Talk:2011 Bahraini uprising/Archive 2

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

International military operations

Having been reading through the page I would question the heading “international military operations”. Firstly, the section below it mentions the GCC force once in six paragraphs and secondly the BICI report noted that the international forces that came to Bahrain played no part in suppressing the uprising (see paragraphs 1578-1586). I would suggest the title be changed to “On going protests and the State of National Emergency” or something more balanced than the current heading. AKhani84 (talk) 19:31, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Totally agreed. By the way, according to the BICI report, it's called a "State of National Safety" as opposed to "State of National Emergency." Billmarczak (talk) 01:06, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

I also agree--good catch. I changed it to "military operations" as a stopgap measure--the section does reference Bahraini military repeatedly--but I think yours is probably ultimately better. Alternatively, the subhead could be done away with entirely and just leave the "Timeline" above. -- Khazar (talk) 02:00, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

I agree with Khazar, the subheading is unnecessary and should probably just be removed. AKhani84 (talk) 17:48, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Done. But if I'm being overhasty, I'm happy to hear counterarguments, too. -- Khazar (talk) 18:02, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Discussing protestors activities

We should discuss the aggressive actions of rioters during these times in a section. For example the use of Molotov cocktails by protesters against the security forces.VIDEO — Preceding unsigned comment added by AKhani84 (talk • contribs) 18:44, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, we should definitely address the escalation in violence in the article. Perhaps some "escalating clashes" or "escalation of the uprising" section would be appropriate for the article. Perhaps as an add-on to the chronology section? I think the section should talk about this idea of "sacred defense" being promoted by the Feb 14 Youth Coalition, and mention Isa Qassim's sermon where he said protesters should "crush" security forces attacking women, and also talk about the "Bahrain Fist" day (1/24). From what I hear -- we'll need to find a source though -- the "Bahrain Fist" event wasn't organized by the Feb 14 coalition, but they endorsed participation in it. One thing to be careful about is not painting protesters as a monolithic group.

By the way, the video you linked to seems to be highly biased, misleading, and inaccurate in some cases. Some of the footage I recognize as recent (such as the attack on the police patrol in Nuwaidrat, and the guy pouring gasoline and igniting it with a molotov in the alley above the police officer), although some seems to be from before Feb 14 2011, such as the gas cylinder explosion in Manama, the burned policeman (from 2008 I think?), and the burned expatriates (from the 90s I think, and from what I've heard it is disputed whether the people that started the fire were protesters or government agents). There's also a lot about explosions of gas cylinders and tire burning in the video, which, as far as I'm aware, have not been used in a violent way. The explosions of gas cylinders I've seen have typically been in uninhabited areas -- the loud sound and big explosion is supposed to make a statement about steadfastness, I think. The tire burning I've seen has been in an attempt to block roads, or cause black smoke to fill the sky in the case of the recent airshow, rather than in an attempt to cause injury to people. The captions in the video are kind of ridiculous as well -- "I doubt that the policeman inside the car survived!!" There have been no police deaths involving molotovs reported since Feb 14 2011, and I can recall only one over the past decade, which was when that police SUV was firebombed, back in 2008 I think? (Maybe there have been more that I don't remember though.)

One thing that I've often heard said, and which I believe, is that conduct of security forces (both alleged and documented) is a major reason for the escalation in violence. This is probably difficult to establish objectively, although it is the case that this violence seems to be a relatively recent phenomenon that has been slowly building over time. Perhaps we could look at the various International Crisis Group reports (1, 2) to see what they say about this. I'll say that from personal observation of opposition forums and opposition & police videos, there was initially only defensive throwing of objects, then maybe April-May, there were a few cases of offensive rock throwing, then maybe around September, I remember seeing the first significant use of molotovs in Sanabis to drive police out of a village, and the first premeditated attacks on police that I remember seeing were in December. Billmarczak (talk) 02:26, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

