Bahrain bans human rights seminar

Bahrain: Bahrain’s leading opposition party says the government has imposed a ban on a seminar detailing abuses committed by the ruling regime during its brutal crackdown of anti-regime protests. “Authorities have banned a presentation on ‘the atrocities of human rights violations since February 14’,” the Islamic National Accord Association (al-Wefaq) announced on Wednesday.

Former al-Wefaq lawmaker Hadi al-Moussawi said the movement was warned against going ahead with the presentation, AFP reported. Moussawi, one of 18 MPs that resigned in protest to the repression of demonstrations in March, said they were contacted by a security official who claimed that the event was “illegal because authorities were not informed.”

He expressed surprise at the official warning since the group was never required to notify authorities of seminars held inside its own premises in the past. But the interior ministry said the seminar was not banned and that “organizers were asked to present notification according to law for being a public meeting.”

Last week, Bahrain announced the lifting of a state of emergency it imposed on its population in mid-March, when it resorted to the use of violence and sought military assistance from Arab neighbors to crush a popular uprising in the Persian Gulf state.

Thousands of anti-government protesters have been staging demonstrations in Bahrain since mid-February, demanding various reforms, an end to ethnic discrimination in offering government jobs and allowing political representation, and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later changed to an outright call for ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following its brutal crackdown on popular protests.

On March 14, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed troops to the kingdom to help Bahraini forces to suppress the nationwide protests.

Scores of people have been killed and many more arrested in the Saudi-backed crackdown on peaceful protests in Bahrain — a longtime ally of the US and home to a huge military base of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. Thursday, Press TV