Report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry

Report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry
uninvolved in the killing of protesters, and that this new government should
pave the way for a new era of true reform. The press release then outlined the
following reasons for the organisers’ call to remove the GoB:
a. Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa
bears the political responsibility for the faults of the GoB – its
excesses, its failures and the violations of human rights it has
committed throughout the past 40 years.
b. The Minister of Defence and the Minister of Interior are
responsible for the deaths that have occurred since 14
February 2011, and the Director of the NSA is responsible for
the torture of detainees throughout the past years.
c. The GoB has failed to provide an adequate standard of living
despite the high price of oil in recent years, which has brought
the GoB large revenues. The GoB has also failed to solve the
housing problems of Bahrain, as evidenced by the growth of
the waitlist of people waiting to be assigned government
housing from 32,000 to 52,000 in the past decade.
d. There have been serious cases of the unjust enrichment of
senior government officials through illegal commissions and
the misappropriation of public land.
e. The Minister of Finance and the GoB at large have failed to
disclose the financial affairs of the Royal Court and other
bodies relating to the royal family.
f. The GoB’s deliberate policy of political naturalisation, which
allowed almost 60,000 foreigners to be granted Bahrain
citizenship between 2001 and 2007, has had a “disastrous
social and economic effect”.
g. The ruling family monopolises half of the cabinet positions,
including the Premiership, two of his deputies and the
Ministers of Defence, Interior and Foreign Affairs.
h. The GoB deliberately promotes sectarianism, tribalism and
nepotism.
389. The protest, which was held at the premises of the Council of
Ministers, began at around 15:00 with approximately 5,000 participants, and
continued to grow until according to government reports the number of
demonstrators exceeded 10,000. Other accounts, however, claimed that
around 100,000 people joined the demonstration. Most of the demands
expressed during the protests centred on the resignation of HRH the Prime
Minister and the entire cabinet. Some protesters also raised one Bahraini
Dinar notes as a symbol of the allegations previously made by Sheikh Ali
Salman that HRH the Prime Minister had acquired the land on which the
Financial Harbour was based for one dinar. Demonstrators repeated many of
the chants that had been heard in other demonstrations, including the call for
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