Press Releases

Thank you, Carl, for your introduction. I am grateful to you and to everyone at the National Endowment for Democracy who has worked so hard to organize today's important conference on the -Prospects for Democracy in the Gulf States.- Thanks especially to those at NED's International forum for Democratic Studies and to NED's partners at the Project on Middle East Democracy. I also want to recognize our very special guests from Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, some of whom I had the pleasure of meeting yesterday. Your participation in this forum is critical for fostering a true and comprehensive discussion of democracy in the Middle East. Thank you for being here.

I am grateful to have the opportunity this morning to help call attention to the continuing struggle for democracy and human rights in Bahrain. As most of you know, tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the popular uprising in that country. Like many peoples across the Middle East, Bahrainis, especially its Shi'a majority, began a call that day for change to Bahrain's political and economic structures that have long treated them as second-class citizens. They called for respect for their fundamental human rights, including their rights to peacefully assemble and to freely express their political beliefs without fear of reprisal.

Unfortunately, reprisal was how the Government of Bahrain chose to respond in February 2011 and, regrettably, it has continued to do so throughout the past two years with sometimes shocking brutality. As the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry - or BICI [Bee-eye-see-eye] - confirmed in November 2011, the Bahraini authorities systematically used excessive force against protesters during the period of February to March 2011. Based on the 9,000 testimonies that the BICI obtained, the widely-respected document reported 46 deaths, 559 allegations of torture, as well as forced confessions, and the unjust prosecution of medical personnel who treated injured protesters - a flagrant violation of the principal of medical neutrality. All this is in addition to the wrongful termination, en masse, of employees, mostly Shiites, suspected to have participated in the protests.

As Co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the U.S. House of Representatives, I have had the opportunity to hear from individuals who experienced the heavy-handed tactics of Bahrain's security forces. In a meeting with the Commission, one Bahraini medical doctor described how security forces in the country had at various times used tear gas against demonstrators in a lethal manner. In the doctor's words, -I saw bodies destroyed by tear gas canisters fired at close range. We did not know how to treat the wounds because we had never before seen such injuries.-

In response to the BICI, the Government of Bahrain has made some progress. Bahrain accepted the criticisms of the report and established a National Commission to implement the document's 26 recommendations. Although the National Commission's progress has received criticism for its insufficient progress, it has taken some positive steps to conform to the BICI's recommendations. Specifically, the government has transferred some trials from military to civilian courts, it has reinstated over 92 percent of fired workers, it has produced a new code of police conduct, and it has established a compensation fund for the victims of torture that has settled at least 17 cases and awarded more than $2.6 million to claimants.

Yet even as the National Commission has worked to implement the recommendations of the BICI, cases of human rights abuses and impunity have continued. In particular, the recommendations calling for accountability at all levels of the chain of command for human rights abuses, the integration of all Bahraini communities into the security forces, and the release of all individuals who have engaged only in peaceful political expression have not been implemented.

Just yesterday, I met with Maryam Al-Khawaja, the daughter of one of these prisoners, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, the former president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Arrested on April 9, 2011, he was sentenced to life imprisonment later that summer. Abdulhadi experienced physical and psychological torture, a 110-day hunger strike, and indefinite terms of imprisonment. Yet throughout his ordeal, he has continued to call for peaceful resistance. Last month, Bahrain's highest appeals court upheld his conviction and life sentence, as well as those of 13 other prominent activists. Currently, their only hope for release is a highly unlikely pardon from the King.

In another case, Nabeel Rajab, Abdulhadi's successor as President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and Director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights, is now serving a three-year prison sentence for participating in protests against the government. Rajab is a prisoner of conscience, jailed solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and assembly. Mr. Rajab's recent convictions and the upholding of the military verdict against opposition figures are evidence that the Kingdom's promises of reform and dialogue have not been fulfilled. As part of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission's new Defending Freedom's Project, I have adopted Nabeel as a prisoner of conscience, and I am dedicated to seeing his conviction overturned and his immediate release secured.

