Bahrain/Britain: Labour leader Ed Miliband today urged prime minister David Cameron to add his voice to calls for the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Miliband said that it would send out the wrong signal for the Formula 1 motor race to go ahead on Sunday at a time of concern over human rights abuses in the Gulf state, the Press Asociation reports.
“I certainly think it is the case that, given the violence we have seen in Bahrain and given the human rights abuses, I don’t believe the Grand Prix should go ahead,” he said. “I hope that the government will make its view clear and say the same.”
Although the prime minister’s offica says the Britssh government is “concerned” about the violence in Bahrain, it has refused to be drawn on whether the race should go ahead. “It is not for us to dictate what sporting events happen in other countries,” a No 10 spokeswoman said.
12.43pm: Bahrain: It’s all getting rather rather nasty out there, with two more teams involved in trouble, writes Paul Weaver at the circuit.
The latest is the Sauber team. A spokesman has just said: “Yesterday night at 10.30pm a minibus of the Sauber F1 Team had left the circuit to go back to the Novotel in Manama. At 10.50pm the twelve mechanics being on that bus noticed fire on the medial strip of the highway. The traffic was slow, cars had their hazard flashers on. On the opposite lane there was no traffic. The team members saw a few masked people running from there over to their lane where a bottle was burning as well. The mini bus moved to the very right side of the highway and went passed the situation. No one from the Sauber F1 Team was hurt.”
There are also rumours that Force India had another problem last night, on the way home. And yet another team, as yet unnamed, had their hotel invaded in the night by protesters who screamed “Murderers” at them.
Meanwhile, Bernine Eccleston has just arrived to say the race goes on unless it is called off by the Bahrain government, and suggesting that stories of unrest have been exaggerated.
He said: “You guys want a story and it’s a good story and if there isn’t a story you make it up like usual, Nothing changes.
The political thing is going in so many countries. These things happen. We are not here to get involved in politics.
There are many more countries higher up the priority list that you should be writing about. Go to Syria and write about those things because it is more important here.”
Asked about new reporters being refused visas he said: “Have they got all the right documents? If they have, they should be allowed in. I can’t call this race off. We have an agreement to be here. The National Sporting Authority can ask the FIA if they could.”
12.22pm: Bahrain: Human rights activist Ala’a Shehabi has accused former Metropolitan police commissioner John Yates of buying into the Bahraini government’s denial of abuses.
She also confirmed that at least 20 protesters were injured by birdshot in last night’s unrest.
Speaking via Skype from her home in Bahrain, Shehabi, who founded Bahrain Watch, said the country was in a security lock down ahead of Sunday’s grand prix.
There are police cars everywhere, and reports of tanks being seen on the highways leading up to the circuit.
Youth groups are planning to march on the highway leading up to the circuit this afternoon. But the police have been deployed very heavily in that area. The events around the three days of rage will kick off this afternoon. I expect there to be a big turn out.
I shall be taking part this afternoon. It [the grand prix] is a blessing in disguise. Having the presence of many journalists is very much welcome. We hope that access is given to journalist all year round. Scores of journalists have been turned back at the airport over the last week.
Asked about the risks of identifying herself as an activist, Shehabi said:
Across the Arab world activists like myself have dropped the mask of fear. Very few households in Bahrain haven’t had someone who has been sacked from their job, who has been arrested, who knows someone who has been killed. If you have nothing left to lose, you have nothing left to fear either.
Speaking about the day of the grand prix itself Shehabi said:
I hope activists can think of new ways to protest and get their message across without resorting to more militant means. I also hope the government allows people to protest peacefully without having to suppress them violently using stun grenades, birdshot and teargas. The NGO that I founded Bahrain Watch has just released a study showing an escalation in the use of birdshot.
Earlier this week, Yates, who is advising the Bahraini authorities, told the Guardian that if torture and abuse were taking place in Bahrain it would appear on YouTube.
Shehabi responded: “I’ve been involved in the documentation of torture cases in the last few months, and some of them have been horrific. They involve electrocution, threats of rape, beatings, whipping. Some of these are on YouTube so we can offer him these videos.”
She also claimed that Yates assertion that Bahrain was safer than London was “preposterous”.