"Escalation of the uprising" would be good. Since the end of "state of national safety" there have been 30+ legal gathering by Al Wefaq and it's sister opposition parties and protests have been there almost on daily basis. About the recent "Bahrain Fist" you could see this article by BBC. Even though it's not completely accurate as "Bahrain Fist" was called for weeks before Qassim's speech. Also this Bahraini Activist (talk) 09:33, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi Billmarczak– I understand your point about the video, there are a number of inaccuracies in it but I believe it is important to show the escalation of hostilities (particularly since the attacks in Nuweiderat at the end of December). At the moment the page barely recognises this side of the uprising (in general, not referring to specifics) which I feel deserves more attention. Happy to help out if necessary. Another idea I had (again, happy to discuss) that may be interesting is drawing up profiles of the opposition groupings. Clearly there is a major difference along the scale (from Wefaq to the Fist grouping) as you point out: do you think this page is the right location to describe this? It would help the reader understand the complexity of the situation much more and save the moderates from being ‘lumped in’ with the more extreme elements.... This New York Times article is quite helpful as a starting point. On a related point (about the opposition not being monolithic) I do believe there are peaceful protesters in Bahrain who use non-violent means to campaign for reform; however a separate group use premeditated methods (Molotovs) to cause violent unrest. I honestly believe that it is balanced (and fair, given the definition in the OED) to call these rioters – “troublemaker who participates in a violent disturbance of the peace”. I can’t see why this is not applicable here... AKhani84 (talk) 15:14, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Calling protesters (or part of them) rioters is clearly a POV, since only government and pro-government media calls them that. By the way, did you know that most of security forces in Bahrain are non-nationals and that OED defines Mercenaries as "professional soldiers hired to serve in a foreign army."? wouldn't you find that POV to call the majority of security forces and National guard as mercenaries? Do you see how important is balance and NPOV? (References: Human Rights Watch report: Torture Redox, Al Jazeera English: Pakistani troops aid Bahrain's crackdown, [1], [2] and [3]. Bahraini Activist ^Talk 06:12, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

I can see your point on protesters/rioters, although I dispute your “only government and pro-government media” claim – I wouldn’t necessarily call the BBC particularly “pro-government” HERE. And yes, I believe that the constitution of the Bahraini security forces is a serious problem that needs addressing but I don’t believe that their nationality is a reason to ignore the reality of the violence that they continue to face in Bahrain. AKhani84 (talk) 16:27, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Sorry for the late response, guys. Yes I agree that we should talk about the escalation of the uprising in the article, and yes it goes without saying that we should mention violence against police and police injuries. I don't have a blanket objection to the use of the term "riot" when referring to spontaneous or premeditated attacks against police, but I would like to make three points here. First, like the term "mercenary," used sometimes in a derogatory fashion by the opposition to malign police, the term "rioter" is used sometimes in a derogatory fashion by the government to malign protesters. I'd suggest we exercise caution when using both terms. One standard that comes to mind is "would a reader get the same information if we didn't use the term?" That's not to say we should never use either term. Second, I think we should be careful to see if the use of the term adds encyclopedic value. Consider two sentences that I wrote to illustrate this point: "Recently, rioters have begun attacking police with molotov cocktails," and "Recently, some have begun attacking police with molotov cocktails." I'd argue that the use of "rioters" in this instance doesn't add much value, because rioters are only rioters when they're rioting. It's not like there's this constituency of people that were "rioters" all along who have suddenly started attacking police. Furthermore, the riot in those two sentences is completely described by "attacking police with molotov cocktails." Of course, that was a straw-man sentence that I just constructed to illustrate a point. I can imagine uses of the term that seem less controversial to me, e.g.: "Recently, some have begun rioting against police in or around their villages, throwing molotov cocktails, etc." While premeditated or unprovoked attacks against police seem to objectively qualify as "violently disrupting the peace," you'd probably get a pre-emptive self-defense argument from those attacking (e.g., "we attacked the police so they couldn't come into the village and arrest people"). Not sure of the exact argument, because I'm not really sure where to read about Bahrain Fist, but I imagine it's something like that. Sitting thousands of miles away from Bahrain, I don't think that pre-emptive violence against police is justified, and I think protesters should only respond w/ minimal necessary force in cases of self defense. Though, I might feel differently if I lived in a Bahraini village. So my point here is, yes there are uses of the term "riot" that seem legit, but we should also mention the rationale given by those calling for pre-emptive violence, such as the Bahrain Fist organizers. This brings me to my third point, which is that technically, one could technically describe some police activities as "riots" as well, e.g., "Recently, some police have begun rioting in villages, firing tear gas in residential areas even when there are no protests."

