‘UK covers up Bahrain abuses over military sales to Manama’

Britain has covered up Bahraini regime abuses against pro-democracy protesters since Manama is a market for London’s military and police equipment, says an analyst.

“It’s not unusual for Britain in particular and America and the West to cover up for the [Persian] Gulf monarchies… The [Persian] Gulf monarchies are one of Britain’s biggest markets for all sorts of military and police equipment on every level,” said Ian Williams, senior analyst with Foreign Policy in Focus in a Sunday interview with Press TV.

The comments come after new documents have revealed that Britain has been lobbying behind the scenes to water down the United Nations criticism of Bahrain over its human rights record.

The documents shared by the British Weekly, Observer, accuse Britain and Saudi Arabia of waging a behind-the-scenes public relations offensive aimed at deflecting UN’s criticism of Bahrain for its human rights violations.

Now Williams says the UK does not deny that there are human rights abuses in Bahrain; what they do is show it “not as bad as it is being presented.”

According to the documents, the UK sought to convince other states that things were improving in Bahrain.

The tiny Persian Gulf Kingdom has been facing anti-regime protests since 2011.

Bahrain’s ongoing heavy-handed crackdown on peaceful demonstrations has left scores of people dead and hundreds injured ever since.

Many more have ended up behind bars.

Major human rights organizations have expressed concern over the rights situation in the tiny Persian Gulf Kingdom.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk