Bahrain arrests main human rights activist Nabeel Rajab

http://rt.com

Bahraini authorities have arrested Nabeel Rajab, the rights activist and foremost critic of the Al Khalifa regime. It comes as the country’s military continues its brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters. Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights was detained at Bahrain’s international airport on his return from Lebanon. The authorities have not commented on the reasons behind the arrest. Rajab has played a significant role in anti-regime demonstrations over the past months. The Bahrain Center for Human Rights has been focused on attracting attention to the crackdowns on demonstrators and abuses by Bahraini security forces. Rajab also was affiliated with international groups such as Human Rights Watch. For fourteen months Al Khalifa forces have been using stun grenades, tear-gas and pepper-spray on protesters, though this was not enough to draw the attention of Western media. It only came into the spotlight because of the protests surrounding the prestigious F1 Grand Prix event. To say the least, the events in Bahrain have received way less coverage than other Arab protests. Some point out the main reason for this is that the country hosts the US Fifth Fleet. On Tuesday RT will broadcast Julian Assange’s show “The World Tomorrow” featuring Nabeel Rajab. Strikingly, the activist told Assange he has already been detained, kidnapped and beaten due to his sharp criticism of the regime. “I was just detained for almost half a day and then before that I was beaten up in the street. A few months ago, I was kidnapped from my home by masked security persons and taken to an unknown place. After being blindfolded and handcuffed I was tortured, then I was thrown back home,” he told RT earlier this week. The program was recorded last week. During the interview Rajab said that on the same day he announced his intention to appear on RT his house was surrounded by almost 100 policemen armed with machine guns – but luckily he was not there. One of Rajab’s aims is to attract international attention to the situation in Bahrain. “This is something the whole world has to speak out [about] and to condemn what happened, but we've seen the invasion of Saudis to my country with complete silence. The same governments [were] sending troops to Libya to fight the regime and now they are against the Syrian Assad. But when it comes to Bahrain they were [keeping] complete silence,” he told Assange. The activist has criticized the US many times for arming the Bahrain authorities and turning a blind eye on the violence. “They [the US] want Bahrain stable as the Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain. They want Bahrain to be very quiet and stable,” he said. All the more outrageous then, Rajab says, that the US is assuring everyone that the situation in Bahrain is improving. “America’s representative in the Human Rights Council is saying 'We will not talk about Bahrain this session because Bahrain is improving itself and it is doing better' when people are dying on a daily basis.” The anti-regime protests in Bahrain began in February 2011. Official reports say around 85 civilians have been killed during the 14 months of the crackdown, but activists claim that the figure exceeds this number many times.