HRW on my Gulf: Torturers Are Us, Sweet-Smelling Interrogators………….
“US-based rights group says there is credible evidence security forces have subjected detainees to torture. The Gulf kingdom of Bahrain resumed torturing detainees in 2007 after about a decade of not engaging in the "scourge," US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released Monday. As of late 2007, "torture is back in the repertoire of Bahrain's security services" the international watchdog said in the report. "The return of torture is especially distressing since Bahrain showed the political will a decade ago to end this scourge," said the report by Joe Stork, HRW's deputy Middle East director. The Sunni-ruled state ended torture of detainees in the late 1990s, but resumed the practice in December 2007 amid street demonstrations by majority Shiites, the report said…………Shiites complain they are discriminated at every level, from getting jobs to citizenship, accusing the government of granting nationality to large numbers of Sunni Muslims in order to skew the kingdom's demography...... Torture is against Bahraini law and violates three international treaties that Bahrain has signed, HRW said. It called on the kingdom to end torture and prosecute officials who have violated anti-torture laws………”
Every frigging Arab oligarchy can point to provisions in its constitution that bans torture, except for Saudi Arabia which has no constitution and no written provisions. Yet they all, most of them, torture people at will. They find clever ways to show that they are abiding by international rules, even as the “boys” keep on working in the dungeons and the hellish cells. The well-dressed soft-spoken potentate dude you meet, the one reeking of sweet fragrances, is probably the one giving the orders. Often they import torturers from each other, sort of like Student Exchange Programs in the West.
Cheers
mhg
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