the Bahrainis camped-in calling for a democratic transition.On March 16th 2011, the GCC’s Peninsula Shield Force entered Bahrain territory to help the regime crush the peaceful historic protests at the Pearl roundabout. The people’s calls for equal citizenship and justice were faced with live ammunition and shotgun pellets aimed directly at bodies.By 6:00 am that day, the authorities had cut off the telecommunications in the country and began its terror attack on the Pearl roundabout. By noon the square was locked-down by the armies, and remains so to date. The giant iconic Pearl monument was destroyed by the army.Hundreds were wounded and a number of citizens were reported dead in the atrocious massacre. It had been less than one month since the first massacre in the Pearl roundabout in February 2011. However, this time, the massacre was carried out on a wider geographic area, the forces’ repression had spread to several areas in the country. The Salmaniya Medical Complex, which was now under the control of the military, was receiving hundreds of casualties.The heartbreaking image of Ahmed Farhan’s blown head was widely shared by Bahrainis across social media yesterday, marking three years on from his murder. On March 16th 2011, the GCC forces raided Sitra island, south of the capital Manama, using live ammunition and shotgun. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) chaired by international law expert Cherif Bassiouni, concluded in paragraph 929 of its report: “The death of Mr Farhan can be attributed to the use of excessive force by police officers. The fact that the deceased was unarmed and had already been shot in the right leg before being shot at close range in the head indicates that there was no justification for the use of lethal force”.In March (2011) alone, the death of Mrs. Bahiya Al-Aradi, Ahmed Abdullah, Jaffar Ma’yoof, Jaffar Mohammed and Jawad Shamlan and Indian citizen Stephen Abraham were all attributed to the Bahrain Defense Force in the BICI report.To date, the bloodshed has not stopped, with three years of official-repression, killings, arrests, torture, collective punishment and terrorizing home raids. Surprisingly enough, all this official terror has failed to silence the Bahrainis. Men and women still hold nightly protests around the country demanding transitional justice and democracy.The struggle for democracy and freedom in Bahrain goes on, although the regime has only shown failure to coexist with its people. The international community is looked upon today to play a humanitarian and moral role in Bahrain until the people reach their aspirations of a democratic and modern State in place of the current dictatorship./129