MANAMA, 2 October 2004 — Some 2,000 Bahrainis marched yesterday to demand the release of a human rights activist arrested last week for criticizing the prime minister.
Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja was jailed on Saturday after he made a speech blaming Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa ibn Salman Al-Khalifa for Bahrain’s economic woes and calling for his resignation.His detention and the consequent closure of a human rights center he ran has provoked sharp criticism from international rights groups and key ally, the United States.
The march ended peacefully with the police keeping a low presence in an apparent effort to avoid confrontation. The rally was organized by a committee of rights activists.
King Hamad has stood by the prime minister — who is also his uncle — and said he would not tolerate criticism of senior government officials.
The United States said on Wednesday the arrest ran counter to recent political reforms and improvements in human rights initiated by the king after his rise to power in 1999.
“There has been a lot of very positive movement in Bahrain in recent years and we are concerned that this could represent some sort of step backward,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Khawaja was arrested and questioned Saturday after addressing a poverty symposium at which he made remarks critical of the government’s management of the national economy.
The government said his arrest was the result of his “inciting hatred against the regime” and “propagation of information and allegations of a nature disturbing public order.”
Bahraini officials then said the center had been closed because its “activities contravene the Associations Law of 1989” and that the facility had been issued “many warnings” that had been “ignored.”
The center, along with the Bahrain Human Rights Association, was one of the non-governmental organizations authorized in the state since King Hamad gradually introduced a measure of political reforms after assuming power in 1999.
