MANAMA, 15 September — Human rights activists in Bahrain have launched a campaign to draw world attention to the plight of six of their countrymen being held in the Guantanamo Bay base for suspected links to Al-Qaeda network, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS) also urged the detainees’ families to wage a public campaign, including creating a website, the Gulf Daily News said.
The six Bahrainis were taken to the infamous detention camp in Cuba, after being rounded up during the massive sweep after the US blitz on Afghanistan.
“This is not a problem of only the families of the detainees. It is a problem that is close to all of us and the public should be concerned and should participate in a campaign to have them released,” said BHRS secretary-general Dr. Sabika Al-Najjar.
The society is in close contact with the families, who are undergoing extreme psychological agony over the plight of their loved ones, she said.
“We plan to write to several international human rights organizations to draw their attention to the Bahraini detainees and to ask for their assistance,” said Al-Najjar.
She said the organizations were following the issue of all the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and should be made aware specifically of the Bahraini detainees.
The BHRS also intends to send to various organizations copies of a letter written by the detainees’ relatives to US President George Bush, pleading for their release.
In a letter, dated Sept. 9 and addressed to President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the US Congress, the relatives of the six detainees appealed for their freedom.
“These, our sons and brothers, were in Pakistan or Afghanistan for a humanitarian task, assisting refugees there who are experiencing great suffering,” said the letter, which was forwarded via Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry.
“Through no fault of their own, they were caught up in events they could not have anticipated,” the letter said.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohammed Abdul Ghafar Tuesday met with US Ambassador Ronald Neumann to discuss the fate of the detainees and handed him the letter.
The organizations the BHRS plans to contact include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Federation of Human Rights (Fida).
Al-Najjar called on the female relatives of the detainees to play a more active role in the efforts to seek their release.
“The male members of the families are doing everything they can but, as mothers, sisters and wives, the women should also come forward to highlight their plight and tell people about their mental agony,” she said.
“I am also urging them to write a petition to be signed by people in Bahrain. This is not their personal problem. It is something that we should all be concerned about, and we should all participate in a campaign to seek the release of the detainees.”
She said the petition should be signed by as many people as possible and submitted to the United Nations.
Al-Najjar said she was also urging the families to set up a website to highlight the plight of the Bahraini detainees and their families. “What is happening in Guantanamo Bay goes against all human rights principles and there is a need to create a groundswell against it,” she said.
Bahrain is a key US ally in the region and base to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