I was also deeply concerned to learn last August at a Commission hearing looking at the implementation of the BICI that security forces continue to conduct raids on the homes of suspected dissidents and protesters. I find very disturbing the government's decision last October to impose a ban on all public demonstrations. Credible sources confirm that journalists and NGOs continue to face difficulty trying to enter Bahrain. Meanwhile, the Government of Bahrain has moved forward with stripping the citizenship of many individuals in Bahrain, effectively rendering its own people stateless.

But let's be very clear: we cannot limit our concern for peace and democracy in Bahrain to the implementation of the BICI recommendations. Even if fully implemented, the report does not address the inadequate distribution of political power or the systematic discrimination of Bahrain's Shi'a majority - both of which have driven popular uprisings in Bahrain, even before February 2011. Although the Government of Bahrain's willingness to engage in a -National Dialogue- allowed it to move in the right direction, true peace and security depends on the opportunity for all Bahrainis to participate fully in Bahrain's political and economic life.

The issue of full political participation is currently at the forefront, as the King of Bahrain recently extended an invitation to opposition parties to resume talks on political reforms as part of a National Consensus Dialogue. In July 2011, Bahrain's main opposition party, Al Wefaq, withdrew from negotiations because the opposition was given only limited representation during the talks. In spring 2011, President Obama went so far as to say -you can't have a real dialogue when parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail.- At this time, key members of Bahrain's political community remain imprisoned and prevented from participating.

Opposition leaders like Nabeel Rajab and Abdulhadi al-Khawaja must be allowed to attend and provide the critical perspective of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Also, Ibrahim Sharif, the most prominent Sunni opposition figure and the head of the largest secular opposition party, must be permitted to join. His participation would demonstrate that the democratic demands of the opposition are neither exclusively Shi'a nor connected to Iran, as Bahrain has asserted. For the government's part, it should send representatives with the willingness and authority to constructively engage opposition leadership. Bahrain has said it is -ready to sit at the table of dialogue, keen on reaching a final and comprehensive national consensus.- I implore the Government of Bahrain to show its commitment for such discourse by putting an end to the silencing of important political voices.

The violent suppression of the voices of the majority in Bahrain will not end the political polarization of the country. And let me be clear, it is polarization and exclusion that are the real threats to U.S. strategic interests, including the basing of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, because it is polarization and exclusion that threaten stability. If we have learned anything from the last two years, it's that you can't keep a lid on a boiling pot; sooner or later, it will explode. We know that backing autocracies instead of agents for democracy can have dire consequences. Support for autocratic rule in the name of stability is ultimately an unsustainable strategy and a dangerous myth, especially in a region as volatile as the Middle East and Northern Africa.

The U.S. must stand ready to send a clear message to Bahrain that its repressive crackdown on human rights has consequences. We can do this, first, by refusing to strengthen and build capacity of a government that uses it to repress its own people. The Administration has previously put on hold the sale of arms that could be used against protesters, but we resumed sales of more sophisticated weapons systems in May 2012. A complete ban on arms sales would send the clear message that there is no national security without respect for human rights; you can't have one without the other. We must be willing to tell the Al Khalifah regime that, if repression of political voices continues to produce social instability, Bahrain will no longer meet our standards for basing our Fifth Fleet there, and we will actively pursue relocation of our ships.

We cannot, we should not allow these -friendly tyrants,- as Carl Gershman has called them, to blackmail the U.S. into condoning their egregious repressions. By turning a blind eye to Bahrain's blatant abuse of human rights, we perpetrate a double standard, which is unacceptable and unsustainable, if we want to continue to claim being the world's flagship for democracy. We must show Bahrain that we stand with those who welcome meaningful reform and constructive dialogue and that our true strategic allies are those engaged in democratic change in Bahrain, as they are the true agents of peace and security in the region. There are many models of more democratic monarchies in the world; while change is necessary, Bahrain's monarchy need not be threatened by the need to embrace that change.

There is no more time to play political games. I urge the Bahraini government to show its true will to resolve this issue in a democratic way once and for all; to come to the negotiating table; and to invite genuine representation of its opposition to join them there. Changing the status quo is never easy and it requires a great deal of work, commitment, and vision. But the Bahraini government needs to understand that suppressing democratic change is no longer an option and that the cruel silencing of dissent is not only futile, it threatens our mutual interests in peace and stability in the region.