West must open eyes to atrocities in Bahrain: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jalal Fairooz, a former Bahraini MP, about Bahraini authorities handing down prison sentences to those holding sit-ins in protest at the regime's decision to revoke the citizenship of prominent Shia Muslim cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: Handing down prison sentences to protesters against the revocation of Sheikh Qassim’s citizenship, do Bahraini jails have the capacity to imprison all Bahrainis, because seemingly all of the Bahraini nation are against this revocation?

Fairooz: Well imagine that Bahrain is one of the top countries in the world where the ratio between the numbers of prison cells to the population is actually one of the top countries in the world. Lately more prisons have been built than probably schools and now you have more than 4,000 political activists in jail in Bahrain only.

You know that Bahrain has a very small population. In the past two months or six weeks, more than hundred clerics have been interrogated and most of them have been placed on charges with the public prosecution and the courts. Now you have so many clerics in jail just because they have supported the demands of people for democracy and dignity. That is the situation which is going on in Bahrain.

This morning more measures have been taken against the people who are supporting the sit-in in front of Sheikh Isa Qassim’s house, leaving only one entry and exit from the whole city of Diraz and having piles of cars waiting to get in or out, that is the public punishment which the government acts, trying to keep the people of Diraz put pressure on Sheikh Isa Qassim and his followers.

Press TV: For how long can the Bahraini government increase harsh measures on the people? What does it take for this dictatorship to end?

Fairooz: Well as much as there are backings from so-called allies of Bahrain especially in the West, some of them are not allies of Bahrain but allies of Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia is spending lots of money with these governments. That is why they just do not say anything in regards of the atrocities going on in Bahrain. Only when the situation gets to the attention of the world, now the international media is just banning any news from Bahrain with all these violations, even when the high officials of the United Nations and human rights in the world are talking about Bahrain, even the governments in the West are not paying attention.

So unless that changes and that would depend on the changes in balances [of] power in the Middle East, now you could see how the Yemeni people have resisted and the United States is forcing Saudis to stop their warplanes, killing of the children of Yemen, now it seems that more atrocities are there to be seen in Bahrain until United States and Western governments pay attention [to] what is going on in Bahrain.

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