I like the idea about featuring various groups in the uprising. There's already an article on February 14 Youth Coalition. Perhaps there should be separate articles for other groups, or maybe a single article that profiles the smaller groups. I'm not sure what the other main ones are... @ahrar14feb seems to be have a reasonable twitter following, but I don't know of any events that they've done except for calling for burning the American flag and pics of King Hamad. I suppose things like Bahrain Black Day and Bahrain Fist are their own groups, rather than initiatives of some other group? Not sure though. There also should probably be some articles on the pro-government youth movements like Al Fateh Awakening. Anyway, as for the escalation section, I think someone should probably jump in and start writing this section. By the way, can I ask your guys help in interpreting Isa Qassim's speech? Did he say/imply that protesters should "crush" police who abuse women w/ words and gestures, or did he imply that protesters should only "crush" police who abuse women physically? Also, do you know if there was one particular event that led to the speech? I remember @angryarabiya tweeting about a woman alleging sexual assault by riot police a few days before the speech, but I'm not sure if that was ever confirmed.

Anyway, that's just my point of view. We can certainly discuss this stuff further. Billmarczak (talk) 08:54, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

While I agree with almost all what you said, Billmarczak I feel it's more important to focus on editing the articles rather than talk page. After all Wikipedia is not a forum. Your edits are highly appreciated and balanced, they were mentioned recently in this blog, so I argue you to make more contributions. Fast answer to your questions:

1. Smaller groups have much fewer activities and "disappear" from time to time. Most notable are: Feb 14 Youth Movement (dignity belt & dignity arrow), Ahrar14feb and Ansar14feb. F14YM are mentioned in ICG report.
2. Bahrain Black Day and Bahrain Fist were called by one person, a member of Bahrain Online forum called "معارض بريطاني" (British opposition), but both of them were supported by F14YC later.
3. About Qassim's speech. There have been many times in the past where different people interpret his speeches differently, because his statements are usually broad. "Whoever you see abusing a woman, crush him." As you see he didn't specify what does he mean by "abuse" or if crushing should take place only directly or after a while. Read this blog for better understanding. About the reason for this timing, I really don't know and perhaps no one does. Abuses against women including rape were included in BICI; that's 23 November. And I remember Salah Alkhawaja's wife telling story of her abuse to a foreign channel (CBS?) since April or May. I'm guessing he either only read that part of BICI now, or some abused women have made direct contact with him, because as described by Majeed Al Alawi he never saw Qassim this angry before. Bahraini Activist ^{Talk to me} 16:17, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, wasn't trying to turn it into a forum. I was just trying to reach consensus on -- and find out more info about -- the new section that's going to be written. I'll try to do some more article edits when I have the time. Billmarczak (talk) 21:34, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

4 recent death + 1 not-included previous death from march

There have been 4 new deaths in the last 24 hours. I have added them to the detailed table of the casualties, but not the small tables. Please take a look at the detailed table in Casualties of the 2011–2012 Bahraini uprising. I will be adding them to the small tables, so if anyone has an opinion about where they should be included.

1. Saeed Ali Hassan Al-Sikry: Cause of death: Tear gas (allegedly*). Killed By: Security forces (allegedly)
2. Abbas Jaffaar al-Sheikh: Cause of death: other. Killed by: Security forces (allegedly)
3. Muntather Saeed Fakhar: Cause of death: Physical abuse/Auto-pedestrian collision. Killed by: Security Forces
4. Mohammed Ebrahim Ya'agob: Cause of death: Physical abuse. Killed by: Security Forces

Also there have been 1 old death since 13 March which isn't included in the table.

