More and more residential areas in Bahrain are being isolated with concrete barriers and barbed wire. The measures are made as part of the Authority’s campaign of repression on ongoing peaceful protests demanding the release of Sheikh Ali Salman, Secretary General of Al Wefaq National Islamic Society.
Two months ago, security forces placed road blockades in the area of Dair in the Muharraq Governorate. The area also saw barbed wire in a number of entries as well as the main entry.
Other areas like Duraz and Abu Saiba, west of the capital Manama, have been besieged with concrete barriers since June 2014. In Sitra island, the residents are forced to pass through police checkpoints after the regime placed barbed wire and barriers around the area in April 2014.
Many other areas have been surrounded with various types of separation methods including tall and long fences, sand blockades, barbed wire and concrete barriers*.
These barriers remind the Bahraini citizens of the apartheid wall in Palestine and the Berlin wall.
Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Politic al Rights, and which Bahrain is signatory to, states “Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence. Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own”.
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*Areas under isolation measure: Sitra island, Athari, Salhiya, Qadam, Bilad Qadeem, Zinj, Abu Quwa, Sihla, Aali, Duraz, Abu Saiba, Karbabad, Deih, Dair, Hamad Town, Burhama and others.
