Today I watched parts of the al-Jazeera documentary, “Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark.” I had seen this soon after it first came out, but haven’t gone back to watch it in a long time. It is of course well known now that the doctors in Salmaniyya Hospital were imprisoned and tortured for treating wounded protestors as well as police, that Saudi Arabia sent troops to help quell the protests, and that Bahrain used (and continues to use) weapons produced in the U.S. to harm their own civilians. However, the most disturbing part of the documentary, in my opinion, is the “confessions” that were broadcast on state television upon the release of certain prisoners (see the documentary at minute 41). This can only be conveyed effectively through video, and it makes me think of an Orwellian novel.
I’ve gotten tweets today from people in Bahrain describing more protestors injured by American weapons and seen articles about police breaking up protests this weekend using tear gas. It would be wrong to consider the material in this video a tragic mistake that has been mended by promises of reform. The same repression continues and, as a Bahraini told me recently, pressure from outside of Bahrain is extremely effective. The U.S. government has been critical of Bahrain in rhetoric, but this should be backed by action.
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