DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Inmates at a Bahrain prison are on hunger strike over prison conditions, activists and officials said Wednesday, marking the island kingdom’s 10th anniversary of Arab Spring protests. announced the latest sign of smoldering anxiety.
The strike is taking place at the Jaw Rehabilitation and Reform Center, which houses many of the prisoners identified by human rights activists as dissidents opposed to the rule of the al-Khalifa family. The country’s Sunni rulers have long faced complaints of discrimination from the island’s Shiite majority.
statement released by Al-Wefaq, an outlawed rebel group According to the report, inmates began a hunger strike after prison staff prevented them from praying and during a 23-hour daily lockdown. The statement also alleged that prison officials arbitrarily isolated inmates, prevented family visits, and provided inmates with inadequate medical care.
“Our demands are not trivial; they are extremely necessary and required for human life, even at the lowest level known in human history,” the prisoners’ statement said. There is.
Two prison blocks at the facility began hunger strikes on Monday, while three other blocks began hunger strikes on Tuesday, said Saeed Ahmed al-Wadei, a British exile activist at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. Al-Wadei referred to those in the bloc taking part in the strike as “political prisoners.”
Prisoners estimate the number of participants in the strike to be in the hundreds. The Associated Press could not independently confirm that. Several audio messages later shared by activists confirmed the hunger strike.
On Wednesday, jailed activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja took part in a hunger strike, his daughter Mariam said. Al Khawaja is serving a life sentence in prison after leading protests during the 2011 Arab Spring.
The 62-year-old activist had previously drawn attention for his imprisonment in 2012 after going on a long hunger strike, but his detention was deemed “arbitrary” by a United Nations panel. . Bahrain convicted him on terrorism charges that were criticized internationally.
“I fear for my father’s life. I don’t know if he can endure another hunger strike, and I don’t understand why he is being encouraged to resort to another hunger strike as a means of protest,” his daughter said in a statement. .
“I don’t want him to be released to us in a coffin,” she added.
In response to questions from The Associated Press, Bahrain’s General Authority for Reform and Rehabilitation said on Tuesday that some inmates at the facility had “returned their meals.” The report did not say how many people took part in the hunger strike, but claimed the prison allowed Shiite residents to mourn Ashoura and enjoy “full rights” and health care.
“To ensure the quality of services provided, authorities will continue to monitor the condition of prisoners who have returned meals and address their concerns within the framework of compliance with the law and respect for human rights,” the government said. the statement said.
The Jaw Rehabilitation and Reform Center is located in the southern tip of Bahrain. Bahrain is an island in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Saudi Arabia with a population of about 1.5 million people and about the same size as New York City. Concerns about medical care in prisons had previously been raised by activists.
The U.S. Department of State’s recent human rights report on Bahrain noted that families of prisoners reported a tuberculosis outbreak in the prison in June 2022. The government denied there was an outbreak, but months later opened a 24-hour clinic at the prison, the State Department said. .
Bahrain, home of the Middle East-based U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, faces a decade of protests in the wake of Arab Spring protests in which the island’s Shiite majority and others demand greater political freedoms. We are in the midst of a crackdown on the sect.
Since Bahrain crushed the protests with support from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, it has imprisoned Shiite activists, expelled others, stripped hundreds of citizenship, and The newspaper was discontinued.
On the other hand, Bahrain diplomatically recognized Israel and Hosted Pope Francis last November.