The Arab League's suspension of Syria amid increasing Western pressure,
Egyptian junta's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, Bahrain's excessive
use of force against its own people, and Yemeni regime's massacre of its
citizens have once again underlined the prevailing double standards in the
world.
According to official figures released by the "Bahrain Center for Human
Rights" website, at least 44 Bahraini citizens were killed at the hands of
mercenaries of Al Khalifa regime. The Bahraini martyrs include the
6-year-old Mohammed Farhan, 14-year-old Ali Jawad Alshaikh and 15-year-old
Sayed Ahmad Saeed Shams.
The Bahraini organization has reported that many of these people were killed
while in custody. The Center has also published documents indicating that
more than 1,500 Bahrainis including about 100 women were incarcerated since
the eruption of turmoil in the Persian Gulf country on February 14, 2011 and
that more that 90 journalists face life threat.
The report added that the Bahraini government has blocked the citizens'
access to more than 1,000 opposition websites, which are mainly used to
organize and plan protests.
The Bahraini regime commits all these crimes with the direct support from
Saudi Arabia and with the implicit backing of NATO and the United States.
The author of the "Hidden Harmonies China" blog in a March 14, 2011 post
referred to the abuses of human rights in Bahrain with the flagrant,
duplicitous support of the White House: "the Entry of Saudi security forces
to crack down on the protesters with deadly force is a complication for U.S.
policies, to say the least, since U.S. is reluctant to criticize its oil
ally dictators in the region."
He also called Bahrain the "Las Vegas" of the Middle East, host to the U.S.
5th Fleet and a haunt for the rich Saudis who are forbidden by Islamic laws
at home from indulging in alcohol and other immoral enjoyments, "but who
often vacation in Bahrain for these reasons."
Bahraini citizens have uploaded several videos on the internet, showing the
Manama authorities torturing protesters. These videos also show the Bahraini
forces targeting the protesters with toxic tear gas and rubber bullets. In
addition, some of these videos show the regime vehicles running over
children and women.
The U.S.-Saudi-backed crackdown on the Bahraini people was also backed by
some European powers. In July 2011, Germany sold a set of 200 62-ton Leopard
tanks to Saudi Arabia which sparked a huge controversy among the German
parliamentarians and anti-war activists. According to the Daily Telegraph,
Wolfgang Gerhardt, former leader of the Free Democrats, the junior collation
member to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, said it was
"unacceptable" the deal went through without the knowledge of his party's
MPs. However, the agreement which was worth around $1,252 million was
concluded and the Saudi government dispatched many of these newly-bought
tanks to Bahrain to accelerate and facilitate the bloody clampdown on the
protesters.
The situation in Yemen, however, is far more deplorable. Allvoices.com has
reported that as of September 25, 1,870 Yemenis were killed during the
revolution and the majority of the dead were unarmed civilians taking part
in anti-government demonstrations.
The Yemeni dictator, who has remained defiant in the face of frequent calls
by the tribal leaders, opposition groups and demonstrators to step down and
give up power, has turned his country into a bloodbath, making the Yemeni
uprising the longest and most devastative revolution in the wave of protests
in the Middle East. The protests in Yemen started on February 3, 2011 and
have continued so far.
The only reaction of the international community to the brutality in this
country has been an indecisive and faltering resolution by the UNSC which
has called for "an end to violence" and asked President Ali Abdullah Saleh
to accept a peace deal brokered by the Arabian Gulf Cooperation Council.
However, Abdullah Saleh, who is tacitly supported by the U.S., has kept up
with the brutalities and according to Yemen Times, 94 protesters have been
killed after the Security Council adopted the resolution 2014.
A report published in the Yemen Times on November 17 revealed that
"ninety-four Yemenis were killed and over 800 injured since UN Resolution
2014 was issued on October 21."
"Tentative reports show that over the last three weeks in Yemen, 124 homes,
seven mosques, six public institutions including one hospital, two community
wells, and 17 vehicles were effectively destroyed," the Yemen Times
reported.
In the days leading to the detainment and death of Muammar Gaddafi, the
Western mainstream media were only talking about the Libyan civil war, and
the reason was clear, NATO had secured a UN Security Council resolution to
enact a no-fly zone over Libya and it was in the interest of the U.S. and
its European partners to cover the tumultuous situation in the North African
country.
However, the reports and news regarding the carnage in Bahrain and Yemen
were predominantly shunned and boycotted, simply because these two despotic
regimes are the close allies of the U.S. in the Middle East.
In a report published in the Independent Australia, Zaid Jiani alluded to
the violent crackdown on the protesters in Bahrain and Yemen and posed the
question that "is the media downplaying these events because the two
dictatorships are firm allies of the West?"
"A Think Progress analysis of press coverage by the three major U.S. cable
news networks -CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News - from March 14 to March 18 finds
that Bahrain received only slightly more than ten percent as many mentions
as Libya and that Yemen received only six percent as many mentions as
Libya."
Now what concerns the independent thinkers, scholars, university professors,
journalists and peace activists is that Syria has become the target of
international pressure, simply because it has strong ties with Iran and
resistant groups in Lebanon and Palestine, while the regimes of Bahrain and
Yemen are getting away with the crimes they had commit by the virtue of
their alliance with the United States.
The Arab League has hypocritically suspended the participation of Syria
while it has taken no practical step to normalize the situation in Yemen and
Bahrain in which innocent people are being killed on a daily basis by their
tyrannical rulers.
Anyhow, the Arab League and the West are ignoring the worsening situation in
Yemen and Bahrain but exaggerating the unrest in Syria that is mainly caused
because of their intervention. They are slamming Damascus but paying no
attention towards the oppressed people of Yemen and Bahrain. This is an
exercise in double standards and an outstanding example of stark hypocrisy.
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Received on Mon Nov 28 2011 - 07:36:02 EST