She said: “It is very unfortunate that they’ve used John Yates to be pretty face of a very ugly regime. And that he has allowed himself to be part of that.”
12.08pm: Syria: The UN observer mission needs to ensure that Syrians have the freedom to protest against Bashar al-Assad’s regime, French foreign minister Alain Juppé said today in a TV interview reported by AFP. He suggested that once this happens the regime will fall:
We need observers on the ground, but properly equipped observers with helicopters that can ensure the right to protest. It’s extremely important. The day this freedom is guaranteed, the regime will not stand.
11.49am: Bahrain: A TV crew from CNN has been forced to leave Bahrain, according one of the channel’s journalists:
11.40am: Bahrain: The Force India team have pulled out of second practice at the Bahrain grand prix so they can return back to their hotels before dark, Paul Weaver reports.
It comes after four of their team were involved in a petrol bomb incident.
11.17am: Bahrain: The Guardian’s Paul Weaver reports on the mood of unease among the F1 teams preparing for today’s practice session.
Walking in the paddock is to feel an atmosphere I have never experienced before in Formula One, which is usually so full of energy and enthusiasm. There is a feeling of unease, sometimes fear, everywhere.
No-one wants to be quoted by name but one engineer told me: “I don’t think we should be here. There’s a lot kicking off and a demo down the road this afternoon. We’re in the firing line.”
Another said: “I don’t know much about the politics. There are 20 races this season, which makes it a long year, so I think a few of the lads just want to get home early.”
11.10am: Bahrain: Kate Walker (@F1Kate), a journalist who covers Formula One, has been giving her first impressions of Bahrain – and discovering some misogynist attitudes. She writes on her blog:
Arriving in the paddock this morning, I was part of a small group of journalists introduced to opposition MP Jasim Husain.
He shook our hands, answered questions about his opinion on the wisdom of holding the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix, and handed out business cards to all of the men in the group.
Despite having been introduced to Mr Husain as a working journalist, I was denied a business card. Apparently the opposition’s desire for equality does not extend to treating women with the same respect as men.
Not only was this hypocritical of Mr Husain, but it was very bad PR. I arrived in the country sympathetic to his calls for equality for all Bahrainis. Now, having been made to feel like a second-class citizen by a man who claims to be fighting for equal treatment for all, I have a very different perspective on his cause.
She also notes the heavy security presence:
10.56am: Syria: The Times claims Syria is increasingly using helicopter gunships to crush rebel strongholds in the north, in what it claims could trigger new western demands for a no fly zone.
A defector told The Times that he and 27 colleagues working at the Minakh air base near Azaz had decided to join the rebels after a pilot boasted to them of the death and destruction he was causing.
“We were shocked,” said the former sergeant, whose job was to load the helicopters with fuel and missiles. “We felt so guilty.” He was so appalled that he decided to defect and recruited other members of the military at the air base, north of Aleppo. Twenty-eight of them made their break on February 29.
Further down the Times warns that there is no way to no way to corroborate the sergeant’s story.
Reports of air attacks on demonstrators in Tripoli last year, which later turned out to be false, played a crucial role in the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya, according to Hugh Roberts former North Africa project director at International Crisis Group.
In an article for the London Review of Books earlier this year, he wrote:
On 21 February the world was shocked by the news that the Gaddafi regime was using its airforce to slaughter peaceful demonstrators in Tripoli and other cities. The main purveyor of this story was al-Jazeera, but the story was quickly taken up by the Sky network, CNN, the BBC, ITN et al. Before the day was over the idea of imposing a no-fly zone on Libya was widely accepted, as was the idea of a Security Council resolution imposing sanctions and an arms embargo, freezing Libya’s assets and referring Gaddafi and his associates to the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity. Resolution 1970 was duly passed five days later and the no-fly zone proposal monopolised international discussion of the Libyan crisis from then on.
10.37am: Bahrain:
Force India are to play a limited role in second practice later today ahead of this weekend’s grand prix due to safety concerns, PA’s Ian Parkes reports from Manama.
The decision comes in the wake of four team members being caught up in a petrol-bomb incident en route to Manama from the Bahrain International Circuit on Wednesday.
