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Exiled Bahrainis: 12 years since uprising

Wednesday, 08 February 2023 12:08 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 08 February 2023 12:29 AM ]

Saeed Pourreza
Press TV, London

A conference near the UK Houses of Parliament to mark the 12th Anniversary of the Bahraini people's Uprising against the Al Khalifa regime.

A reminder that the reverberations of what happened on Pearl Square in 2011, continue to be felt today.

This is what it looked like when the Arab Spring/Islamic Awakening reached the Kingdom of Bahrain 12 years ago. The protesters main demands: socio economic justice and democracy.

What they got from the regime though, a state of emergency and a violent crackdown that lasted for months, aided and abetted by Saudi Arabia the UAE. Many were killed or injured, many more jailed or exiled, making Bahrain a country with one of the worst human rights records.

Yet none of that impacted its relations with the corridors of power here in the UK which lists Bahrain as a core market for its arms sales.

The Kingdom is also host to American and British military bases. Neither country offered any support for the uprising.

Bahrain has an embassy in London and the United Kingdom is one of only four European countries to maintain an embassy in Manama. The participants here say it’s time the UK rethought its cozy relationship with the Persian Gulf Kingdom, and stood up for the people of Bahrain.

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