Styret i Bahrain er nu begyndt at slå ned på familiemedlemmer til demokratiaktivister, der bor uden for landets grænser. Sådan gik det for eksempel Sayed Mohamed Shuber, hvis onkel Yasser bor i Storbritannien og er aktiv i bevægelsen for demokrati i Bahrain:
At 2.20 yesterday morning, Bahraini and Saudi forces raided 20-year old Sayed Mahmood Shuber’s home in Jidali in Bahrain. They pointed guns at the heads of his family and abducted him. They beat him. He has now disappeared.
The abduction seems to be part of a concerted effort to punish Bahrainis in Britain and their families for expressing solidarity with the revolts against the country’s regime.
Yasser, Sayed’s uncle, is a British citizen living in Bolton. His family telephoned him to tell him about their ordeal.
Yasser told Socialist Worker, “Seven jeeps and two civilian cars pulled up outside the house. They raided the house, started shouting and pushing the family around.
“Some of them were in blue uniforms–the uniforms of special branch. Others were in civilian clothes and wore balaclavas so that only their eyes were showing.
“My nephew Sayed was beaten in front of his family very badly. The men then pointed a gun at him. My sister, Sayed’s mother, says she began screaming, ‘Don’t shoot my son’.
“The men then pointed a gun at her, telling her to shut up or they’d kill them both. From the accents my sister could tell that some were Saudi and some Bahraini.”
The men took Sayed’s laptop and mobile phone. They brought with them some papers and documents into the house and went into his room. They came out with papers and documents and took them away.”
“My dad has been arrested before and held for seven days. They stopped giving him his medication and told him it was because of my activities in Britain.“The Bahraini authorities monitor people in Britain. Maybe they saw me on demonstrations in Manchester in support of the democracy movement. Now my nephew is being punished.
“I call for justice and democracy and freedom for the people of Bahrain. But you ask for freedom on Bahrain and this is what you get.”
Med hensyn til USAs rolle og håbet eller mangel på samme om hjælp fra den amerikanske regering er Yasser som de fleste aktivister i eller fra Mellemøsten særdeles afvisende:
“The British and US governments are plain hypocrites. The US has marines patrolling the Saudi boarder with Bahrain. We don’t want any military in Bahrain, we want the US bases gone.
“For 100 years the US has used Bahrain to attack Japan, Vietnam, and to supposedly free Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We don’t get anything from this apart from more repression by our own government. The Bahraini government buys arms from the US to use against the people. The US marines train the army and special forces in Bahrain. Those people are the ones killing the protesters now.
“The people of Bahrain are strong and united, and can resolve their own issues. We do not want any foreign intervention. Our real friends in Britain and the US are the people who marched against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Link: Bahrainian government targets family members of pro-democracy campaigners in Britain