* Deep mistrust for government among civil society
* Impunity for violence, torture an issue
GENEVA Dec 21 (Reuters) – The United Nations’ top
human rights official, Navi Pillay, on Wednesday called on
Bahrain to release prisoners detained for joining peaceful
demonstrations that swept the Gulf island kingdom earlier this
year.
She also urged the Bahraini government to restore thousands
of people to jobs — in some cases senior posts in medical and
education services — from which they were dismissed for taking
part in the protests.
“The Bahraini authorities need to urgently take confidence-
building measures, including unconditionally releasing those who
were convicted in military tribunals or are still awaiting trial
for merely exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of
expression and assembly,” she said in a statement.
Pillay, the U.N.’s Geneva-based High Commissioner for Human
Rights, said a delegation she sent to the kingdom earlier this
month had found a “profound lack of trust” for the government
among civil society groups there.
This mistrust had deepened “as a result of the violent
crackdown on protesters, destruction of mosques, the lack of
fair trials and the lack of progress in providing redress for
violations,” the former South African judge declared.
The protests, driven by the kingdom’s Shi’ite majority
seeking an end to the domination of minority Sunnis, broke out
earlier this year during the “Arab Spring” which led to the
overthrow of longtime rulers in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
But outside human rights campaigners say they believe
Western reaction was more muted because Bahrain is home to a key
base of the U.S. Fifth Fleet and is seen by many governments as
a bulwark against Shi’ite-ruled Iran.
Continued…
