Three years down the line, the plight of Bahraini citizens is largely ignored

Friday 14 February will mark the three-year anniversary of the 2011 uprisings that saw large crowds of Bahraini citizens taking to the streets in protest at the lack of freedom of expression and religion in the Gulf kingdom. Seen as Bahrain’s version of the larger Arab Spring that swept through the entire region during that year, the protests led to a heavy crackdown on dissidents and opposition leaders by the country’s ruling monarchy, a crackdown that has seen a large number being detained without trial and due process.

Three years down the line, as Bahrainis prepare to take to the streets again to renew their demands, many are still questioning why the international community, and the United States in particular, has not done more to protect the human rights of the 1.2 million citizens of this small island off the coast of Saudi Arabia.

A group of activists, US government officials and Bahraini politicians gathered in Washington DC on 12 February at the Capitol Building to discuss the critical human rights situation in the small Gulf kingdom. Supported by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, and hosted by the Project on Middle East Democracy(POMED) and Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), two Washington-based organisations, the high-level panel assessed the current situation on the ground and discussed alternatives for the future.

“We continue to see the arrest and detention of peaceful demonstrators, and there is still a lot of work to be done,” said Dwight Bashir, the deputy director of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a US government agency. He told the panel on Wednesday that there is a need for “US high-level officials to speak more openly” of the human rights issues at stake in Bahrain.

When it comes to the human rights situation in the kingdom, the political climate in Washington is generally supportive of the plight of Bahraini citizens, but this support tends to lean more towards rhetoric than action.

As of now, several obstacles stand between the human rights situation in Bahrain and a tangible response by the US government. First among these is the strategic importance that the defence establishment in Washington attaches to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, currently based on the small island. So far, the US has found it difficult to distance itself from the Bahraini government’s crackdown on dissidents because of the strategic alliance between Manama and Washington. This alliance has enabled the United States to keep one of its largest fleets deployed in a key juncture of the Persian Gulf, granting it control over the seaways and providing it with a deterrent against Iran’s ambitions.

This reflects one of those instances in which US support for freedom and democracy worldwide seems to clash with US strategic and defence interests. When confronted with the choice between the two, Washington tends to opt for the latter. Although several actors in the capital are hoping to move things forward, there is very little that can be done until the US government itself sends a clear and unequivocal message that it takes the plight of Bahraini citizens seriously.

Renewing commitment to religious freedom

Given US reluctance to deal with the crisis more directly, the Bahraini government has largely avoided reform, pointing instead to alleged progress on the human rights agenda.

Maryam Al-Khawaja, the daughter of prominent Bahraini activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, noted with grave concern on Wednesday that, “As long as Bahraini authorities refuse to acknowledge that there is a problem with the system, there will be no hope for reforms.”

In an interview with the Middle East Monitor, Al-Khawaja emphasised how problematic the issue of the US military base is for the current situation.

“The base has become an excuse for the US to ignore the human rights abuses in the country,” she said, “and it is actually perceived as a reward for the monarchy.”

In the past, US officials have tended to look away, focusing instead on the geostrategic importance of Bahrain and its base. In November 2011, the then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern at the allegations of human rights abuses.

However, she also emphasised that, “Our countries have many shared, strategic interests and a relationship that includes decades of working together to defend regional security.” Bahrainis themselves, she urged, should resolve the issues, “and move forward in a way that promotes reform, reconciliation, and stability.”

The problem, though, is that in the absence of real pressure, Bahrainis themselves are unlikely to move forward.

Shortly after protests broke out in 2011, the Bahraini government established the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI). The commission was tasked with the assessment of whether the events of February 2011 involved human rights violations. Chaired by international legal scholar Cherif Bassiouni, the BICI released a lengthy report in which it put forward a series of recommendations to be implemented in order to address the allegations of human rights abuses. Nearly three years later, the BICI recommendations have largely been ignored.

“Not a single one of those major recommendations has been acted upon by the government of Bahrain,” said Robert Herman of Freedom House on Wednesday, in a statement at the US House of Representatives. “The excuses that have been put forward for non-action underscore that there is a profound absence of political will on the part of this monarchy to address the legitimate grievances of the majority of the country’s population.”

Political will in Bahrain will surface only when political commitment and actions start to take shape in Washington.

At the end of 2011, Democratic Representative James McGovern and Senator Wyden introduced legislation that would have halted US arms sales to Bahrain. “Selling weapons to a regime that is violently suppressing peaceful civil dissent and violating human rights is antithetical to our foreign policy goals and the principle of basic rights for all that the US has worked hard to promote,” a statement by Wyden at the time read.

Nevertheless, a list of Pentagon documents later made public under a Freedom of Information Act request shows that the US government maintained its arms sales to Bahrain into 2012 and complemented them with additional items.

Last week during a yearly celebration of religious freedom, President Obama recognised that around the world freedom of religion is under threat. “We…deeply believe that it’s in our interest, even with our partners, sometimes with our friends, to stand up for universal human rights. So promoting religious freedom is a key objective of US foreign policy.”

As thousands of Bahraini citizens prepare to take the streets this week to renew their call for freedom of religion and expression, it is time for the US and the West to complement words with actions.

Ramy Srour writes for MEMO from Washington. Follow him on Twitter. He is the founder and managing editor of Foreign Policy Today.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.