Ali Ebrahim Abdulla Al-Demistani [4]. Cause of death: Auto-pedestrian collision. Killed by: Unknown Assailants/Disputed.

Please discuss. Bahraini Activist (talk) 11:12, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Wow it's hard to get all these deaths straight. I think Muntather was the guy with the shoe-print on his head who the gov't says died when he rammed his car into police vehicles. So his death would probably be disputed. As far as I know, the government hasn't yet issued a denial about Saeed. Is Abbas the one who died of acute leukemia? Not sure of any gov't denial either, and BHRS says his death was a result of police. Assuming Mohammed is the guy who was hit by the police car / beaten, I heard that the gov't is claiming sickle-cell. I haven't seen any pics of his body on twitter, so I assume the death certificate has not been signed yet. Have you seen a pic of the death certificate of Muntather? I thought I saw one earlier, but I can't seem to find it now. I'm not sure what we should do about the cause of death for Muntather and Mohammed, because the claim of "physical abuse" is different than the government's claim of "car crash" and "sickle cell." Perhaps we should wait to see what the death certificates say? Here's how I'd classify the two deaths that aren't disputed (exactly the same as your classification):

1. Saeed Ali Hassan Al-Sikry: Cause of death: Tear gas (allegedly*). Killed By: Security forces (allegedly)
2. Abbas Jaffaar al-Sheikh: Cause of death: other. Killed by: Security forces (allegedly)

Ali's death wasn't reported in BICI in connection with the unrest, so I'm not sure what to do about it. If we include Ali's death, I think we should also include the death of the taxi driver. Also, I've heard that an expatriate worker was crushed to death while demolishing the Pearl Roundabout. Have you come across a source for this? Billmarczak (talk) 22:22, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Do you not think that anything with “allegedly” by it should be termed “unknown” until the cause of death is known, having considered both the opposition claims and the results of the government investigation. I don’t feel that automatically noting “security forces (allegedly)” contributes to an independent analysis of events. What do you guys think? AKhani84 (talk) 15:25, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Yeh, I guess we need new category in Death causes "Disputed", Muntather and Mohamed would fit in both disputed. By the way are sure it's a shoe mark on Muntather's face? did any opposition or human rights party claim that?

@AKhani84, "tear gas (allegedly)" the cause of death is specified by protesters as tear gas, but since the government doesn't recognize that, we put it as allegedly. It's actually funny that you compare opposition claims with governmental investigations, how about we compare that to BICI? Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry labelled the findings of investigations conducted by the Interior Ministry, in general, as "in many cases, flawed and biased in its favour.". In the 5 cases of torture which BICI reported, the government investigations denied any torture happened.

“Security forces (allegedly)” is used when the government doesn't comment on deaths or doesn't deny their security forces involvement. If you can find governmental responses for the deaths that were places in this category (found here), then we are more than happy to move them to disputed. Bahraini Activist ^Talk 05:59, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh, and I forgot to comment of Al-Demistani's death. Yes, I think it should be included especially since F14YC refused BICI and 26 Jan was called the Al-Demistani's day (which is why I brought this up at this time). The Taxi driver should be added since pro-gov claim his death was related to the uprising. About the expatriate worker, I was only able to find news about his death from Al-Manar channel [5]. Bahraini Activist ^{Talk to me} 07:33, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

And it should state that those deaths weren't included in BICI. Bahraini Activist ^{Talk to me} 08:38, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Sure – the government responses are included in this CNN article.HERE Have to admit, very difficult to work out the truth when the opposition claims the deaths are related to the uprising and the government gives other reasons. AKhani84 (talk) 16:24, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Yep, I'd imagine that creating uncertainty and doubt about causes of death is the government's (or their PR groups') strategy. It allows them to continue the crackdown while objective people are forced to ask the question "is the government really continuing the crackdown?" It's hard to respond to a strategy of uncertainty and doubt. One might be tempted to respond with certainty, although that can backfire (such as in the case of the guy that was allegedly run over -- his corpse didn't show any signs of that -- although he allegedly had skull and pelvis fractures that may have resulted from beatings or being hit by a car). My personal view is that the answer is careful documentation and verification of sources. Anyway, in response to the point at hand, yeah, I think we need a disputed category.

