Amnesty Cancels Bahrain Visit over Rights Restrictions

Amnesty International said on Friday it has canceled a visit to Bahrain over restrictions imposed on rights groups monitoring the situation there, one year after an uprising was crushed.

"Regrettably we have cancelled the fact-finding visit to Bahrain ... as the new five day limit imposed by the Bahraini authorities for visits by international human rights organizations is a serious impediment to their ability to do their human rights work," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

The London-based rights watchdog said that, in addition to limiting their visits to five working days, Bahrain's human rights ministry had informed Amnesty and other NGOs that "they would need to be sponsored to obtain a visa."

"The Bahraini authorities have repeatedly stated their commitment to undertake human rights reform and to cooperate with international human rights organizations. These new restrictions contradict such commitment," Sahraoui added.

Bahraini security forces, boosted by Gulf troops that rolled in from neighboring Saudi Arabia, quelled the month-long protest that erupted in February 2011, triggering international pressure on the ruling Sunni dynasty.

Last month, Amnesty said Bahrain had failed to implement human rights reforms demanded by an independent commission which investigated the deadly crackdown.

It said the government was still "far from delivering the human rights changes" recommended by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry.

The BICI report, commissioned by the king last June, found that 35 people died in last year's unrest, including five security personnel and five detainees tortured to death while in custody.

"If the Bahraini authorities are truly committed to human rights and co-operation with international NGOs they should do away with these new, unjustified obstacles," Amnesty said.

A U.N. torture investigator was informed that his visit to Bahrain, scheduled for March 8, has been postponed until July, Amnesty said.

Authorities have multiplied restrictions around the anniversary of the uprising that was crushed in mid-March, for international media as well as foreign NGOs, denying press visas to various news organizations.

In January, Richard Sollom, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, said he was barred from entering Bahrain to attend the trial of 20 medics for their alleged involvement in anti-government protests.