dissidents jailed an opposition groups to ignore. the stability means political oppression in the middle east the fight for freedom for sure. which sucker flies is worth to get which will break shoes. and our guest today is miramar howard jaya human rights activist whose father is a prominent bahraini dissident currently jailed following anti-government protests in two thousand and eleven we are great to have you with us today so to be honest it's really hard to understand what's going on in bahrain even when it comes to the form of rule one some say to the tater shape even entire any other say it's a legitimate constitutional monarchy committed to reform with certain democratic values how do you see it. well i think that you know describing it as a constitutional monarchy is very problematic when the constitution of the when actually gives up salue power to the king that means it's not really

a constitutional monarchy yes there's a constitution but just the presence of a constitution within a monarchy system doesn't make it a constitutional monarchy we're looking at a situation where we have a parliament and behind and made of two houses but they don't have legislative or monitoring power so overall you can call it an absolute monarchy which is a process of so you would say it's a dictatorship or you wouldn't go that far yet so it's definitely is it's a dictatorship and people don't have the right to vote they don't have the right to influence the legal system when there is no fear an independent judiciary when the ruling family basically decides the ins and outs of everything in the system whether canonically politically or socially then yes you can definitely calls a dictatorship but you say protests never stop in bahrain does it mean people aren't afraid of consequences. no i think the consequences are very real and people know that the consequences exist but it's because people know that stopping now and

stopping the protest now would mean going back to a situation that was worse than what existed in two thousand and ten before the protests started in behind and so people also believe in the demands that they're calling for they're calling for human rights they're calling for an elected government and many of them are calling for the stepping down of the ruling family and that's why they continue to protest almost on a daily basis so sensitive mentioned human rights human rights activists have alerted to the ongoing human rights violations in bahrain why has there been so little reaction from the international community so little media coverage worldwide well i like to call it the inconvenient revolution behind of course is a country that's a member of the gulf cooperation council and the gulf cooperation council has a sense of goals basically everywhere in the world whether we're talking security was or economically and does internationally speaking or regionally we're talking

about a situation where most people don't want to take a stand against the ruling gulf monarchies that exist today and so politically security was an economically it doesn't make sense for a lot of these countries who say that they support human rights and democracy in other places to actually take a stand when it comes to behind they would rather turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the situation you know unlike in syria or egypt or any other arab country the united states hasn't said much about bahrain critics connect it to the strategic positioning of the american fifth fleet in bahrain is that how you see it . i think that the fleet the film he plays a role in the u.s. position towards the behind humor a situation or should i say the deteriorating human rights situation and behind but i think there are also other other elements to it you were also looking at the saudi relationship that has existed for

a while now and which is also based largely on economic ties as well as security ties and so any stance on behind also influences and affects the relationship that the united states has with saudi arabia which is a relationship the de don't want to have any problems with and so they would rather turn a blind eye to the human rights situation rather than. risk having a difficult relationship with saudi so was your february two thousand and eleven protests rather really and in terms of and other arab spring episode i mean the difference basically being that the government managed to put the fire quickly. well i wouldn't say that they managed to put the fire out they've differently managed to put it down but not completely out and this is the reason why we're still seeing the protests today but when the protests started on the fourteenth of february two thousand and eleven people came out in the streets and their demands

were pretty similar to what we saw in other countries like syria like egypt like yemen libya and others and their demands was basically is that they wanted an end to the violations they wanted to be treated with respect and dignity by their government and they wanted to have a say in their government no the behind these were not calling for these stepping down of the regime to begin what they were calling for a constitution that actually recognizes their rights as citizens but it was after the very very violent crackdown which was of course helped by saudi arabia in the united arab emirates that's the behind he said well if the government is going to respond to us with this kind of violence of they're going to kill protesters on armed protesters for going out on the streets and demanding something that is rightfully theirs to begin with then the demand changed it became from a constitution or a change in the constitution into a demand of calling for the king and his family to step down from power but can tell you something that looking at the results of the arab spring revolutions in

other states one can't help but wonder that maybe it's for the best that the revolution never really started in your country. well i would disagree there on the issue of starting the revolution as the feeling started it just hasn't had the results that people have wanted to see just like in the other countries whether we're talking about syria or egypt and i think that even if we look at the situation in egypt for example or in tunisia it's a process we're not if we start believing that democracy and that represents everyone whether they're the majority or the minority and that respects all citizens will come overnight then of course this is what the result will be we have to understand that we're in this for the long run we're in this knowing that it's going to take many many years before people see the kind of government and the kind of country that these sets out demanding and so i don't think that the situation right now necessarily is hopeless it's

