Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Bahrain royal commission

Angry Arab chief correspondent on Bahrain sent me this (her name can't be revealed for her protection):  "I am starting to think that Bahrainis made a HUGE mistake by cooperating with the royal commission and bassiouni. We should have refused to cooperate from the beginning and insisted on an independent commission. Royalists who just met with Bassiouni are claiming that he said that the shia in Bahrain have a victimization complex and he noticed the tendancy to exagerrate claims. This commission is yet another of the Kings attempts to bring a cosmetic change without doing anything substantive. He did in in 2002 when he unilaterally imposed a new constitution with a parliament with no legislative powers and he is doing it again. This time Bahrainis are not buying it. But still people are urging others to go to the commission to document what happened to them so that at least the crimes are documented. But I'm starting to think that if noone cooperated in the first place then the govt would have no choice and would have to bring in Navai Pillay of the UN. Another problem I am having is the Bahrain Mirror published an article in which they state that the commission headquarters is guarded by people from the ministry of interior. And every day the commission gives the names of the people who have appointments to the guard so that they can be let in. What happens to these people if their names reach the ministry of interior? I'm really worried about this report that they will come out with."

PS Nicholas Blanford has not interviewed this correspondent.