BAHRAIN: GOVERNMENT CONTINUES ASSAULT ON OPPOSITION ACTIVISTS

The writer refers to Bahrain as the gift that keeps on giving, the reason being that the Bahraini government keeps on providing enthusiasts of global politics and international law with something to write about. It has certainly been successful at grabbing our collective attentions although not for the reasons it would prefer to be famous for.

Last week, opposition activist Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to three years in jail for effectively having the audacity to lead ‘peaceful’ protests against the government. The country’s courts are expected to hear his appeal next week.

Although the decision to sentence Rajab came as no surprise to observers, the length of the sentence for the ‘crime’ was even by Bahraini standards unprecedented. The EU’s foreign affairs High Representative Catherine Ashton has led calls against the Bahrain government’s anti-democratic stance. Ashton highlighted that Rajab had done nothing wrong and added that his sentencing was linked to his calls for the government to respect its citizens’ fundamental freedoms.

Victoria Nuland, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman stated that the U.S. was deeply troubled by Rajab’s sentence. She continued; “We’ve made it clear that it is critical for all governments, including Bahrain, to respect freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.” The NGO Amnesty International has gone even further than both the EU and the U.S by stating that it was a “dark day for justice.” Amnesty International’s Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui averred that Rajab’s sentence eliminates the potential for change in the country. Sahraoui affirmed: “Like many others in Bahrain, Nabeel Rajab is a prisoner of conscience, jailed solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and assembly.”

The government’s publicity machine has since gone into overdrive in anticipation of the global opprobrium it expects to rain down upon it. The government insisted that it had evidence to hand which conclusively showed that Rajab had caused the deaths of innocent people by inciting “violence and escalation against law enforcement officers”. The country’s interior ministry also confirmed that about 700 security officers have been injured since clashes began last year. It has however failed to explain why others charged with the same offence appeared to have been given lighter sentences that that which befell Rajab.

For its part the Bahrain government has no incentive to restrain itself from maintaining the current status quo not least because its strategic location in the Middle East makes it a viable alternative as an oil transport route out of the Gulf region to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran currently holds sway. The fact that the country also hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet further complicates matters thus rendering any idea of political will being mustered and mobilized by the U.S. redundant. The Bahrain government, like its Russian counterpart who drew the ire of the watching world with its absurd decision to jail members of the Russian female punk rock band, Pussy Riot last week, fails to appreciate the significance of the oft-repeated mantra spawn by the current writer. The said mantra being that the movement for change is akin to a hydra which will not cease to exist when one of its heads - the movements’ individual foot soldiers – are incarcerated or silenced.

AZERBAIJAN: A NATION ON THE EDGE

It was reported in the past week that the country’s most popular human rights activist and newspaper editor, Khilal Mamedov, had been arrested by the Azeri authorities on alleged charges of drug possession. Azerbaijan police officials were said to have found 5.8 grams of heroin on Mamedov’s person while 28.3 grams of the substance was found in his residence. If convicted Mamedov faces three to 12 years imprisonment.


Mamedov’s Background

Mamedov of course gained notoriety as one of the creators of the “Who are you? Come on, goodbye?” video which went viral in May of this year on Twitter and was then adopted by Russian Anti-Vladimir Putin groups as their campaigns’ theme tune. Mamedov has championed the cause of the Talysh, who are a minority ethnic group in Southern Azerbaijan, a region which borders northern Iran. The Talysh are said to be often marginalised by and not adequately represented by the Baku – the country’s administrative capital – based government. An attempt by the Talysh to secede from the Baku government in 1993 was quelled by the authorities.


The Government’s Ulterior Motives

The human rights group, Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) has denounced the arrest of Mamedov calling it a politically motivated act on the part of the government. The IPD appear to suggest that the arrest is intrinsically linked to Mamedov’s human rights activism. Leila Yunus, the organisation’s head, in calling for the release of Mamedov stated: “Khilal Mamedov had authority among the Talysh minority, and officially Baku doesn't favour them." She added: “His arrest is a direct pressure on national minorities in Azerbaijan.”

The fears of human rights activists that the arrest is politically motivated are justified as the government has previous form in terms of stifling voices of protest. Mamedov’s newspaper’s previous editor, Tolishi Sado died in prison in 2010, two years into his 10-year prison sentence for allegedly spying for Iran, charges which most observers denounce as trumped up at best and fantasist at worst.


Government’s Defence

The government for its part has of course denied that the arrest was in any way linked to Mamedov’s activism. The Azeri Interior Ministry deputy spokesperson Ekhsan Zaidov informed the press in the aftermath of the arrest that it had no connection to the protest video or Mamedov’s professional activity, that is his human rights campaigns. Rest assured, the government’s protestations have mostly fallen on the deaf ears of those it seeks to convince otherwise about the reasons for the arrest of the prominent human rights campaigner.


A Government of Contradiction

The proverbial giving with one hand whilst taking away with the other seems to apply to the Azeri government’s recent actions. On the same week on which Mamedov appears to have been made the subject of trumped up charges, the Ilham Aliyev-led government granted amnesty to about 64 prisoners and human rights activists. Aliyev is currently serving a second term as President following an election victory in October 2008, an election which was boycotted by the main opposition parties and which many Western observers denounced at the time as fundamentally flawed. A referendum held in March 2009 effectively removed the constitutional limit on the number of terms which an acting President could serve thus paving the way for Aliyev to be ‘President for Life’.


Sound-off

What remains clear is that despite the occasional overtures made by Aliyev to placate his Western critics such as sanctioning the release of some unjustly held prisoners, his assault on human rights and the concept’s proponents show no signs of abating in the immediate future. The regime may have silenced Sado and is presently on its way to silencing Mamedov but what the government appears to underestimate is the hydra-like nature of the Azeri opposition which defies any easy solution.