a part of the process to come into something better but i think also a large part of it is because of the international consequences or the international responses to the different situations and behind of course we're seeing the responses of the united kingdom and the united states towards the humorous situation and the fact that the government and what iran believes and knows that they have international impunity is what allows them to continue committing white spread human rights violations and in other countries is the same thing you look at the international players that have played a role in the internal situations and it makes sense why we are where we are in many of these situations but if you are accepting of the fact that if the revolution actually takes place in bahrain that the immediate reality right after that will be probably dismay and anarchy before it gets better. well i mean what's what is anarchy i mean if we're looking at the situation right now where we have a crackdown almost on a daily basis where we have people getting arbitrarily arrested from their homes

during night raids where we have children being picked off the streets where we have people attacked with tear gas inside their homes where torture is frump and is that not in itself a form of anarchy we don't really have a system that is you know governed by a legal system there are no laws basically the police are free to do what they want government officials are free to do what they want in my opinion that is anarchy in itself so what's the most reliable number of the datsuns to break out of the violence in two thousand and eleven data differs and different sources give different data what is your number. i think the reason why there's a difference in the data is because of the kind of documentation that we're able to do the behind center for human rights has documented more than eighty deaths and behind caused by the use of violence by the government or the use of tear gas excessive use of tear gas now the reason why we're not able to document many other deaths that we know to be related to the situation for example tear gas deaths and

if we were to document the mill would be over one hundred deaths is because it's very difficult and behind or rather impossible to have a testing done on the body of the deceased after they are killed especially if it's due to tear gas and that's because the government controls who's able to do these kind of test things now i believe in many of these cases if we did have access where we could do this kind of testing we would find that many of the deaths that have happened behind were in fact related to tear gas people suffocating from tear gas or it go into their bloodstream and specially that it's toxic elements to it because we don't have that kind of scientific access to looking at the reasons of death we're not able to completely document all of the cases that have taken place and behind what about the prisoners how many how many protesters have been put in prison how many are still awaiting trial or have all the convictions taken place already. no there are definitely

a large number of people who are still awaiting verdicts and we have a large number of people who have already received their verdicts on are in prison according to the behind center's numbers we have more than two thousand political prisoners and behind right now of course if you look at the system what the bahamian government is trying to do is they're trying to label many of these prisoners as terrorists and they believe that in doing so they'll be able to get international justification for cracking down and putting these people in prison now of course if you look at the process of how these people are arrested and put on trial where and they're usually abducted from their homes are subjected to inforce disappearance during which they're usually subjected to torture in order to get them to sign torture to sign confessions on the charges that have been put against them and then they're put on a sham trial where most of the time the judge refuses to listen to the defendants about the torture that they endured for these confessions and of course usually the

only evidence in many of these cases are the torture confessions there isn't actually any other type of evidence that is being used so the entire process in itself from the day of the arrest until the day that the verdict is delivered and people are transferred to go prison where people who are convicted are kept the entire process is wrong been there is no such thing as due process and behind and of course it is a no way up to the standards of an international fair trial dozens of cases of medics arrested for helping protesters were also reported since protests broke out in two thousand and eleven is it making doctors withhold helping case of need one protests are taking place these days. yes of course i mean we're still looking at a situation where the hospitals are militarized and what i in. the behind center actually put out an extensive report on access to medical care and the situation of medical neutrality in the country and we found that no matter where you're looking in the country access to the health sector has become very much militarized and

controlled by the behind defense force of behind and we're looking at a situation where even as a regular patient even if you have absolutely nothing to do with the protests and you're just going into the hospital for a regular checkup there are cameras installed everywhere in the hospitals and there's actually a complete breach of doctor patient confidentiality because someone in the ministry of interior is sitting there looking at you being checked by the doctor and so we're looking at a very very dire situation for the health sector and behind doctors are still targeted they're not able or if they do treats protesters who have protests related injuries they must notify the ministry of interior of the us and so many of the protesters or even bystanders who gets hits because of the excessive fuse of force by the riot police are forced to go to underground secret clinics and be treated by doctors not officially or

a toll because they're afraid of going to the hospitals and behind sound pretty gloomy now after the break what needs to happen to bring back brain human rights violations into the light of the world's media and to secure its only beach when they came around or to a staging. at one time i saved money to hire a hitman to shoot me dead from the next building through the open window. i searched through the internet typing things like i'm looking for you i'm waiting for you before i wrote i'm waiting for you i'm looking for you i didn't care at all

