HRW blasts US over Bahrain crackdown

HRW's deputy Middle East director Joe Stork

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/187946.html

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has lashed out at the US and its allies for ignoring violent oppression against peaceful anti-regime protesters in Bahrain.

"Bahrain has brutally punished those protesting peacefully for greater freedom and accountability while the US and other allies looked the other way," HRW's deputy Middle East director Joe Stork said.

The rights group, in a statement on Wednesday, also criticized the Bahrain government for carrying out a "campaign of violent oppression" against its citizens.

Anti-government protesters took to the streets of Bahrain on February 14, but the country's Saudi-backed forces crushed the demonstrations in a bloody crackdown in March.

"The Bahrain government, since March 2011, has been carrying out a punitive and vindictive campaign of violent repression against its own citizens," the statement said.

Bahrain Center for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization, said there are currently over 1,000 political detainees, including medical staff, inside the country.

HRW called on Bahrain "to end unlawful and incommunicado detention, to free protesters unless legitimate criminal charges can be brought against them, and to allow monitoring by independent human rights organizations."

It also said it has been prevented from working in Bahrain since April