20.05.12

Can the truth heal? That's what the people of Bahrain are about to find out as they embark on an ambitious, and unprecedented, attempt to move beyond the ravages of an aborted revolution that has sundered the social fabric of this cosmopolitan island kingdom in the Persian Gulf. Five months ago Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa commissioned an independent investigation into the events surrounding a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in February and March. He was attempting to halt the country's downward spiral of suspicion, blame and recrimination that has resulted in a stagnating economy, a loss of national prestige, and the chance that Bahrain could once again be denied the opportunity to host the Formula One Grand Prix next year.

To prove that he was serious, King al-Khalifa selected veteran war-crimes investigator Cherif Bassiouni  to lead the Bahrain Independent Commission of Investigation. And on Wednesday afternoon, in a formal ceremony attended by the royal family, government officials and the local and national press, Bassiouni presented his findings . Doubts that an investigative body commissioned and paid for by one of the parties implicated in the crimes could be truly independent quickly dissipated as Bassiouni read out a litany of graphic human-rights violations discovered over the course of the investigation. Unlawful detention, excessive and indiscriminate use of force, night raids designed to “create fear,” workplace purges of protest participants, sexual abuse, the threat of rape along with beatings and the administration of electric shocks to elicit confessions, and the destruction of religious sites that “give the impression of collective punishment.” He described widespread and “systematic torture.

Source: TIME (blog)