Three years ago today, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) forces entered Bahrain at the request of the government to help suppress the popular protest movement that began on 14 February 2011. As Saudi-led tanks rolled across the causeway into Bahrain, the government justified the international intervention by saying Bahrain was being threatened by “external forces”, in an attempt to pin the domestic unrest on Iranian interference.
Yet the government-commissioned Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry confirmed what protesters, human rights organizations, and many in the international community already knew: there was no Iranian involvement in the uprising. The movement was an organic expression by Bahrainis who were fed up with corruption, a culture of impunity, and the lack of democracy in their country.
Although there is no evidence that GCC forces committed any of the human rights violations that occurred during the crackdown, their mission to provide security for infrastructure and important installations throughout Bahrain freed the Bahraini security forces to violently crush the uprising.
It is difficult to see a solution to the political stalemate in Bahrain without constructive involvement from both Saudi Arabia and the United States, given the strong interests both countries have in Bahrain. To this end, the U.S. should publically call on the Saudi government to withdraw forces from Bahrain as part of the path to reform and as a confidence building measure. The United States must also apply public pressure on the Bahraini government to ensure that the reforms so desperately needed to heal the wounded country are enacted swiftly and without reservation.
As the uprising enters its fourth year, the situation in Bahrain remains a tense standoff between the government and the opposition, exacerbated by the continued presence of a small contingent of Saudi forces on the ground and a regression in the state of human rights in the country. If the Saudi government is sincere in its publically stated desire to see a negotiated resolution to the situation in Bahrain, it must withdraw the remainder of its forces from the country.
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Rachel Peterson is Director of Communications at ADHRB.
الرجاء الضغط هنا لقراءة هذه الرسالة باللغة العربي