As for the shoe print, not sure if any opposition party claimed it. Wish someone had a pic of the bottom of riot police boots. Billmarczak (talk) 09:19, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

The government denies 1 death in the CNN article provided by Akhani84 and attribute it to cancer, while they don't really deny the other one (it says no results have yet been released). Abbas Jaffaar al-Sheikh: Cause of death: other. Killed by: Security forces (allegedly). Now moved to Disputed and Disputed. Bahraini Activist ^{Talk to me} 16:29, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

2 Recent deaths

Deaths

Name	Age	From	Date of Death	Cause of Death
Zahraa Ali Hassan Al-Hawwaj	69	Noaim	1 Feb 2012	Nabeel Rajab claimed she died as a result of inhaling tear gas. February 14 Youth Coalition said she was hospitalized for weeks (since 12 February) due to inhaling tear gas and died on the dawn of 1 February 2012.
Abdali Abdulla Mohammed Al-Ma'ameery	58	Ma'ameer	1 Feb 2012	Nabeel Rajab claimed he died as a result of inhaling tear gas after being hospitalized since 17 February 2012.

Both have been added to tear gas (allegedly) and Security forces (allegedly). Any governmental responses are helpful. Bahraini Activist ^{Talk to me} 02:49, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

3 Deaths from March added

Deaths

Name	Age	From	Date of Death	Cause of Death
Ali Ebrahim Abdulla Al-Demistani	17	Demistan	13 Mar 2011	Struck by a car driven by unknowns nearby Pearl roundabout. This death wasn't included in BICI report.
Rashid Hamad Rashim Al-Moa'amary	80	Riffa	13 Mar 2011	Government claimed he was stabbed and beaten by "outlaws". Al Wasat newspaper said a witness saw him die in a car accident. A video uploaded on 13 March supports the story published by Al Wasat. Pictures showing the man dead in his car were released into Flickr. This death wasn't included in BICI report.
Unnamed migrant worker	N/A	Pakistani	18 Mar 2011	Crushed to death by a falling cement arch while operating a crane to destroy the Pearl Roundabout.

Still didn't add any of them to small tables, but here's what I'm thinking about:
Ali Ebrahim Abdulla Al-Demistani: Cause of death: Auto-pedestrian collision. Killed by: Unknown Assailants.
Rashid Hamad Rashim Al-Moa'amary: Cause of death: Disputed. Killed by: Disputed.
Unnamed migrant worker: Cause of death: Other. Killed by: ? (not applicable) Bahraini Activist ^{Talk to me} 04:59, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

It has been brought to my attention that 2 more casualties are not included in the table.

1. Hassan al-Sitri. 70 years old from Nuwaidrat. Died after getting attacked on head with sharp object by unknown(s) while heading to mosque for dawn prayer on 19 June 2011. [6], [7] Later the killer was "found" and judged to 7 years prison (unintentional killing). [8]

Cause of death: Physical abuse. Killed by: Thuq? Civilian?

2. Riyadh Hassan Rashed. 50 years old from Karran. Lost his eye last Ramadan after getting shot by riot police while standing the his house roof. Had constant pain in his right eye and didn't get appropriate medical care in Bahrain. Traveled to Iran for treatment and died on 29 October as a result of a surgery complication. [9], [10].

Cause of death: Other. Killed by: Security forces (allegedly) Bahraini Activist ^{Talk to me} 10:09, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

New death today by tear gas. Also added all of deaths to small and big tables - Total number is 72! Bahraini Activist ^{Talk to me} 17:43, 6 February 2012 (UTC)