Bahrainis protest against US hypocrisy

Bahraini protesters have staged an anti-US rally in the port city of Sitra, condemning US double standards toward the recent popular uprisings in the region, Press TVreports. Protesters at Wednesday's demonstration also blasted the US-backed regime of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and his Saudi-backed security forces over their brutal crackdown on peaceful protest rallies across the country. They condemned the Arab League stance against Syria, wondering about such a position concerning the peaceful rallies against the Bahraini regime. Demonstrators also carried a banner with pictures of young detainees, calling for their release from Bahraini prisons. Bahraini regime forces were monitoring the Sitra protest rally by a helicopter hovering above the site of the demonstration. The latest demonstration comes as naval forces of Bahrain and the US begin joint military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf, diverting international attention from the persisting suppression of peaceful anti-government protests. Meanwhile, the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) Thursday expressed concern over the ‘Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry’ (BICI) set up by royal decree in June. The commission, which is due to release its findings next week, was established in order to investigate the civil and political unrest that has gripped Bahrain since pro-reform protests erupted in February. But IHCR said it was concerned about the potential political and social ramifications that may result from serious biases and deficiencies in the report. This, it said, was due to the nature of the commission, the conditions surrounding its establishment and the extreme nature of the many abuses under investigation. “People of Bahrain have faced extreme hardship as a direct result of the actions of a dictatorial regime,” said IHRC chair Massoud Shadjareh. “It is difficult to see how their legitimate needs and aspirations will be addressed by such a commission which has been set up and paid for by the very regime which oppresses them,” Shadjareh said. “No one would accept these standards of ‘justice’ from any other institution, let alone a dictatorship,” he warned in an interview with IRNA. To coincide with the commission report, the IHCR is convening a press conference in London on 23 November to give representatives of the Bahraini people based in London a chance to respond.   Since the beginning of the popular protest rallies in Bahrain in February, dozens of people have been killed and many more have been injured during the regime's brutal response to peaceful demonstrations. Hundreds of protesters have been detained. On Tuesday, the Saudi-backed Bahraini regime forces arrested dozens of female students in the northern village of Samaheej. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed military hardware and troops to Bahrain in mid-March upon a request from Manama to help quash nationwide protests in the country.