Washington Fuming About Bahrain's Human Rights Crackdown - Daily Beast

The Daily Beast
September 5, 2014

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Washington is fed up with Bahrain’s flouting of international calls for progress on human rights and reform, particularly now that the kingdom has imprisoned a well-known female activist for “insulting the king” and other allegedly trumped-up charges.

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Psaki also said Bahrain has failed to reschedule a time for a visit by Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowki, whom they unceremoniously threw out of the country for “interference in its internal affairs” in July after he met with members of the opposition al-Wafeq party—and without government minders. Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmad Al Khalifa promised Secretary of State John Kerry that Malinowski would be invited back, but hasn’t followed through, Psaki said.

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Maryam al-Khawaja’s case struck a particularly sensitive chord in Washington because she is well-respected and has met more than a dozen times with government officials, lawmakers, and other activists to educate and advocate on behalf of the aggrieved citizens of Bahrain, as co-director of the Gulf Center on Human Rights. But the Bahraini government, which carefully manages its image in Washington, ignored that completely.

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“If they can get away with expelling a senior State Department official with no consequences, then they think they can get away with anything and they don’t have to respond to the pressure,” said Bockenfeld. “It emboldens them to take a tougher line internally and they don’t feel they really have to concede much in terms of real reform.”


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Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain
http://adhrb.org/