Baroness Catherine Ashton of Upholland
Vice-President/High Representative for Foreign Affairs
and Security Policy
Rue de la Loi 200
1049 Brussels
Honourable
High Representative
On 5 May 2012 the Bahraini opposition leader, and deputy secretary
general of the human rights organisation FIDH, Nabeel Rajab was arrested at
Manama airport after returning from a human rights conference in Beirut. Mr
Rajab is one of the most well-known human rights activists in the Arab world.
On Sunday he appeared before a Lower Criminal Court to face charges of
"inciting illegal rallies and marches online by using social networking
websites"; showing the struggle for human rights has also moved online. Mr
Rajab's arrest is only the latest escalation of the increasingly repressive
policy by the Bahraini government against the opposition movement.
In
your statement of 13 February 2012 on the anniversary of the unrest in Bahrain you rightly stressed that it was "indispensable that all sides contribute
constructively to the national reconciliation process, including by
implementing the recommendations of the report issues by the Bahrain
Regrettably, up to date no dialogue with the opposition has been initiated
by the government; the announced reforms have yet failed to materialize.
However, the excessive use of teargas, beatings of protesters by police
officers, arrests and the detainment of opposition leaders continues. Albeit a
retrial of 21 opposition leaders has been announced, none of them have been released;
including Abdulhadi al-Khawaja (who also holds Danish nationality) and Zainab
al-Khawaja. Mr al-Kwawaja is now on his 90th day of hunger strike and
has intermittent contact with his family. Recently Member of European
Parliament Ana Gomes was prevented from entering Bahrain
It
is high time the EU speaks out against the ongoing repression of the opposition
and violation of human rights. In its resolution of 15 March 2012 on human
rights violations in Bahrain the Parliament called for "the immediate and unconditional release of
all peaceful demonstrators, political activists, human rights defenders, doctors
and paramedics, bloggers and journalists" and urged you to "hold the Bahraini Government to its promises
to respect human rights, implement the necessary reforms, start independent
investigations into human rights violations and ensure that those responsible
are held to account."
We urge you to reiterate this call and hold the Bahraini
Government to its promises, and to set a clear deadline to be met in order to
prevent serious consequences. We call on you to prepare a set of targeted
restrictive measures, including; a formal ban on the export of all military
equipment (in particular tear gas), to ensure that no military
equipment is sold or exported from within the EU to Bahrain; visa bans and
asset freezes for those individuals responsible for the violent repression of
peaceful protestors. It is essential for the EU's credibility in the region to
show that the EU has a consistent policy towards governments violating their
citizens' human rights.
Sincerely,
Marietje Schaake (ALDE)
Edward McMillan-Scott (ALDE)
Sonia Alfano (ALDE)
Hans van Baalen (ALDE)
Catherine Bearder (ALDE)
Phil Bennion (ALDE)
Tarja Cronberg (GREENS)
Charles Goerens (ALDE)
Ana Gomes (S&D)
Marian Harkin (ALDE)
Sophie In 't Veld (ALDE)
Jelko Kacin (ALDE)
Véronique de Keyser (S&D)
Sarah Ludford (ALDE)
Kristina Ojuland (ALDE)
Olle Schmidt (ALDE)
Ramon Tremosa i Balcells (ALDE)
Alexandra Thein (ALDE)
Ivo Vajgl (ALDE)
