Bahrain: Human Rights Group Expresses Concern Over Appointment
 

03-12-11 12:19 AM

http://bahrainrights.hopto.org/BCHR/...11/12/COP2.jpg

3 Dec 2011
Pomed - As Bahrain’s Interior Ministry stated that Mr. John Timoney, the former Miami Police Chief, will lead training programs for Bahraini security forces, the Bahraini Youth Society for Human Rights expressed concern over the appointment due to Timoney’s past human rights violations. He is known for the mishandling of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) Protests in 2003. Tens of thousands of demonstrators were met with “police harassment, provocation, and brutality. More than 100 protesters were treated for injuries, 12 were hospitalized and an estimated 250 were arrested.”

As the Bahraini security forces have been accused of committing human rights abuses, as the Bahraini government brought in Timoney to implement a new code of conduct when dealing with demonstrators. “Among his many accomplishments were the successful reduction of crime and the implementation of proper practices for the use of force,” said a statement from Bahrain’s governmen.



Former Metropolitan police chief John Yates hired by Bahrain to reform force
Police chief who quit amid phone-hacking scandal will overhaul Middle East kingdom's force, after critical report

Mr Yates, who has been cleared of wrongdoing by the Independent Police Complaints Commission since his resignation, said that he would draw on experience in the Met and from working on community policing programmes with Jamaican police.
"Bahrain's police have some big challenges ahead, not dissimilar to those the UK itself faced only a couple of decades ago, but I have been impressed that the King is doing the right thing by pressing on with big reforms," he told the Daily Telegraph.
read the full story on telegraph.co.uk




Zainab al-Khawaja: Yates' Job Is Bahrain Propaganda
Pro-democracy activist Zainab al-Khawaja (aka angryarabiya) criticises former (British) Met cop's decision to accept job overseeing police reforms in Bahrain. Listen to this video interview (1:02 minute)




Even Bahrain's use of 'Miami model' policing will not stop the uprising
Bahraini leaders have hired the architect of Miami's brutal policing methods, showing their disregard for reform
"No one should call what Timoney runs in Miami a police force. It's a paramilitary group. Thousands of soldiers, dressed in khaki uniforms with full black body armour and gas masks, marching in unison through the streets, banging batons against their shields, chanting, 'back … back … back'. There were armoured personnel carriers and helicopters."
Read the full story on www.guardian.co.uk



Source...