Af Lotte Leicht, leder af Human Rights Watch, EU
Abdulhadi al-Khawaja har i mange år været en ihærdig forsvarer for menneskerettigheder og han er nu i livsfare, fordi han nægter at acceptere at tilbringe sit liv i fængsel i Bahrain på grund af, at han har stået i spidsen for fredelige protester til fordel for politiske reformer. I sidste måned oplyste Bahrains kong Hamad, at landets regering nu har implementeret den uafhængige kommissions anbefalinger.
Kommissionen blev ledet af den internationalt anerkendte egyptiske juraprofessor Cherif Bassiouni, som så på de alvorlige krænkelser i forbindelse med, at regeringen slog hårdt ned på pro-demokratiske protester for et år siden. Hvis kongen talte sandt, ville al-Khawaja have været en fri mand i dag. Kommissionen fastslog, at regeringen i Bahrain burde frigive alle, der var fængslet for at protestere fredeligt. Det gør regeringen fortsat ikke, bl.a. fordi det betyder, at al-Khawaja og andre som ham så skulle løslades.
Al-Khawaja er dansk statsborger og har levet mange år i eksil, før han vendte tilbage til Bahrain i 2001. Den danske regering har krævet ham udleveret af humanitære årsager, men Bahrains »højeste juridiske råd« - hvor blandt andet kongen sidder og som skal give indtryk af, at Bahrain er en retsstat - har afvist kravet med henvisning til, at al-Khawajas sag ikke opfylder »de nødvendige betingelser«, i henhold til Bahrains lovgivning uden i øvrigt at uddybe, hvilke betingelser det er.
Al-Khawaja ligger døende i fængslet på grund af den livstidsdom, han fik af de dommere, militæret havde udpeget. Da han blev arresteret, blev han udsat for så grov vold, at han har tydelige tegn på knoglebrud fire steder i ansigtet. Under sagen mod ham oplyste al-Khawaja også, at han havde været udsat for tortur og var blevet truet med seksuel lemlæstelse.
Han er overladt til at dø alene, fordi magtfulde aktører som USA og EU ikke har hans mod og overbevisning, når det kommer til offentligt at udtale
sig om Bahrains alvorlige brud på menneskerettighederne. Mens det danske udenrigsministerium offentligt har krævet al-Khawaja udleveret af humanitære årsager, har det øvrige internationale samfund været skamfuldt tavse om Bahrains afvisning af at udlevere al-Khawaja.
Det ser allerede nu ud som om Bahrains regerende Al Khalifa-familie har regnet rigtigt, når den ikke forventede, at dens allierede i Washington, London og Bruxelles ville interessere sig tilstrækkeligt for al-Khawaja til at ville udfordre familien, dens støtter og saudiske allierede ved offentligt at kræve ham løsladt. Mens al-Khawajas liv hænger i en tråd, bliver EUs og USAs dobbeltmoral, når det gælder menneskerettigheder i på den ene side Nordafrika og Mellemøsten og på den anden side de olierige Golf-stater næppe mere åbenbar. Mens Vesten støtter helt legitime krav om menneskerettigheder, social retfærdighed og retssikkerhed i Egypten, Tunesien, Libyen og Syrien, betyder det langt mindre i tilfældet Bahrain.
Da en militærdomstol idømte al-Khawaja livstid for at tale demokratiets sag og til fordel for menneskerettigheder med fredelige midler udløste det ikke nogen nævneværdig protest fra disse landes regeringer. Da al-Khawaja blev tortureret og nægtet adgang til en forsvarer og til at få besøg af sin familie, lød der fra EUs 27 medlemslande og fra USA kun få indsigelser og der blev ikke lagt pres på Al Khalifas-familien. Da Bahrain i sidste uge gjorde det klart, at man ikke ville sende al-Khawaja til København forholdt alle, der kunne have lagt pres på magthaverne i Barains hovedstad, Manama, sig tavse. EU kollektivt og USA med. Hvis de har ytret sig uofficielt, har det ikke gjort indtryk på Al-Khalifas-familien.
Hvor er det kollektive udbrud af forfærdelse over, at en EU-borger fængsles på livstid for fredeligt at advokere for menneskerettigheder, demokrati og retssikkerhed? I betragtning af, at medlemmerne af EU ligefrem har forpligtet sig på at støtte forsvaret for menneskerettigheder, hvorfor har EUs høje repræsentant for den fællesudenrigs- og sikkerhedspolitik, Catharine Ashton, så ikke udtalt sig om al-Khawaja?
Danmark har ikke, selv om det for tiden har formandskabet i EU, tyngde nok til ved egen kraft af få en af sine borgere udleveret fra Bahrain. Selv om EU-formandskabet ikke betyder så meget i udenrigspolitisk henseende, så sidder den danske statsminister som den beslutningstager, der taler med størst vægt. Det er nu, hun skal ringe til sine premierminister-kolleger i de andre EU-landes hovedstæder og sikre sig - først og fremmest - at et samlet EU viser sig opgaven voksen og får udvirket, at al-Khawaja får lov at rejse til Danmark, og - to - at den danske regering over for Manama taler på vegne af et samlet EU og ikke Danmark alene.
USA, EUs repræsentant for den fælles udenrigs- og sikkerhedspolitik samt de 27 EU-medlemsstater må træde i karakter, før det er for sent for al-Khawaja.