It means all team members will now leave the track and be back in their hotel before it gets dark, when a number of violent protests are again due to take place across the Gulf island.
10.37am: Syria: Troop reinforcements have been sent to Qusair, close to the Lebanese border, AP reports citing the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Regime forces are fortifying their positions in eastern and western Qusair,” about 7 miles (10km) from Lebanon, said the head of the Observatory, Rami Abdulrahman.
10.32am: Bahrain: The government’s enthusiasm for hosting the grand prix is based partly on the idea of “country branding” – the hope that it will boost Bahrain’s image internationally – and a claim that it is worth $600m to the kingdom’s economy.
Jane Kinninmont of the Chatham House thinktank questions both these arguments in an article for Foreign Policy.
Bahrain pays a hosting fee, thought to be around $40m, which it can only partially recoup from ticket sales, though it also benefits from sales of food, drink and merchandise at the race track.
The $600m figure comes from a study in 2008 – based mainly on the knock-on effect for other businesses such as hotels and the state-owned airline.
Kinninmont suggests the economic benefits this year are likely to be less than expected, while the “country branding” effects will be negative rather than positive. She concludes:
Bahrain still remains largely safe for Westerners. But it can no longer claim to be the oasis of liberalism and tolerance that it once sought to brand itself as. The country has struggled to attract any significant new investment over the last year (with the main exception being a Saudi media company), and a recent survey by regional recruitment specialists Gulf Talent showed that its attractiveness to professional expats has diminished significantly. The F1 media spotlight will only highlight the ongoing troubles Bahrain faces in the absence of any serious attempts at political compromise.
10.14am: Syria: Battered opposition districts in Homs continued to be shelled by the Syrian army according to activists.
This latest footage purports to show the al-Khadiyeh neighbourhood in the north of the city.
10.06am: Bahrain: A journalist from the Financial Times is the latest to be denied entry to Bahrain. Simeon Kerr, who reports for the FT from Dubai, tweeted last night that he had been refused entry at the airport.
Journalists from several other news organisations have not been granted visas, including Stuart Ramsay (@ramsaysky), chief correspondent of Sky News, a photographer for Agence France Presse, two Dubai-based writers for the Associated Press, and Andrew Hammond from Reuters who is also based in Dubai.
It seems the Bahraini authorities are trying to exclude journalists who they suspect will be more interested in covering the political situation than the grand prix.
Yesterday, AFP reported that cameramen already in Bahrain were “required to keep fluorescent orange stickers on their cameras so that they would be easily recognisable to ensure they do not cover any off-track events, such as ongoing protests”.
9.54am: Syria: Protest videos are starting to emerge today. The theme of this Friday’s demonstration is “we will win and Assad will be defeated”, according to AFP.
It describes today’s protests as a new test of Syria’s readiness to honour the ceasefire.
A clip circulated online by activists purports to show a protest in the Damascus suburb of Arbeen where gunfire was witnessed during a visit by UN monitors earlier this week.
Another claims to show a protest in Beit Sahem near Damascus.
9.20am: Syria: The UN security council is reluctant to authorise more monitors to Syria until the Assad government allows the existing team free access, according to the US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice.
Rice, who is the current president of the council, told reporters:
The advance mission already authorized by the Council, while still small, is an important test of whether the Syrian government will allow the effective operation of UN monitors.
The onus remains on the Syrian authorities to demonstrate that it will allow these monitors to do their job, and that’s why the role of the advance team is so important. We could authorize—theoretically, the Council could authorize tomorrow the full complement of observers, but if they are not able to move freely, if they’re not able to visit the hot spots, if their freedom is hindered then they won’t be effective. And obviously we all have a shared interest in any monitoring mission being effective.
8.57am: Bahrain: On the eve of the first grand prix practice session, protests flared in villages surrounding the capital, far from the circuit where the race will be held, according to Reuters.
Police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse demonstrators in clashes that have been building in the week leading to Sunday’s round of the World Championship.
Several hundred demonstrators tried to stage protests in the capital, Manama, on Thursday. Police broke up the protesters, who are vowing to intensify their actions over the three-day race meeting.
