Human Rights Watch have posted a litany of ongoing and vile abuses committed by the minority Sunni Governement against its Shia majority.
Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa recently decreed that martial law, imposed on March 15, would be lifted with cynical calculation on June 1st, days before the FIA (F1 Governing body) meeting to decide the grand prix's fate.
In an open letter to the FIA - HRW said
"Sadly, serious violations like arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, and alleged torture by Bahraini authorities pre-date the imposition of martial law in mid-March,"
"There is little reason to think that ending martial law on June 1 will make much difference in Bahrain's menacing human rights climate."
F1 has always been a glamour sport and a draw for wealthy people who enjoy the limelight. Its head honcho Bernie Ecclestone could not run F1 without schmoozing with very rich people like himself - I expect he asks very few questions about where they get their money from and how they keep it - but there are limits to the tolerance one can have for the garish charms of F1.
While human rights are being abused in the most bullying and criminal manner in Bahrain the idea of pandering to the needs of an oppressing government by giving them the GP bauble they prize so highly is unconscionable - it will reinforce the fiction of a peaceful status quo that the governement is desperate to peddle to the world - and would be a venal insult to the victims of human rights abuses.
There should no F1 GP in Bahrain this year - or ever until human rights violations in that nation end.
F1 is dependent on sponsorship and so vulnerable to public opinion.
admin@fiacommunications.com
e-mail them today and let them know that the world is watching their meeting on June 1st.
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