Training Bahraini forces to damage UK image: Expert

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jalal Fairooz, a Middle East expert, about a British parliamentary committee criticizing UK police for training Bahraini forces, who are accused of ruthlessly suppressing public protests and dissent.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: What are your thoughts on the parliamentary committee’s criticism of the UK police for training Bahraini forces who have been involved in the deadly crackdown for over five years now in Bahrain?

Fairooz: Well it seems that the agreement which has been disclosed by observers and it is in 27 pages displays that the College of Policing has been engaged in an agreement with Bahrain Ministry of Interior which of course is in a bad shape internationally because the Ministry of Interior in Bahrain has been condemned widely by international human rights groups and also in Geneva by the United Nations Human Rights Council because of its mistreating of the detainees.

If we are talking about training of the police forces, it seems that they are not doing the right job in the training because over and over we have seen people being killed by police whether in the streets or in jail. Just under three weeks ago, a political detainee has been killed under torture in prison by the police. What does this training by the Policing College do with this? Do they train them in a very bad manner to kill the detainees? It is very strange. It also has to be disclosed because it is under the obligation of the human rights commitments. It will give a very bad image, so it has to be very much answered to the parliamentary committee.

There has been a parliamentary question raised and I am afraid that the answer came very short of disclosing the real facts. It is really not upholding the commitments, which is internationally indicated that you will train a police of a very bad recorded human rights state like Bahrain. I believe any respective country should stay very far from such dictatorship regimes otherwise it will be accused that it has something with the killings and the atrocities and the violations of the human rights.

Press TV: It is not just pinpointing the issue of UK’s College of Policing training the Bahraini forces. Looking at the whole issue in the bigger picture, seeing the foreign office being in agreement with Bahrain, it surely and severely dents Britain’s so-called advocacy of democratic aspirations for countries around the world?

Fairooz: Actually we have seen how the apartheid of South Africa has damaged the image of UK because there have been deals for long time. On the same measure, this might damage the image of UK because it says something in regards of probably backing such dictatorship and the atrocities. All around the world that there are parliamentarians, the politicians who are trying to put pressure on their governments not to get involved with the dictatorship and the violators of human rights and they even stop selling any equipment which is possible to be used against humans and the activists. So it is really a concern and it is a point of very severe question why is this going on and it has not been corrected even though it is very damaging to the image here.

So it is not only the Policing College but also some of the intelligence groups who are dealing with the Bahraini Ministry of Interior which over the past five years we have seen that the situation is deteriorating and the record of Bahrain has been very, very black in all over the world. Even if you have your groups working as helping out or sometimes over the political image, you would say you are encouraging reform but you would not see any reforms, you would see deterioration in the political situation, so there is something wrong with your relation with the dictatorship and the tyranny, so you have to sit and review that otherwise it will be a point to be attacked by all the concerned people.

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