Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Is tear gas considered a human rights violation ONLY in Bahrain?

Dear reader, 

Someone on Twitter asked me to comment on a few videos on YouTube regarding Human Rights violations committed by Bahrain Police and Army. I have finally found some time to view the videos, since I'm quite busy making up for lost time during the months of Feb. and March when protests spread through to occupy the Bahrain Financial Harbor district. It is pretty tough, because some things you plan for months and end up canceling due to unforeseen protests.

Anyways,
So here are the videos: 


And

I'd have to point out that I'm no human rights activist - but I do have a mind to differentiate between what's right and wrong, what makes sense and doesn't. I honestly don't see anything wrong with the videos above. We don't know when was this shot, where, and we definitely don't know who's inside this house or farm or whatever it may be!? However, apparently it is someone that police want so bad since backup arrived and tear gas was used. The use of tear gas is common in police work. You  may argue that tear gas is only used to disperse protests, and I'd beg to differ. In May of this year it was thrown at a house in Hollywood Hills, California in an effort to detain a man. Check it out yourself:
http://bhcourier.com/article/Local/Local/Police_Use_Tear_Gas_At_Hollywood_Hills_Home_To_Detain_Man/76144
 No one said this is a violation of human rights. I've got another one for you, a few years back in 2007; police raided three (3) houses in Auckland, New Zealand: 
And again none was said of human rights violations.  Here is another one in USA, but feel free to take a look yourself:
http://www.wtae.com/r/20840307/detail.html
 So I guess we got that topic cleared?

Here is the 3rd video of Bahrain army soldiers stealing from cars left behind by protesters:



THIS IS WRONG!

I don’t agree with how the subtitles explain the video though, because it made it seem systematic, which is absolutely not true. I’ve sent the video to a friend of mine in the army. His reply was that the army is aware of such unethical behavior and caught a couple of those soldiers and in the process of identifying the rest. You can try and attend their trials in the REAL military courts after Ramadhan. But does that mean the Bahrain army is composed of a bunch of criminals and thieves as the title and subtitles of the video suggest? Absolutely not!  Such cases are present in armies all around the world. 

Here is a case of when Russian troops were in Georgia : 



Another case of Zimbabwean soldiers beating up fishermen and stealing their fish:
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/news/32861/soldiers-stealing-our-fish-fishermen-.html
British troops stealing from a hotel’s safe in Iraq:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/baha-mousa-killed-after-father-saw-soldiers-stealing-1792073.html

And finally a couple of incidents by US soldiers stealing from their own government:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-03-05-army-theft-case_N.htm
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/02/ap-army-major-iraqtheft-020811/


I agree that Bahrain army shouldn’t include criminals, and I’m happy to hear that it is already taking action against those who violated their duty. At least we're not like the US where they released prisoners to join the military and took them to Iraq!

UPDATE

My friend just informed me that in order for the military to take action against those soldiers who stole property of protesters, those who were affected must file a complaint at the military police.

The way I see it, we've seen some unfortunate events for the first time in Bahrain, that occur almost everyday elsewhere. This is a peaceful nation, and forever it will be inshallah.

@Life4BH

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