what this man would be like deprived to see. you know you want. the battery is right. i love everything about him i have grown to love every here everyone just think him actually be healthier other guys go drink beer in a branch i've always promised that if she ever realizes it's too much for her and she decides to leave me i will accept her decision without criticism because it's her choice. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world

has been seeing from the streets of canada as. corporations are on the day. or your media. r t dot com. welcome back to the show we're talking to a human rights activist to marry. what's going on in bahrain and what is so

important for the international community to take notice here so i'm going to start out with a quote from a former backer in a parliament member jawad fairouz and that's what he told our channel recently there's no clear vision within the government authorities on how to solve this crisis is anybody have a clear vision. i think that there actually is a clear vision and that the behind the government doesn't want to reform they have no reason to as long as they are not facing any kind of international consequences as long as it's business as usual and they're able to entertain international events and buy arms and go to conferences worldwide why should they think that there's a need for them to change their policies or stop the crackdown and behind now if we look over the past two and a half years we've had the recommendations of the behind independent commission of inquiry we've had the recommendations of the universal probiotic review of the united nations and there has been an ongoing situation where we do have

recommendations on how to make the situation better and behind it's that the government doesn't want to make the situation better but i think that's you know if we look at the situation on the ground it's not that difficult to come up with an idea of how to make the or change the situation to the better you know the stopping of arbitrary arrests the stopping of abductions from people of people from their homes the house raids at night the excessive use of force allowing people their right to freedom for expression and freedom for assembly all these things as well as releasing political prisoners stopping torture accountability most importantly if these things were to happen and behind definitely will see a very great change in the situation on the ground but i like i said our problem is that but i believe that they have impunity internationally and there definitely is a culture of impunity locally so there is no reason for them to think that they need to change you know many refer to the back or any turbulence as the opposition of the shared majority and the sunni monarchy how important is the religious

component in all of this well these six here in discourse and framework that has become what is the behind the situation today is something that was promoted by the bahamian government and their p.r. companies were the situation but when if anyone was at the pearl roundabout protests were. i was personally you would see that it wasn't about what your sect was it was about being behind me people were there from all different sects from different religions and what brought them to get together was the months for rights and you know a government that represents everyone now what the government did is that in their crackdown they launched a very very sick terry in crackdown and they did this of course for two reasons the first reason being that if they were able to frame the situation and behave as being a shia uprising rather than a behind the uprising that to some extent because of the media contacts with what the word she has linked to which is iran and hezbollah that would to some extent in

their opinion give them international justification for the crackdown that they're carrying out but also for a second purpose which was to send a very strong message to the sunni community and behind that our problem is not with you it's with the she has so you need to stay out of the situation and of course in creating a split between the sunnis and the she has a high and it's the you know elementary idea of political control it's divide and conquer if there is a unity between the sunnis and the shias and they're fighting for the same demands which is representation and equality and rights for everyone what the regardless of their sect or religion if that unity exists in the government will last very long and this is what's very scary to them and that's why they launched a very very sick tarion crackdown targeting anyone who is she demolishing shia mosques and of course going after people within the educational and work sector however back rennie is reactive to a possible thought that may take place between the united states and iran have

a welcome david. well i think to a lot of people it's the reaction that i saw of course there were many different jokes that were being made about the phone call that happened between president obama and president rouhani the reaction on the ground was will be b. this will be a positive outcome for behind given that the gulf countries and especially behind to a large extent have dependent depended on the situation or the bad relations between the united states and iran to promote their crackdowns against legitimate demands of the people by saying that the demands are linked to iran and so if there is a possible thought between the united states and iran a lot of people on the ground i believe are from what i heard were hoping that this would have a positive influence on the united states stance towards the human rights situation and behind but what do you think of iran's new president well honestly i don't really know too much about him to have been much of an opinion i think that initial

steps that are good or seem to be good have been taken which was the release of some humorous defenders who are in prison including this one into and that is something that we all welcome in the human rights community now the question is how long will it last and is it something that will be installed within the system of iran because of the system in itself allows human rights violations the human rights violations will continue even if there are initial changes to begin with but the system initially allows for human rights violations what is needed is for the system to be fixed so that human rights violations cannot be allowed and there is accountability for anyone who commits human rights violations or targets human rights defenders are civilians for practicing their rights and basic civil freedoms do you expect more support from iran if not for democracy then at least for a share rights cause. no because i mean the situation behind is not