Der er brug for, at de sender en klar og meget offentlig besked til Manama: Hvis ikke al-Khawaja omgående løslades og får udrejse til København, vil det få konsekvenser. Khalifa-familien vil ikke ikke blive inviteret med til flere moder og og forsamlinger i amerikansk eller EU-regi. Der vil blive indført sanktioner på leverancer af militært udstyr og ikke kun som nu med hensyn til politiarbejde. Fælles militære øvelser som den, der fandt sted i forgangne weekend med USA, Tyrkiet og Bahrain vil blive suspenderet.
Der er ingen undskyldning for EU og USAs tavshed i denne sag. En ting er at være dobbeltmoralsk, når det gælder menneskerettigheder, noget andet er, ikke engang at hæve stemmen, når en EU-borger og en modig forsvarer af menneskerettigheder, ligger døende i et fængsel, hvor han uretmæssigt er anbragt.
Why Abdulhadi al-Khawaja Should Be Free
Don’t let Danish-Bahraini citizen die unjustly imprisoned, beaten, and alone.
Abdulhadial-Khawaja, a long-time human rights defender, is on the verge of death because he refuses to accept that he should spend the rest of his life in a Bahraini prison because he led peaceful protests for political reform.
Late last month Bahrain’s King Hamad said the government had implemented the recommendations of the independent commission headed by the renowned Egyptian international law professor, Cherif Bassiouni, which looked into serious rights violations in the government’s crackdown against pro-democracy protesters a year ago. If that were true Al-Khawajawould be free today. The commission said that the government should void all military court convictions for exercising the rights to free speech and peaceful assembly. This the government refuses to do, in part because it would mean freeing al-Khawaja and others like him.
Al-Khawaja is also a citizen of Denmark, where he lived for many years in political exile before returning to Bahrain in 2001. The Danish government has requested that he be allowed to return to Denmark on humanitarian grounds. However, Bahrain’s Supreme Judicial Council – a body chaired by the king and part of the institutional shell game that passes for rule of law in Bahrain – declared that al-Khawaja’s case did not meet the “specific conditions” required by Bahraini law, without saying what those conditions were.
Al-Khawaja is dying in prison because of a life sentence handed down by military-appointed judges at the service of the ruling Al Khalifa family, following a grossly unfair trial that violated Bahraini lawas well as international standards of due process. When arrested he was beaten so severelythat his jaw and face were fractured in four places. At his trial Al-Khawajasaid he was subjected to additional torture in detention and threats of sexual assault.
He is dying in hunger because he refuses to eat to protest the government’s unjust detention of him and other peaceful activists who dared to challenge the Al Khalifa family’s monopoly of political and economic power in Bahrain.
He is dying alone because powerful actors like the United States and the EU do not share his courage and conviction when it comes to speaking out publicly against Bahrain’s serious human rights violations. While the Danish foreign minister may have mounted a very public effort to have al-Khawaja returned to Denmark on humanitarian grounds, the rest of the international community has remained shamefully silent on Bahrain’s refusal to release al-Khawaja.
It’s beginning to look likeBahrain’s ruling family has calculatedcorrectly that its close allies in Washington, London, and Brussels do not care enough about Al-Khawaja to risk challenging al Khalifa hardliners and their Saudi allies by publicly pushing for his release or making clear that Bahrain’s continued stonewalling will carry a price.
With al-Khawaja’s life literally hanging in the balance, the double standard the EU and the US have with regard to human rights in North Africa and the rest of the Middle East versus human rights in oil-richGulf states could not be more apparent. What the West supports as legitimate demands for human rights, social justice and rule of law in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria matter a lot less in the case of Bahrain.
When a military court sentenced Al-Khawaja to life imprisonment for peacefully advocating democracy and human rights, there was no substantial outcry from these governments.
When Al-Khawaja was tortured and denied access to lawyers and family members, the EU, its 27 member states collectively, and the US said little publicly to press the Al Khalifas.
When Bahrain last week made it clear that it would not release Al-Khawaja to Copenhagen, the EU High representative, the EU 27 member states collectively and the country with the most leverage in Manama, the US, was silent in public, and whatever they might have said in private seems not to have carried much weight with the Al Khalifas.
Where is the collective outrage for an EU citizen imprisoned for life for peacefully advocating respect for human rights, democracy, and rule of law? Given that the EU’s commitment to support human rights defenders is an established element of the EU’s external relations policy, why hasn’t Catherine Ashton, the High Representative, spoken out on Al-Khawaja?
Denmark, although it holds the EU presidency, does not have the leverage on its own to get one of its citizens released and returned from Bahrain. While the EU presidency doesn't mean as much, in foreign policy terms, as it used to do before the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the Danish Prime Minister is chairing the highest decision making body of the EU. She needs to get on the phone with all of her heads of government and state colleagues in EU capitals to ensure; first, that the EU will collectively rise to the challenge and ensure that al-Khawaja is allowed to travel to Denmark, and second, that the Danish government can speak as EU presidency and on behalf of the EU, and not merely as Denmark, when it talks to Manama.
The US, the EU High Representative, the Council President and all 27 EU member states collectively will have to step up to the plate before it is too late for al-Khawaja.
They need to send a clear and a very public message to Manama right now: If Al-Khawaja is not freed immediately and released to Copenhagen, then Bahrain will feel the consequences. The Khalifas should receive no more invitations to meetings and high powered gatherings in the US and Europe.Long overdue sanctions on all military equipment – not just policing items as at present -- will be imposed. And all joint military exercises – like the ones this past weekend involving the US, Turkey and Bahrain – will be suspended.
The silence of the EU and the US on the matter is absolutely inexcusable. It is one thing to have a double standard with regard to human rights, it is quite another not even to raise one’s voice when a courageous human rights defender, and an EU citizen, is dying in a prison where he is unjustly held.
Lotte Leicht, EU director, Human Rights Watch