However, it was not clear if al-Wefaq, the leading Shia opposition party, would organise large rallies, as this could open it to government accusations of acting against the nation’s interest. Wefaq has said it is not against staging the race.
Manama is under tight security, with police stationed on bridges linking the capital to the rest of the country and the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir.
Activist Ala’a Shehabi has this update on injuries from last night’s unrest:
8.25am: (all times BST) Welcome to Middle East Live. Widespread protests are expected in both Syria and Bahrain today. In Syria, it is the first Friday since the arrival of a small team of UN observers sent to monitor an incomplete ceasefire. Will their presence encourage more demonstrators to take to the streets in post-Friday prayer rallies? In Bahrain, pro-democracy activists plan to start three ‘days of rage’ as practice sessions for Sunday’s controversial grand prix get under way.
Here’s a roundup of the latest developments:
Syria
• UN observers must be swiftly deployed to Syria or “other options” will be considered, President Bashar al-Assad was warned as western countries kept up pressure on him to maintain a shaky ceasefire and comply with an internationally backed peace plan to end the crisis. Ministers from the Friends of Syria group met in Paris to discuss next steps. In a draft statement they agreed that Kofi Annan’s peace plan represented a “last hope” and that if failed “other options” would have to be considered.
• US defence secretary Leon Panetta revealed that Pentagon has plans in place for establishing humanitarian corridors in Syria, an idea publicly aired by French president Nicholas Sarkozy. Giving evidence to the House armed services committee, Panetta said the plan for humanitarian corridors was under review in the Pentagon along with other military options for intervention aimed at helping the Syrian opposition and toppling Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
• US secretary of state Hillary Clinton called for the UN security council to adopt an arms embargo and other tough measures against Syria.
Speaking after the Friends of Syria meeting in Paris she said:
We have to keep Assad off balance by leaving options on the table … we have to increase our support for the opposition. I can only speak for the United States. I know that others are pursuing different types of support. But we are expanding our communications, logistics, and other support for the Syrian opposition. And in cooperation with Turkey, we are considering establishing an assistance hub that will try to co-locate Syrian activists and help them coordinate the collection and distribution of assistance to opposition groups inside Syria
Bahrain
• Bahrain is braced for three days of protests to coincide with the controversial Formula One grand prix as the government and organisers insisted that the event would proceed as planned. Riot police fired teargas and stun grenades in sporadic clashes with protesters as the authorities in the Gulf island state sought to project an image of stability before Sunday’s race.
Yemen
• US defence secretary Leon Panetta defended the use of drones to kill terror suspects amid reports that the CIA is seeking permission to expand strikes in Yemen, a move that renewed debate about the legality of the strategy. According to the Washington Post the CIA wants to widen definition of targets in Yemen so it can launch drones against individuals engaged in behaviour deemed suspicious, such as unloading explosives or gathering at suspected al-Qaida compounds.
Egypt
• The Muslim Brotherhood is suffering a dip in the polls ahead of the presidential election, writes Steve Negus for the Arabist. A recent survey by the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Center suggest that some 45 percent of those who backed the Brothers in parliament won’t vote for it in the next elections. Negus has this explanation:
On their right, their bid for mainstream respectability left a vacuum, which the Salafis hastily filled. In order not to be overly threatening, the Brothers declared they would not nominate anyone for president – but then went back on that pledge, presumably because they did not like seeing their members inspired by Aboul Futuh and Abu Ismail candidacies. This abrupt and dramatic reversal of a high-profile pledge has done much to erode the perception that the Brothers in any way represent a higher, more principled form of politics.
• The paucity of decent candidates in presidential elections highlights the lack of choice facing Egyptians, argues writer and activist Mona Elathawy.
There isn’t a single candidate I find either qualified or deserving to lead revolutionary Egypt, and I don’t believe the elections will be free or fair – how can they be, under a military junta that has run Egypt since 18 days of revolution forced Hosni Mubarak to step down on 11 February 2011? …
I look at this “choice” and hear the tortured justifications made in their favour and they sound awfully similar: hollow.
The whole point of overthrowing Mubarak was that we had ended fear. The revolution continues, not just to end military rule but to provide alternatives to the best of the worst. We still have a way to go.
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