Bahrain crackdown probe is a travesty

30 June, 2011 11:50

shiitenews_bahrain_creckdown Bahrain’s decision to set up an independent committee to investigate the regime’s brutal crackdown during anti-state protests in the littoral Persian Gulf kingdom is a sham, says an activist.

â€œI think the formation of this committee is self-defeating because how you can look into the crimes of the person who has appointed you,â€ Saeed al-Shehabi with the Bahrain Freedom Movement said on Wednesday.

Under an order by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, a five-man panel, chaired by Mahmud Sharif Bassiouni, will investigate reports of rights abuse by security forces during the deadly crackdown in Bahrain’s revolt.

â€œI think it is really a joke and mockery of justice,â€ he added.

Al-Shehabi also pointed out that the state’s offer of reconciliation talks with the opposition would fail because it (the Manama regime) ‘keeps torturing and jailing’ Bahraini people and opposition figures.

â€œHow can you have reconciliation when you are still torturing people?” the leader of Bahraini opposition noted.

He also held King Hamad responsible for all the ‘atrocities’ committed against the Bahraini people.

Anti-regime protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty’s decades-long rule.

In March, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed military forces to Bahrain to help the government crush the nationwide protests.