Bahrain anti-Shia policy takes sombre turn as children become targets

On May 20th, , Jehad Nabeel Al-Sameea, an 11 year-old school boy was apprehended by the security forces as they stormed a neighbourhood of the capital, Manama, where a peaceful demonstration was in progress.

It is important to note that ever since Bahrainis decided to voice their dissatisfaction toward the King’s policies, calling for reforms as to achieve a greater social justice, the regime has systematically persecuted its Shia community; somewhat convinced that by oppressing an entire segment of its population, power would not escape Al Khalifa royals. What the King and his patsies have so far failed to comprehend is that by afflicting so much pain and injustice upon his subjects, King Hamad has become instrumental in his own demise. 

Beyond Bahrain revolutionary tale, lies the heart wrenching reality of a people, of a community, which has been bled dry and cried out by pain so incommensurable that words cannot even begin to fathom the depth of despair which Bahrain Shias have fallen into as the world stands idle, guilty by association.

Regardless of a person’s belief, political affiliation, ethnicity, colour or even crib, how can any system ever justify the arrest and imprisonment of a child? How can a regime ever claim to popular legitimacy when its leadership so ostentatiously violate every tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

“How can we not as fellow human being condone such moral aberration?” asked SRW.

Following a lengthy interrogation, Jehad Al Sameea was taken to the juvenile prosecution who ordered his detention and then transferred him to juvenile judge, Ebrahim Al-Jafn. 

Al Jafn ordered that Jehad be imprisoned for “seven days on charged on charges of physical assault of a policeman, damage to two police cars, illegal gathering, rioting, and possession of Molotov cocktails.”

Jehad’s lawyer told reporters that his client was so “distressed and overwrought that he was unable to speak through his tears when he was presented to the court.”

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989 which protects the rights of children and encompasses civil rights and freedoms, family environment, basic health and welfare, education, leisure and cultural activities and special protection measures for children was actually ratified by Bahrain in 1992, and yet King Hamad has no qualm in violating its mandate by consciously and tactically inflicting harm on children to forward his genocidal plans.

When a community has been made to suffer as Bahrain Shias have been to suffer: pursued, killed, tortured, maimed, imprisoned and humiliated, the word genocide spring to mind.

Alongside Jehad, two brothers 11 year-old Mohamed Hussain, 13 year-old Ali Hussain were too sentenced to serve one week in detention for “illegal gathering.” 

Today Shia Rights Watch calls on Bahrain authorities to immediately release all underage prisoners.