'Bahrain govt. can't silence people'
Sun May 22, 2011 10:6AM
Interview with Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Manama
According to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, the Manama regime is currently holding over 1,000 people in detention over their political activities.
In an interview with Press TV, Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, tells what happened when Saudi-backed Bahraini security forces attacked his home for the second time.
Press TV: There are reports that your own house has been attacked. Can you tell us more about that?
Rajab: I consider this as an attempt of murder, an attempt of killing me and members of my family. They attacked my house for the second time -- today.
But this time, the new development is that they used a shot gun and shot four tear-gas canisters in my house at 3:30 in the morning while everybody was sleeping. Two of them broke the window inside the house.
My ill mother, who is living on [life-support] machines, and my two kids, who are suffering from life-threatening asthma, and my brother and his kids are also suffering a lot, today, because of this. This is very dangerous.
Attacking a human rights defender's house for human rights work and threatening members and children of his family is completely unacceptable.
This time is different than [the] last time because last time it was inside the compound but outside our house. Today [in the] morning, the attack was inside the house. Thank God, everybody was safe.
After many hours, we could go back inside the house and clean it. We could not go inside because of the tear-gas; it was strong. It is an attempt of murder.
The Bahraini government is not allowing me to leave the country; they are banning me from leaving the country. I want to take my family to a safe place, leave them, and come back to my country to do my work because they don't have to pay the price for the work I am doing.
This government is heading towards a very bloody direction by targeting all human rights defenders, all politicians, all unionists, all reformists... [and is] attacking them and threatening their lives and livelihood.
For sure, this will not stop my human rights activities and will never stop the Bahrain Center for Human Rights activities. This threat and intimidation is targeting us because of our human rights work.
Press TV: When they broke into your house, did they say anything? Were they looking for anything? Please tell me if there was any verbal communication.
Rajab: We did not see anybody. We believe they have come from the militias which were created recently by some power in the government, some security power. I don't think that every part of the government agrees on that, but there are certain security elements in the government related to the members of the ruling family who are behind these militias.
They are going house to house, [and are] raiding areas.
Those militias are very clearly being formed. Even in the Bahraini newspaper they mention that. The new militias are being made by those elements of [the] government. I don't know who they are.
We just woke up and our house was full of smoke. We could only grab our children and run out of the place...take out my mother. We were not able to see.
I don't think they have come to talk and see anybody. They just came to shoot the house with those four tear-gas canisters and they left, but nobody knows who they are.
Nobody owns tear-gas in this country except the government. Nobody owns this kind of machine gun which uses tear-gas except the security institutions. They are backed by the security institutions. Although they are unorganized militias supported by those security institutions, they are financed, supported and armed by the security institutions.
It is very dangerous. It is getting very dangerous by threatening all the lives of human rights defendants in Bahrain. I've been one of the very few human rights defenders who are still at home. Others are either inside jail now, or they are hiding somewhere.
The government has gone too far, more than expected, by targeting people, targeting women, torturing everybody, ridiculing everybody, [committing] sexual harassment...this is something nobody has expected to happen here. It has increased so much ever since the Bahraini government invited the Saudi troops to come into Bahrain. They have no limit for the crimes they are committing.
Press TV: Are you surprised yourself that you haven't been arrested yet? And why do you think that they haven't picked you up yet?
Rajab: This is what I'm telling you, there are some elements in the government that think they should not arrest me because there is no proper justification for them to arrest me.
I am talking, I am writing, I'm the head of a human rights organization affiliated with many international organizations, I'm very well known, internationally, for my human rights work. So there is no justification for arrest.
But there are other elements in the government who believe they should get rid of me either by killing me or revengeful killing of members of my family so that it stops my work, or harassing me all the time.
Frankly, I don't think this action is known or supported by everybody in the government, but I think there are certain parts of the government institution that are behind it. There are some people who believe they should not arrest me.
Press TV: Can you tell us more about the new round of protests, in general? This has taken place despite this very harsh crackdown. Tell us what happened, what motivated the people to take to the streets?
Rajab: You have to know one thing, the protests did not stop. If you do not see the videos and pictures, it does not mean that we don't have protests here. The protests are going on now.
All the people who were taking pictures, videos, or uploading their pictures will be targeted, killed, tortured, harassed, intimidated, and silenced by force in bloody means. That's why people taking videos [and] documenting by pictures are not doing that anymore to save the lives of others. It doesn't mean it has stopped. It continues to be that every day we have protests.
Yes, we don't have a major one like before which was like two or three hundred thousand people at once because you can't practically do that. The army comes with their tanks and start shooting and killing people.
But there are protests happening at the same time, in different villages and areas of Bahrain. Bahrain cannot silence people who have legitimate demands. The government cannot do that. You can't suppress a nation. It is a different world, today, and you can't do that -- you could do that 100 years ago.
So, protests continue. The people are going out in the streets at night and daytime. Even the people say “Allah-hu-Akbar” in their homes; yet they are targeting them in their homes. They are beating, torturing and arresting them, but they could not stop that. It is still going on.
Every night we have protests in Sitra, Sana'a, Manama...you just name it, every day we have one.
GMA/HJL