a boat the shia rights cause it's a boat behind me rights cause and they think the expectations from iran are the expectations that we have of the united states and the united kingdom and russia and all the other countries around the world we expect these governments to have the correct stance towards the humorous situation if the behind the government is committing widespread mass human rights abuses then these countries that stop doing arms deals with the bahamian government they need to stop doing business as usual and they need to hold them accountable internationally for the ongoing human rights violations that they are committing and if you live in exile are you saying the fruits of your efforts is to bahraini issue hitting home with the world leaders. well i think we the progress that we're able to make outside of the high end is a long it's going to take a long time and we only see the results after some time for example when i first started going to the united nations human rights council nobody spoke about behind

many people didn't even know what was going on and behind today when you talk to people at the human rights council about the situation but when they have a good idea of what the situation on the ground is and i think that that definitely is progress when we're looking at the situation internationally so i think the discourse the understanding of the situation definitely has changed but it's going to take some time before we're able to actually exerts pressure on different governments to take the correct stances towards the human rights situation as you can see right now for example with the united kingdom they have one of the worst stances when it comes to reaction to the humor a situation behind where they continuously excuse doing business as usual the bahamian government by saying that the behind these are on a path of reform and that they're supporting this reform when on the when in reality on the ground what we're seeing is that the but any government is moving in the very opposite direction of what reforms are but also and i have to note is that

it must be very difficult for any human rights activists when you have united states and saudi arabia on this side of your opponents and what are your chances really. i would say that it's a very difficult situation like i've already mentioned we call it the inconvenient revolution and it's going to take a lot of work to be able to get to where we want to be and of course the. the situation makes it a lot more tricky given that there's a bridge between behind and saudi and if so they decided that they don't like what the situation is coming to and what i mean they could very possibly send the military like they've already done once before and to control the country and in that situation especially when there is no international reaction to an action like that which we saw in the past when the saudis and the united arab emirates sent military troops into behind to help a government put down legitimate protests there wasn't really any real

international reaction towards it and so my worry is that if we do reach a situation where there is more progress made and where people start to realize the demands that they've been making for the past three almost three years now you know what is the saudi reaction going to be and what is the international reaction towards the saudi reaction going to be who you know what i mean we've been speaking about how horrible the situation is in bahrain more than one hundred stats more than two thousand political prisoners all this human rights violations what else needs to happen to get the world's attention on bahrain what has to happen in the brain that he does that are talking about it. well i think there are many different things that can be done to bring attention to the situation. i feel definitely the continuance of the protests and behind plays a big role in the situation because as soon as the pros are stop it means that the

government will be free to do what they want without much of a reaction on the streets and so the continuation of protests definitely makes the situation. a situation that can't continue for too long but also internationally we need to see things for example for able to get a special report or on medical neutrality that would look into the situations of places like behavior and report on the situation of medical in trials in places like behind that would be very helpful if we can get consistent statements condemning the human rights violations and move forward from just joint statements of the human rights council to an actual resolution on the situation of behind the human rights deterioration of human rights in the country that would be very helpful there are so many different things that can be done you know stopping off arms sales like i mentioned earlier if these things were to happen i think we would see a change and behind it but the question is what is it that we have to do internationally as human rights defender to convince these governments that already say that

democracy and human rights are the cornerstone of their foreign policy to actually to actually act upon these. elements and you know. ideas that they say are instrumental to their foreign policy where we're really short of time just really quickly are you hoping to go back to bahrain. yes of course behind it is my country and they can only keep me else for so long and so i will definitely keep trying to go back even if it does come with the risk of possible arrest or a travel ban if i do get in. and that's all the time we have for today our guest was near about ready human rights activists and jailed this is and. thanks for being with us i will see you next time the next mission of said.

deliberate torch is on its epic journey to structure. one hundred twenty three days. through two hundred two cities of russia. really fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand killing. in a record setting trip. to. see another's face. olympic torch relay. on our arcidiacono. choose your language. call if we could with oh if you're going to. choose to use the consensus to. choose the opinions that you think rate to.

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breaking news this hour a suicide attack on a boss in the russian city of volgograd claimed six lives and leaves dozens injured pointed the finger of blame at the wife of an islamist militant. front seeks an explanation from the u.i. someplace revealed the n.s.a. conducted large scale spying on french citizens planes that paris calls shocking. you are seeing backlash from all levels even up to the highest levels here in europe against the embassies activities. said to avoid a new regulations that would almost data transfers to the you as a move seen as a fast concrete response to edward snowden's surveillance revelations.