Press TV has conducted an interview with Colin Cavell, author and lecturer from Bluefield, about the Al Khalifah regime’s continued crackdown on opposition figures in Bahrain, while the international community keeps mute.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Essentially there’s been this major and incessant crackdown going on before the international community’s eyes, basically turning a Nelson’s eye on the deplorable situation of democracy in Bahrain. But what can you tell us about the baseless allegations that the ruling Al Khalifah dynasty is fabricating to further crackdown on, let’s say, public dissent and the process of democracy in the country?
Cavell: Guilt or innocence has nothing to do with the charges in Bahrain. What the Al Khalifah regime is doing is sending the message to the international community that the Shias are agents of Iran, are terrorists, and that they must be locked up, they must be tortured or worse. And what the Al Khalifah regime has done is [it has] locked up not only Shia opposition leaders, but as well Sunni opposition leaders like Ibrahim Sharif. They have locked up in the entire opposition leadership from Dr. Abduljalil al-Singace to Abdulhadi al-Khawaja to his daughter Zainab al-Khawaja and her baby, they even lock up children. There’s over 220 arrests of children in the past year.
This regime is trying to maintain itself in the international eye by claiming that a large part of its citizenry, the Shias, are terrorists, but when I look at democracy, democracy says majority rule and if the majority are against the government that means the government is a small minority and no one likes it.
Press TV: And let’s imagine that the Al Khalifah regime actually succeeds in stifling dissent and the democratic voice there. This is what their masters, let’s say, in Europe, especially the British, really want. What do you think the British essentially have in mind for the future of this country, in which there’s no democracy, there’s no healthy and viable process of democracy. What’s going to be like in 10 years in Bahrain?
Cavell: If this kingdom lasts for another 10 years, I’ll be surprised. What the British are trying to do by building their first military base outside of the United Kingdom in over 50 years in Bahrain, [what they] are trying to do is to utilize Bahrain as a stepping stone for the entire Middle East in order to work hand in glove with the United States to remain the hegemons in the area. Democracy is not on their agenda.
And so, what they’ve told the Al Khalifahs to do of late and the Al Khalifahs have alerted all of its press outlets in the United Kingdom and in the United States that all of the suggestions for reform have been made and that there’s no more opposition in Bahrain. And so they’ve locked up the entire opposition and they deny to the international community that there is any opposition. So, it’s a police state, a totalitarian state and they’re trying to get away with this corruption by simply denying that it exists.
